A pedestrian was killed by an automobile in Coleman on Friday. If something isn’t done about traffic and parking enforcement in downtown Brownwood, it’ll happen here too, and that’s a sad guarantee.
This particular column will be uncharacteristic of me for three reasons:
- I almost universally believe that the smaller and less intrusive government is the better.
- Snitches get stitches.
- I don’t complain about things that just… are.
You know that if anything I am an unapologetic supporter of everything Downtown here in Brownwood. We are experiencing a fun and exciting revitalization, and I am constantly asking everyone who reads my columns to support this… come downtown, if only for our own success and happiness. But, in the two years we have lived downtown, the danger posed by crazy speeding, racing, running lights and stop signs, exhibitions of acceleration, driving the wrong way on one-way streets, etc. has gotten so bad that it is now a common topic of discussion everywhere we go.
Downtown is seeing a heck of a lot of traffic, and just at a time when there are so many more pedestrians walking around, cars backing out of parking spaces, etc., we have seen a multi-fold increase in just flat-out crazy driving – including racing, peeling out, etc. downtown.
Center Avenue has become a shortcut for speed demons trying to cut across town and miss the lights on Main Street. I suppose a bunch of people figured this out during the recent construction on Austin and Main – that they could cut down Center and only hit one light (which is usually green). Danielle and I sit out in front of 10 Mile wine tasting room and try to enjoy the nice afternoons, but if someone working for the city would join us on a pleasant Monday or Tuesday at 2 pm you would see dozens of people speeding by at 2 to 3 times the speed limit. Usually on their phones, too. And Center isn’t the only place this is happening. Fisk Street has become a drag strip, and other cross streets are seeing this crazy driving too.
We live on a one-way street (Brown) only a block away from Baker Street and it is now a daily occurrence to see people driving the wrong way up Brown Street at a high rate of speed, which is difficult to do since it is only one block from a stop sign. But stop signs and red lights have come to mean very little downtown.
Brown Street is not only one-way but there is no parking on one side of the street because it becomes too narrow to get by if people park on the east side of the street. But people park in the no parking areas with absolutely no fear of getting ticketed. So now we end up with a narrow gap that a car can barely pass through, and people going through it the wrong way.
And here is where the concoction gets deadly. We have big semi-trucks delivering food and supplies to all the restaurants and bars. These are a pretty constant sight downtown, and their presence makes it harder to see what is coming down the street. If people are obeying the speed limits there isn’t much of a hazard, but I’ve seen cars and trucks peeling out and driving past these 18-wheelers at ridiculously high rates of speed. I’m glad to see that there has been more DUI enforcement recently, but cars accelerating to crazy speeds downtown on a Friday or Saturday night when the streets are packed with drinking revelers is a recipe for disaster.
More pedestrians, more people living and working downtown, people who live in the Brownwood Manor who are on scooters, walking with walkers, wheelchairs, etc. Shoppers park on Center Avenue and walk across Center to get to the shops. Many of these people are elderly. All of this is happening at the same time. The fact that we haven’t already had multiple fatalities with cars driving 50 mph downtown is surprising. But we’ve seen so many close calls that “good luck” cannot continue.
I don’t know what the solution is, but someone is going to get killed, and it’s only a matter of time.
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays on the website.
