Fairhope, Alabama
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| Removed today. |
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| Installed in February. |
CAUSING A HAZARD?
After the city's Street/Traffic Control committee voted unanimously Friday to remove them, reflectors that were installed on S. Mobile Street from Fels to Pier Avenue earlier this year were removed Monday.
Another city committee, the Bike/Pedestrian, wanted the reflectors installed there to keep traffic from drifting into the bike lane ... and away from an adjacent, narrow section of the Eastern Shore Walking/Biking Trail; but after they were installed neighborhood residents began complaining about the continual thumping noise created at all hours of day and night.
One of them brought a petition to the meeting last week and the police representative on the committee, Captain Hamrick, agreed they should come up.
Hamrick said he understood the safety need for bicycles, but even his standard F-150 pickup truck was too wide to miss the reflectors that were "about impossible not to run over." Some wide wheel base vehicles were actually having to drive with right-side wheels in the bike lane, according to another resident.
Public Works director Johnson: "Sometimes trying to solve a problem ... you create another ... make it worse."
(The committee decided to keep a few of them in the commercial area south of there, in the vicinity of the American Legion. )
MAYOR WEIGHS IN
When asked about it later, mayor Sullivan said she was ok with the decision to remove: "That is why we have committees ... they made the recommendation to put them in ... in the first place."
Councilman Burrell, who is a member of the committee but was absent that day, concurred: "... hated I missed the meeting because after driving down that road many times since that was brought up, I think the concerned citizens made a very valid point. I would have voted to recommend removing them."
Members of the Ped/Bike committee were not immediately available for comment.
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| May 2022 Traffic/Street Committee meeting. |
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