Andy over at Fresh Loaf is calling for a traffic light at one of Decatur’s most dangerous crosswalks…the one that crosses W. Howard at Adair St.  He even seems to have taken his life in his hands and taken a pic from the W. Howard sidewalk.

The Community Transportation Plan does address this area of W. Howard by turning the pretzel-of-an-intersection that is Atlanta Ave. into a straight connection between W. College and W. Howard.

Such a redesign will ultimately move the light currently at Atlanta Ave (near the Citgo) closer to Adair. But this plan is a few years down the road.

As someone who frequently turns right on to W. Howard from Adair in the morning, I can tell you it is pretty dangerous (though less dangerous than turning left onto Scott from Ponce Heights during rush hour!) to look left for traffic flying down Howard and at whomever is turning left onto Howard after crossing the tracks AND making sure there are no pedestrians crossing at the intersection.  (I believe after the JavaMonkey girls where hit on their scooter on W. Howard, Scott commented that the crossing guard at Adair had said to him that she now turned away from impending car accidents because she was sick of being a witness.)

So maybe a traffic light at Adair is a good temporary solution.  But I’m gonna guess there is some issue with traffic flow over the tracks and the light at Atlanta Ave that is currently preventing one.  So instead we get waving crossing guards and a cop.

Though there weren’t a ton of comments attached to it, my Decatur Vehicle Traffic Declining posting has had some legs outside the old Decatur Metro atmosphere.  For one thing, Creative Loafing has now hearkened back to it twice.

Most recently, Michelle Ye Hee Lee crafted a “Add It Up: Greater Decatur” post noting the things I mentioned recently about the 315 W. Ponce traffic study and the city’s 2008 Annual Report.

Well, since there’s all this hub-bub…here’s one more piece of Decatur info I got from the city, straight out of the GA Tech emissions study (but again…this is GDOT data)…

1990:  121.19 million annual VMT (vehicle miles traveled)

2000:  108.32 million annual VMT (vehicle miles traveled)

2006:  100.11 million annual VMT (vehicle miles traveled)

So, it was kind of a sticky commute this afternoon.  Trying to get back from the Whole Foods on Briarcliff, I got stuck on Clifton amidst the rain and a power outage (‘nough said).  By the time I had weaseled my way back to Scott via Clairemont, I hit a wall of cars.  As I pulled into the turn lane for Coventry, I noticed a cop and a bunch of cars up ahead simply stopped.  “Either an accident or a tree”, I thought.  With our record as of late, I guessed “tree”.

And boy was I right!

But, by the time I got home, dumped my whole food in the slowly warming fridge (since the power was out) and got back out the door to venture back to Scott on foot, most of the mess was already cleaned up.  How’s that for service?!  Literally 10 minutes from the time the cops got there until the tree was out of the road.  Now granted it was a relatively small tree, but hot damn that’s quick.

After returning home again and hanging out for a bit in my non-A/C house, I started hearing choppers.  A quick look outside and I spotted 11Alive up in the air.  I thought “Did I miss something?”  Why is 11Alive covering a downed tree on Scott?  So, my curiousity piqued, and with little else to do, the dog and I headed out for second lovely walk down Scott.  And again I saw nothing but the downed tree and a power crew working to restore service.  (That’s when I snapped the above pic)

So apparently local news nets love a good downed tree story?  (A StormTracker46 van drove down our street an hour or so later)  Well then they should set up shop here in Decatur, because it seems that every time it sprinkles nowadays, big, fat branches fall and trees come down.

Rain, don’t take this personally, but you are a cruel mistress.

The top DeKalb vent on AJC.com reads…

“Can we please get a left turn signal at Candler St. and College Ave. in Decatur? Ridiculous!”

Well, if this venter had flipped through the Community Transportation Plan, they would already know that the city has noted and addressed this issue on page 6.13.

It reads “Work with Agnus Scott to obtain permission to widen on the west side of South Candler Drive so that one additional northbound through lane can be created on approach and through the intersection. The second through lane would continue across the railroad tracks at the end of Church Street.”

While this blurb doesn’t mention a turn lane, the map below (on page 6.15) clearly shows one.

When will this be done? The Transportation Plan projects a timeframe of 2010-2015 for this particular intersection. See the time table for all the proposed transportation recommendations on page 11.13. And in case you’re interested, the whole College/S. Candler intersection project is estimated to cost $1.6 million.