“Community Columnist” Michael Schrader

(About illegal parking)

Written 17 August 2015

As a traffic engineer, one of the most delicate issues I had to address was on street parking. Property owners tend to expect to be able to park in front of their property, so restrictions on parking were only enacted if there were such safety concerns that the safety of the entire community outweighed the expected right to park and access property. Because of the infringement on property rights caused by parking restrictions, when such prohibitions are made, there are solid reasons for it. When you park in places that are clearly marked “No parking”, you are putting others’ lives at risk. The blatant disregard for others’ safety is why, after this weekend, both the M-25 Yard Sale Trail and the Port Huron Float Down should be discontinued.

M-25 is a high-speed trunk line providing access from the freeway system to the cities, villages, and places along the coast of Huron. It is also clearly signed that people should not park along the shoulder. Those signs weren’t just placed there by MDOT because MDOT wanted to populate the scenery with signs. They were placed there because it is extremely dangerous to park on the side of a busy high-speed highway. Motorists don’t expect to encounter parked vehicles, and if a motorist were to strike a parked car, the result can be fatal. When a vehicle strikes something, or someone at 50 miles per hour, the probability of severe injury or death is high.

I was absolutely mortified to see people parking along M-25, to shop at the yard sales. I had to swerve to avoid striking one illegally parked vehicle, as there was insufficient room on the shoulder and it was hanging several feet out into the lane. I was lucky that there was no one in the oncoming lane, or this columnist and his wife could have very well possible been no more as a result of a head-on collision. At 50 miles per hour, a typical car takes well over 300 feet, or a long city block, to successfully stop; for larger and heavier vehicles, the distance is greater.

Making matters even more dangerous were the pedestrians darting out between the parked cars to cross the highway. The most troubling was the young mother with her three young children crossing. She was very lucky that they made it across safely. A pedestrian struck by a vehicle going even as slow as 40 has a high probability of death. How do you think the unlucky motorist who struck a pedestrian would feel? M-25 is a highway, not a city street, and a driver doesn’t expect to encounter parked cars and pedestrians on a highway. Selling wares on the side of a highway is a bad idea.

There have been several reasons given why the Float Down should be discontinued, focusing on the water. It disrupts commerce. The Saint Clair River is a fast, cold, and inherently dangerous river. It is a border security nightmare, as terrorists could use Float Down as cover to cause mayhem and destruction. The best reason to discontinue Float Down is the total disregard of the peace and tranquility of the residents of Port Huron by the floaters. I am not just talking about the drunks at the waterfront at 10 PM blaring their car radios and disturbing the peace. I am talking about the floaters’ rudeness in clogging every street from Gratiot to the waterfront with parked cars. Many of those streets have parking prohibitions; they are narrow, and if cars are parked on both sides, they are too narrow for two lanes of traffic, residents cannot back out of their driveways, and emergency vehicles have great difficulty navigating the remaining lane. Navigating intersections was particularly nightmarish, as I could not see around the parked cars to see if I had a safe gap to cross. This unnecessary endangering of the public is unacceptable.

Events that impact the lives of others, that could cause bodily injury or death to non-participants, are events that shouldn’t be. It is time for these two events to go.

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