The City of Hudson is looking to improve safety at intersections throughout the city.
Toward that end, the City is asking residents and frequent visitors to the city to complete a survey to help prioritize the intersections most in need of safety improvements. That survey can be found here.
UPDATE: Mayor Joe Ferris shared the following statement "for clarification purposes," no doubt in response to comments suggesting that government by survey is akin to abdication of leadership:
Making the much-needed long-term changes to dangerous intersections in our city requires money. These kind of projects typically require grant funding from either New York State or the federal government. When applications are being considered at the state or federal level, community engagement is one of the determining factors for who does and does not receive funding. As much as I wish that the City could cover the cost of these improvements today, we cannot. Community engagement efforts like this survey and follow-up studies are a required first step in permanently fixing dangerous roads and intersections.
Lowest hanging fruit: make Front and Warren and three way stop. It’s kinda insane it already isn’t. Just costs two stop signs. Done ✅
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DeleteGovernment by survey is akin to abdication of leadership. Union Jack is correct — just look around, see what needs doing and do it. Second street one way, Union, too.
ReplyDeleteBut real traffic improvement - dealing with the truck route - can’t be surveyed to a solution. That requires actual political and moral leadership between the City and at least one of our state reps, neither of whom have the will or chops (it seems) to do the actual work. Perhaps if our mayor pushed publicly he could shame one of them to actually do something besides publish press releases and issue meaningless proclamations.
I’m afraid the mayor is not going to publicly shame the state reps since he seems to want to be at every photo op they’re in. Doesn’t seem to want to step on any toes on the path to Albany. This is why a city manager would be nice. To finally have a chief executive who’s focused on keeping their current job in Hudson and not a stepping stone to a career in Albany and DC. It’s like DeBlasio at the Iowa State Fair
DeleteThe survey is missing some obvious ones. Like Front and Warren, as I’ve mentioned, or State and Fifth; where people zooming down the State Street Speedway™️ blow past the stop sign, especially dangerous as families and seniors walk to the library. A traffic signal is likely needed. Or at least flashing crosswalk.
ReplyDeleteThe city should prioritize the lowest hanging fruit by what’s cheapest and quick to fix: adding signs ($100s), new traffic signals (tens of $1,000s), then finally redoing intersections like the triangles (millions $$$).
We have been without a Police Commissioner for several months, so our Police Chief is doubling as the Acting Police Commissioner. Yet, Mishanda Franklin has said publicly on at least two occasions (before Shane Bower left his post as police Commissioner) that the police chief cannot get traffic control devices installed that HPD ultimately enforces. She concluded (and was correct): This would be a conflict of interest.
ReplyDeleteYet the only city official that is allowed to get traffic control devices -- THE ONLY OFFICIAL! -- is the police commissioner. At least according to our city code. So, right now, is it a conflict of interest for Mishanda Franklin to be making decisions about traffic control devices? Of course it is!
Everything is a mess (including our code), and so what you see instead of city officials making decisions are endless surveys or the hiring of outside contractors and consulting firms charging us an arm and a leg for things we should be dealing with ourselves and perhaps even the police commissioner should be handling. Take the most recent of the two parking consultants the city hired, the one from Long Island who worked with Jen Belton and the Parking Study Committee. Everything he did for us, everything he suggested was either ignored, sidelined or never implemented. It was a complete waste of time and money. But, of course, it had to happen since City Hall is such an organizational mess. There is no one managing the city's affairs properly or at all. So, instead of filling out the survey, go to one of the mayor's latest round of Town Hall meetings and ask him what he's accomplished since the last round two months ago.
Hudson's streets have a traffic problem - and residents already know exactly what needs fixing. Trucks and speeding cars blow through intersections daily, failing to yield to pedestrians, rattling buildings, and making corners like Park and Warren feel genuinely unsafe. With a pediatric center already drawing families to upper Warren Street, and new hotels and the Crescent Building on the way, the pressure is only going to grow.
ReplyDeleteThe City has approved a traffic study and is now asking residents to fill out a survey to identify the worst intersections. Both are worth doing, but as one commenter put it, this starts to feel like "government by survey," a substitute for leadership rather than an expression of it. Residents have already flagged obvious gaps: Front and Warren isn't even a three-way stop yet, and State and Fifth sends cars flying past a stop sign near the library, where families and seniors are on foot daily. These aren't mysteries requiring study. They're oversights requiring action.
The good news is the path forward isn't complicated. Some fixes cost hundreds of dollars - a stop sign, better signage. Others cost tens of thousands - a traffic signal or flashing crosswalk. Major infrastructure comes last. Start cheap, start now, and build from there. The 25mph speed limit already exists citywide. Enforcing it consistently doesn't require a survey or a study. It requires will - and that starts with Mayor Ferris directing the Hudson Police Department to make speed enforcement a visible, immediate priority. Not after the study comes back. Today.
And with another round of town halls on the horizon, there's a ready-made opportunity - bring the police chief and the Department of Public Works to the podium, let residents ask questions directly about both enforcement and the state of our streets and sidewalks, and turn a listening session into an accountability one.
Hear hear! While I'm always pro-community engagement, and I see the value in working with the community on prioritizing, there are some pretty obvious places to begin.
DeleteI may be wrong but this just looks like AI regurgitating the previous comments 🤣. I mean, I agree, but I already said that myself 🫠
DeleteI seem to get clipped with the camera generated speeding tickets nearly every time I'm in Albany. Why doesn't the City invest in some of these units? I imagine they pay for themselves quickly.
ReplyDeleteThat was actually one of the questions I raised with the Mayor’s office months ago - whether speed cameras or automated enforcement could be considered for areas like upper Warren Street. Beyond deterrence and improving pedestrian safety, these systems often generate substantial revenue that can be reinvested into street and infrastructure improvements. At a minimum, it seems like a conversation worth having alongside stronger day-to-day enforcement.
DeleteI'm not 100% sure, but I believe that a NYS municipality's ability to install "speeding cameras" requires a home rule message from the state legislature. This would require the CC to pass a resolution containing a draft law permitting such cameras and dealing with the related ephemera, the mayor would have to sign it, then it would be sent to our assembly and state senate reps for passage in each of those houses and, subject to the governor's signature, voila!
DeleteTotally agree. At the end of the day, it comes down to political will and a bit of grit. And honestly, the contrast in driver behavior is obvious even during a single walk. Just now (Wednesday am), walking from the top of Warren to Park Street, I counted four semis. A Day & Ross truck was clearly making an effort, driving around 20–25 mph, using its turn signal, fully stopping, and carefully turning onto Worth. The others were a different story entirely: a Schneider truck turned onto Warren without signaling and accelerated downhill before abruptly braking for a stopped school bus; another semi rolled up Warren onto Worth without a full stop or signal, forcing cars with the right of way to wait; and finally an ADM truck came barreling down Warren, hitting it's breaks when the flasing yellow lights at Park were triggered. This is exactly why residents keep raising enforcement concerns.
DeleteA "No right on red" at the intersection of Fairview and Green near Stewart's (approaching from Fairview) would be safer if not there already. I won't make the right at that red, and I've had impatient drivers incessantly honk behind me to do it, but it's dangerous.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only person who thinks that, if you have a traffic light dedicated to your lane, you wait for the light to turn green before proceeding? Ignore the honking. It is not safe to make a right turn on red at that corner.
DeleteHad DPW Commissioner Peter Bujanow stuck around until the completion of the Stewart's corner improvements, he most certainly would have returned the no right on red sign that was removed during the project he (mostly) oversaw. The sign was forgotten about but Bujanow was not around to correct the mistake.
DeleteRight turn on red rocks. But I won’t honk at you if you don’t want to do it :)
DeleteFifth and state near library is a death waiting to happen.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the Mayor is correct that larger infrastructure improvements require funding, grant applications, and community engagement. But I think he may be missing the more immediate point many residents are making: there are already practical enforcement tools available today that do not require years of planning or outside funding. Consistent enforcement of the existing 25mph speed limit would make a noticeable difference. So would enforcing stop signs, turn-signal use, and truck behavior on residential streets. The City also already owns a mobile speed monitor/sign trailer that could be deployed more visibly in problem areas like upper Warren, Columbia, and Green streets as both a deterrent and a reminder to slow down. And to be fair, the few times police vehicles have been positioned along Warren Street to monitor traffic, they do have an effect - and we have even called to thank the officers. Drivers slow down when they know enforcement may be present. But it cannot be a once-a-month occurrence. There has to be enough consistency that drivers understand there are real consequences for speeding and unsafe driving behavior. Long-term planning is important. But immediate enforcement and visible action matter too.
ReplyDeleteMayor Ferris is right that data matters and is trying to do the most with what we have, and he did promise to work on road safety during his campaing.
ReplyDeleteBut here is data that we all should consider when we vote:
Hudson cannot fix intersections, but funds a youth center at ~$20,000 per child.
We punish new homeowners with reassessment penalties old-timers escape, by delaying city-wide tax re-assessment.
HCSD fails at $42k per student and raises taxes anyway.
Residents pay separately for sidewalks, trash blue bags, and parking, while Kingston and Saratoga (and most towns in the Northeast) bundle them into property tax.
Basic road safety sits at the bottom of the city's hierarchy of needs while boutique programs sit at the top.
Where does the money go?
The input from HPD accident reports may be useful to determine which areas of Hudson are prone to pedestrian and vehicle accidents.
ReplyDeleteI previously was employed at Hudson Home, located at 4th and Warren Sts.
Many accidents gave occurred at this intersection. One of which resulted in a fiery crash into the iron fence just a few years ago.
The traffic lights are located on the wrong corners of the street.
I agree that right turn on red should be cancelled.
BUT pedestrians need to look before crossing too.
Visitors are constantly looking at their cell phones and having a sip from a drink as they walk about.
Many visitors to our fair city do not know the locations of the shops.
So maybe crossing guards could help too.
My other recommendations are a multi story parking garage at 4th and Columbia and/or at the existing lots between 5th and 6th on Columbia and the Train Station Lot.
Parking Garages can be manned for cash/credit card payments and unmanned after a specific time for credit cards only.
Now one way streets. Allen one way going West, towards the River from South 3rd St.
Union one way traveling East from South Front to 4th St Park just before West Court.
Stay safe all and please pay attention when driving in Hudson.
There’s many visitors to our beautiful City who are coming here for the first time.
And Mayor and/or Assistant Mayor I am willing to meet w you to review my recommendations as well as yours too.
Stay safe everyone.
And look both ways before you cross and drive.
Your actions could save the life of pets, humans and avoid accidents.
Crossing guards are labor and costs money. Maybe we can start with some walk/don’t walk signals first. Half the issues with pedestrians is that they don’t know where the light signals are because they are inconsistent, old incandescent lights, and made for cars.
DeleteA parking garage would cost tens of millions, close to 100 million for a large one. The lots aren’t even full now. We’d have to force people into them via residential parking permits and increased parking fees. Or they’ll always park somewhere cheaper/free and quicker/closer than a garage.
"fixing dangerous roads and intersections" in what decade?
ReplyDeleteNanny proposals ... trying to change the character of Hudson is a continuing folly ...
ReplyDeleteIf you really want the city to make some easy money, you just need to have the police department use vehicle noise measurement equipment at certain intersections and start writing tickets. The SLEEP act was put in place by New York State to deal with loud vehicles and the penalties are substantial, up to $1000 to the vehicle owner and to the garage that installed the equipment. I would imagine the city could earn tens of thousands of dollars a day judging by the amount of incredibly loud vehicles I hear going past all day long. The catch is that the city has to actually organise it and the police department has to enforce it. Perhaps we have that kind of government now? I I think that’s the kind of government we voted for this round? One that uses available solutions to easily solve chronic problems?
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