This is Viewpoints for Monday, Oct. 31, 2016

Mindset

The mindset that persuades people to take a knee or turn their backs to the U.S. flag during the playing of the national anthem should be the same mindset that persuades them to just stay home on Election Day.

Another SPLOST for toxins

The mayor along with many others are pushing voters to vote yes on continuing a SPLOST. If a runway extension gets thrown in a pot of unnamed projects, then more carbon dioxide, and toxins are likely included, so be careful what you vote for. If we fail the EPA’s ruling for emissions limits, then a check engine light warning on your vehicle could put you off the road. Aircraft add 3 percent more dirty air to the area. Toxic cleaning and repair chemicals are also common.

And how has this SPLOST helped Macon-Bibb County? Garbage rates have nearly doubled with less service. No glass pick up and unstable open containers from labor saving automation should have reduced the rates.

And where is the equipment to keep the major roads clear of weeds?

Finally where is the mega park in South Bibb? And whom will it really serve? Community parks are a much better option.

Yes people visiting the county will pay some of the SPLOST, if they visit some places, but is that fair when a disaster drives them here? Most will already be stuck with the deplorable hotel taxes. The only moral option for me is to forget it because it hurts the poor, penalizes the needy and fouls our air.

Field trip

The Pedestrian Fatality Review Board was created last year by our local government. It is charged with examining pedestrian and bicyclist safety issues in Macon-Bibb County. The PFRB has no control over public resources and no meaningful authority. All it can do is recommend safety enhancements designed to alleviate or reduce risks faced by non-motorized users of our very dangerous roads.

The PFRB took a field trip this week to several sites — two where pedestrians had recently been killed, one at which some safety improvements have just been installed. Our examination of a pedestrian fatality site on Northside Drive revealed this: The road is far too wide and the traffic too fast. Five lanes separate residential areas from commercial destinations, but there are no reasonably accessible crosswalks and no pedestrian refuges. The traffic engineer, a PFRB member, has recommended at least one well-marked crosswalk equipped with a refuge in the center turn lane and pedestrian-activated flashing lights.

Another site visited was at the Forsyth Road/Tucker Road/Rivoli Road intersection. That spot, located between Wesleyan College’s residences and commercial destinations such as a supermarket, fast food shops and a coffee shop, recently got what it has long needed — marked crosswalks and pedestrian-activated crossing signals. But without the Georgia Departent of Transportation’s permission and active involvement the safety enhancements would not have come about because that road is under GDOT jurisdiction. Unless that body agrees and actively participates, safety improvements can’t happen.

Macon-Bibb has plenty of other very dangerous roads over which GDOT has jurisdiction — they are all four or more lanes wide, carry a lot of traffic, typically have a 45 mph speed limit but an average speed of 55 mph or more and only have crosswalks (greatly in need of re-striping) at very widely spaced intersections and are rarely at locations where pedestrians would cross. Those speedways have no pedestrian refuge islands, no warning/flashing lights, no bicycle lanes. Unless one is very fast, a pedestrian doesn’t have a good chance for a safe crossing.

Before and after its recent field trip, PFRB members discussed pedestrian safety along Mercer University Drive, a state route under GDOT jurisdiction. Lots of pedestrians cross that speedway at points where the road separates residential areas or at locations between where people live and where they want to purchase something. That racetrack is also a GDOT designated bike route but without bike lanes.

The day after that discussion, a pedestrian was killed along a stretch of the highway between Pio Nono and the state Department of Labor. Two days later, as I drove west and approached that fatality site I saw a pedestrian stranded in the center turn lane. Traffic was whizzing along at well above the 45 mph limit. A car entered the center turn lane, where there is no pedestrian refuge, bearing down on the walker. He took off across the remaining two lanes, dodging two other speeders and is alive today only because he was very quick. There are residential areas on both sides of that road section, a neighborhood cut in half by the highway decades ago and ever since struggling to remain viable. GDOT and the Macon-Bibb County government must get their collective act together and address these safety (and environmental) issues.

I reported all this to the mayor and County Commission. Someone commented that pedestrians who cross roads where there are no crosswalks should be deterred from doing that — they should get tickets for jaywalking,

My response was this: Can we realistically expect people to walk long distances to get to a crosswalk? And dare we sanction “jaywalking” while we do nothing to deter driver conduct such as running stop lights/signs, distracted driving, speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks? Some pedestrians do make bad decisions, but most are just trying to cope with pedestrian/cyclist un-friendly transportation infrastructure and the “autobahn” mentality that created it.

This story was originally published October 30, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Monday, Oct. 31, 2016."