A mother and child were hit by an SUV on Wednesday morning on Hoosick Street in Troy. This is not a surprise — just an awful, preventable shame.
The Collar City Bridge looks more like a runway than anything else, and brings cars at great speeds into a residential neighborhood. Not far from the crosswalk where the pedestrians were struck, cars legally travel 55 miles an hour.
Maybe now we can talk about traffic calming on Hoosick Street. People who live here have been having this conversation with each other, and any politician who will listen, for years. Epic effort was involved to get the crosswalk painted at Tenth and Hoosick before the last election, with the city and the state debating who was responsible for the work. The paint didn't last.
I don't want more paint. I don't want the raised walkways that have been posed as a solution. How will that serve those who can't climb stairs? Or choose to jackrabbit across eight lanes instead?
The best idea I've heard — short of an overhaul in the way drivers think of pedestrians — is putting the traffic in a tunnel, as was done on Ferry Street near Russell Sage College.
There is something ugly that happens to us when we get behind the wheel. We assume the strength of vehicles, and grow impatient with anyone on foot. Cities and cars do not mix well. Highways and people even less.
Such massive infrastructure overhaul could take forever. So how about posting police where they were Wednesday after the accident — at the foot of the bridge, and along Hoosick Street? Speeding tickets could help make drivers see people before they hit them.
Amy Halloran is a Troy writer. Her website is at http://amyhalloran.net