Introducing Emeryville Bad Corporate Neighbor, a column that focuses on the corporate and business miscreants in our midst; be they greedsters, fraudsters or churlish philistines, who make our town just a little worse for everyone.
Fed Ex: Bad Neighbor
The Emeryville Police Department has long known about how Federal Express trucks routinely block the bike lanes on Horton Street, forcing bicyclists to make a dangerous swerve out into traffic. It's an all day every day kind of thing. They've been getting complaints about it from bicyclists for years now. Fed Ex sees the tickets they receive as a cost of doing business. So far there's been no attenuation of their behavior as a result of all the complaints (and tickets).
Au contraire!
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Hey! We're trying to run a business here!
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Recently Fed Ex, located at 1600 63rd Street, has been doubling down; the trucks are racing down Horton Street at shift end (trying to meet new dictates from the management we're informed).
We've clocked the Fed Ex trucks on Horton Street at over 45 mph in a 25 mph residential zone, blowing through stop signs all the way. So much for the Horton Street Bike Boulevard "safe street". Young children live on Horton Street.
When we complained ourselves we were gruffly told by the manager of the 63rd Street facility "That's the way we do business".
When it comes to driving in Emeryville, Fed Ex has shown us all they're not interested in being responsible or safe. Time is money at Fed Ex and what drives them is maximizing profits.
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But stopping will cut into our profits!
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The City of Emeryville is considering making Horton Street a bike boulevard some day. That would involve traffic calming measures be implemented, making it impossible for Fed Ex to continue their reckless and unsafe driving behavior. We fully expect this bad corporate neighbor to join with the Chamber of Commerce to try to shut down the Horton Street Bike Boulevard if the City makes a move towards implementing it. But Fed Ex's disregard for safety on Horton Street and disrespect for our town should disqualify them as reasonable voices of opposition.
It's a reprehensible traffic record for Fed Ex and it's what make them this week's Emeryville Bad Corporate Neighbor.
It is not only Fed Ex. It also includes United Parcel Service and all the other miscellaneous trucks making deliveries to Wareham Properties. If Wareham had allowed for convenient truck delivery bays in their design, we might not have this problem. With construction on Hollis/59th street, at 10:00 yesterday morning, driving, biking and walking was absolutely horrendous with all the trucks double parked between 62nd and 59th. When Wareham's new building adjacent to e-22 café fills up, wait and see what congestion will occur there. not one yellow zone for unloading trucks. Maybe it's just as well the building is vacant.
ReplyDeleteI have been complaining about this for ten years.
Horton st already is a bike boulevard, it's not coming someday, it's now.
ReplyDeleteHorton Street is not a bike boulevard...it's a regular street with funny purple signs and stencils. Horton Street has anywhere from 4800 to over 12000 vehicles per day on it. A bike boulevard must have fewer than 3000 vehicles per day on it in Emeryville. That's not my opinion, that's what the City of Emeryville says.
DeleteIf fedex and ups trucks have been clocked going this fast, why doesn't the PD cite them, a few citations and the DRIVERS will feel it in the pocket and threaten their jobs. The companies only want drivers with good driving records.
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