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Whom Do We Have to Petition To Get A Stop Sign?

As I walked up 21st Street this morning on my way back from a doctor's appointment, I could see a Streets Department truck parked at our intersection. Two workers were straightening out the Stop sign on Cherry, which had apparently been run down by a driver eager to get his accident over with. (The guy who hit the owner of this grille on Friday evening around 7:30 was probably the impatient motorist in question.)

debris from the latest accident at our intersection

I hurried to catch the workers before they could jump back into the truck, and asked one of them if their appearance meant that we'd FINALLY be getting a Stop sign on 21st.

"No," said my informant, "but you need one."
"Yes, we do," I replied. "We have an accident here at least once a month."
"Yeah, when I worked sanitation we used to hate this corner. People use this street like a drag strip."
"And because of that, the drivers trying to cross 21st feel the need to floor it at the first break in traffic. We've been taking photos of the accidents and sending them to the Streets Department and our city councilman," I added, "but we've gotten no response."
The worker raised his eyebrows and shook his head in simultaneous gestures of surprise and resignation.
"Oh well," I said. "Bummer we're not getting a sign today. We'll keep sending the photos, I guess. Have a nice day."
"You, too!" he said.

Posted by Lori in philadelphia at 11:33 AM on January 25, 2006

Comments (4)

ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page]:

Good luck with your stop sign endeavor. I hope you get one, and that it makes things better.

We've got a stop sign at the corner below us, and most drivers tend to take it as a mere suggestion. At rush hour in the mornings, it can sometimes take quite a while to have the opportunity to pull into the street from a parking space, even though the stop sign should make that a piece of cake.

No major accidents, however, so I guess that would suit your purposes.

Posted by ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 25, 2006 1:03 PM

Posted on January 25, 2006 13:03

Lori [TypeKey Profile Page]:

Yeah, I'm figuring that most drivers will treat a new Stop sign as a suggestion rather than an imperative; that's what happened when they finally put one in on 21st @ Pennsylvania. The drivers southbound on 21st either merely paused or blew through the Stop altogether, while drivers on Pennsylvania continued to creep out into the crosswalk and beyond in order to look for an opening. Things do seem to be settling down now, however; more and more 21st Street drivers are stopping completely, and the Pennsylvania Street folks seem to have realized that they don't have to floor it to enter 21st. Interestingly, I don't think the presence of a police station at that intersection has had any influence on Stop sign compliance (at least not directly, as I never see any tickets being issued).

I'm hoping that if we do get a sign at our intersection, it will have an impact eventually if not immediately.

Posted by Lori [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 25, 2006 1:31 PM

Posted on January 25, 2006 13:31

webhill:

When I lived on Rittenhouse Sq between 20th and 21st, it took one phone call to John Street (who was at the time our city councilman) to get an abandoned car removed from the middle of the street in front of our house (it was blocking traffic, but the cops didn't care!). I would send the pictures to his office, too, if I were you! I would also carbon copy an ambulance-chasing attorney and make sure the city knows that you and the attorney consider the city to be slowly increasing its liability due to their failure to ameliorate a known hazard. You know? Good luck!

Posted by webhill | January 25, 2006 4:48 PM

Posted on January 25, 2006 16:48

heidivoltmer [TypeKey Profile Page]:

Maybe you should send the photos and story to your local paper or TV station. The SF Chronicle has something called Chronical Watch where they track how long it takes public officals to respond to problems like this one - http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/chroniclewatch/.

Posted by heidivoltmer [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 27, 2006 3:11 PM

Posted on January 27, 2006 15:11

Comments

Good luck with your stop sign endeavor. I hope you get one, and that it makes things better.

We've got a stop sign at the corner below us, and most drivers tend to take it as a mere suggestion. At rush hour in the mornings, it can sometimes take quite a while to have the opportunity to pull into the street from a parking space, even though the stop sign should make that a piece of cake.

No major accidents, however, so I guess that would suit your purposes.

Posted by: ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 25, 2006 1:03 PM

Yeah, I'm figuring that most drivers will treat a new Stop sign as a suggestion rather than an imperative; that's what happened when they finally put one in on 21st @ Pennsylvania. The drivers southbound on 21st either merely paused or blew through the Stop altogether, while drivers on Pennsylvania continued to creep out into the crosswalk and beyond in order to look for an opening. Things do seem to be settling down now, however; more and more 21st Street drivers are stopping completely, and the Pennsylvania Street folks seem to have realized that they don't have to floor it to enter 21st. Interestingly, I don't think the presence of a police station at that intersection has had any influence on Stop sign compliance (at least not directly, as I never see any tickets being issued).

I'm hoping that if we do get a sign at our intersection, it will have an impact eventually if not immediately.

Posted by: Lori [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 25, 2006 1:31 PM

When I lived on Rittenhouse Sq between 20th and 21st, it took one phone call to John Street (who was at the time our city councilman) to get an abandoned car removed from the middle of the street in front of our house (it was blocking traffic, but the cops didn't care!). I would send the pictures to his office, too, if I were you! I would also carbon copy an ambulance-chasing attorney and make sure the city knows that you and the attorney consider the city to be slowly increasing its liability due to their failure to ameliorate a known hazard. You know? Good luck!

Posted by: webhill at January 25, 2006 4:48 PM

Maybe you should send the photos and story to your local paper or TV station. The SF Chronicle has something called Chronical Watch where they track how long it takes public officals to respond to problems like this one - http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/chroniclewatch/.

Posted by: heidivoltmer [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 27, 2006 3:11 PM

Comments are now closed.



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