Crash on Ridge Ave near Bob's Bait and Tackle

[rashoultes]

Heading up Ridge from East Falls toward Tommy Gunns right past Bob's bait and tackle shop it looks like a car went off the road over the sidewalk, and throught a small tree and fence. Everything is all mangled there. Anyone know what happened?

[kevone]

Your comprehensive description of exactly what happened seems to sum it up.

[billy ross]

Heading up Ridge from East Falls toward Tommy Gunns right past Bob's bait and tackle shop it looks like a car went off the road over the sidewalk, and throught a small tree and fence. Everything is all mangled there. Anyone know what happened?

Maybe a truck? It did a tremendous amount of damage to the brand-new work there. Quite a bit of the fence needs to be replaced now. It took out a tree. It even demolished the curb. To fix the damage right (which is as it should be fixed) would run into the many thousands of dollars. Clearly some idiot was speeding coming down Ramp F/J and couldn't negotiate the turn due to excessive speed. I sincerely hope that the city is organized enough to make their insurance company pay to fix that damage right - I don't think that ruined fence is six weeks old, and it is (was) a very nice fence. The ruined curb looks very shabby already.

I can only imagine that the damage done to the vehicle was extraordinary. In yet another case of a moron intent on demolishing their vehicle who succeeded in doing so, they probably succeeded in demolishing their underwear also. The speed limits are there for a reason, but people need to learn the hard way, I guess.

[NewFallser]

I think they should sit a police officer in the parking lot of Gustine and just collect money as people turn right from the offramp.

People seem to be really confused by the signage. There are little signs (very easy to miss) on the right side of the bridge coming off City Ave or I-76 that say East Falls or Manayunk/Roxborough, but the large, overhead signs just say Ridge Ave North or Ridge Ave South.

[billy ross]

I think they should sit a police officer in the parking lot of Gustine and just collect money as people turn right from the offramp.

People seem to be really confused by the signage. There are little signs (very easy to miss) on the right side of the bridge coming off City Ave or I-76 that say East Falls or Manayunk/Roxborough, but the large, overhead signs just say Ridge Ave North or Ridge Ave South.

Why do you want people to not be able to turn right from the offramp? How should the cop get to his lookout spot, by driving one mile out of the way and completely circumnavigating the site? We need to start thinking about facilitating local traffic around here as opposed to those who speed through at insane speeds.

All of this preclusion of right and left hand turns in the interest of traffic flow makes it hard to get around my own neighborhood. I can't turn left onto Calumet Street going north or going south. I can't turn left onto Lincoln Drive. I can't turn left onto Gypsy Lane. I can't turn right onto Ridge Avenue. I can't turn left onto Ridge Avenue. I can't turn left onto Kelly Drive. I can't turn left onto Henry Avenue. I can't turn left onto Warden Drive. It just gets completely ridiculous after awhile.

[rashoultes]

I think they should sit a police officer in the parking lot of Gustine and just collect money as people turn right from the offramp.

There is almost always one car every green light that makes that right turn.

[the mule]

Why do you want people to not be able to turn right from the offramp? How should the cop get to his lookout spot, by driving one mile out of the way and completely circumnavigating the site? We need to start thinking about facilitating local traffic around here as opposed to those who speed through at insane speeds.

All of this preclusion of right and left hand turns in the interest of traffic flow makes it hard to get around my own neighborhood. I can't turn left onto Calumet Street going north or going south. I can't turn left onto Lincoln Drive. I can't turn left onto Gypsy Lane. I can't turn right onto Ridge Avenue. I can't turn left onto Ridge Avenue. I can't turn left onto Kelly Drive. I can't turn left onto Henry Avenue. I can't turn left onto Warden Drive. It just gets completely ridiculous after awhile.

Most people seem to manage just fine, though the Calumet restrictions drive me nuts as well.

The F/J ramp is designed that way because there is an enormous flow of traffic heading North on Ridge. The new junction there is a major improvement over the old crumbling ramp and yield sign and handles the increased traffic quite well even at peak hours. If you want to head south on Ridge you have to go an excruciating 30 seconds around to the proper off ramp. People making the right turn there do so out of selfishness and laziness and tend to inconvenience everyone else. I don't understand how it could possibly save any time either when you're likely to wait for the light there anyway.

[the mule]

I think they should sit a police officer in the parking lot of Gustine and just collect money as people turn right from the offramp.

I would welcome a camera there. Red light cameras will take pictures of people making turns on red at "no turn on red" intersections, so they should easily be able to do it at "no right turns ever" intersections.

[NewFallser]

Billy, it's not that I don't want to be able to turn right from the off-ramp, but that the rules in place say you can't. People turning right hold up the flow of traffic because it's a very tight right hand turn (as designed). I'm the kind of person that thinks if they go through the trouble to put a law in place, they should probably just enforce it. I'm also a proponent of slowing down Kelly and West River so that it's not a mini-Schuykill Expressway by actually enforcing the speed limits in place. Same for Henry Ave.

I think the extra distance involved on the southbound Ridge exit, which loops around to Kelly, is fine. The problem there (in my mind) is that the off-ramp merges directly with an oncoming traffic lane and it's nearly impossible to see cars coming in that lane. The off-ramp is on a down slope and the oncoming traffic is coming off a bend, so it's a car coming at you all of a sudden. This is probably just a problem of there being very few dedicated oncoming traffic merge lanes in PA in general.

I totally understand your aversion to the no turn signs on Calumet and Kelly. It's annoying, but I know it's supposed to serve the same purpose, even if on a normal basis, it's only purpose is to annoy me when I make a mistake.

We really need a left hand turn arrow onto Calumet from Ridge for the morning rush. The lack of one pushes traffic back to Midvale.

Sorry this devolved into another "state of East Falls traffic" rant that people seem to have every so often.

[Mondu]

Rode by this area on my bike yesterday. Nothing's changed since the accident. The fence is still a mangled mess. Maybe we should call Fox29.