Marion’s downtown traffic visibility questioned
Staff writer
A minor accident two weeks ago is focusing attention on not-so-minor problems with visibility at downtown intersections in Marion.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were a bunch of near accidents downtown because of the ‘new’ sidewalks / intersections,” interim Police Chief Zach Hudlin said Monday.
Sidewalk “bulbs” designed to protect pedestrians cause crosswalks to be farther away from cross streets.
Parallel parking, especially by trucks and other large vehicles on Main St., combine with the “bulbs” to limit visibility from side streets.
This leads to drivers “inching out to see around cars,” Hudlin said.
Some intersections are especially bad.
“At 1st and Main, to get a good look east, you are practically in the westbound lane,” Hudlin said.
Hudlin isn’t aware of any serious accidents caused by the intersection design.
What may be the first reported accident — a minor one — occurred at 4:10 p.m. July 15.
Driver Keith Conyers, 83, of Marion had stopped his southbound 2012 Ford F-150 on N. 3rd St. and “was inching out,” as Hudlin put it, to see around vehicles parked on Main St.
He noticed an approaching grain truck, preparing to turn onto S. 3rd St.
Vehicles with trailers often take corners wide — as happened in a separate accident three days before Conyers’, when the trailer of a turning semi clipped a parked car two blocks away from where Conyers had stopped.
“I believe he backed up to get out of the way of a grain truck turning down 3rd,” Hudlin said.
But when Conyers began backing, he didn’t notice a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze waiting in line behind his pickup.
The rear of Conyers’ truck smacked into the front of the Chevy, owned and driven by Robert W. Crawford, 81, Marion.
Both vehicles sustained only minor damage. No injuries were reported, and no citations were listed as being issued.
However, the accident suggested potential problems with the design of downtown traffic improvements unveiled in July, 2019.
Visibility of traffic on cross streets is a concern frequently addressed by members of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission when considering such things as setback requirements, sign locations, and parking.
“With the downtown area, I believe that the way it was designed was a mistake,” longtime commission chairman Darvin Markley said. “I don’t think it was good engineering.”
As a former tow truck operator, Markley is acutely aware of hazards that cause traffic accidents.
“Putting handicapped parking on the corners makes the situation worse because most handicapped vehicles are larger,” he said.
He suggested that putting a curb cut and parking for people with disabilities in the middle of the block instead of at the end would have the added benefit of allowing people to exit their vehicles without having to venture into traffic lanes.
While expressing support for lighting changes and accessibility ramps that were part of the 2019 street improvements, he suggested that the streets might have needed to be widened to improve visibility.
Code enforcement officers, Markley said, need to look at something called a “vision triangle” — an area around each intersection in which signs, trees, vehicles, and anything taller than 33 inches should not be allowed.
Areas within the triangle should be planted to ground cover or feature other low-rising items to avoid problems, he said.
The only way to remedy the current design, he suggested, might be to add traffic signals or a traffic cop at some of the intersections downtown.
“You have to always look to the future,” Markley said. “We had horses and buggies when they laid this town out.”