Out of curiosity, how many serious accidents have there been at that intersection at that time? Not that I’d expect that to change the reply you got.
I think stories like this are unfortunately common in many places. Odd-seeming divisions of power and responsibility with no repercussions for failing to act create bizarre-seeming planning decisions. I have a family friend who has spent a decade repeatedly trying to have the city remove or prune a tree in front of their house. It has regularly dropped large branches on their driveway (recently crushing the roof of their car) and into power lines (causing local outages, enough that the city has relocated power lines to route around it). Its roots have caused recurring sewer problems and flooding in their house, and they’ve had to repave the sidewalk multiple times. Each time they report it and request the tree be removed or pruned, they’ve been informed that 1) it won’t be, 2) they, the homeowners, are not allowed do anything about it, 3) they’re responsible for removing branches that fall, 4) they’re responsible for the costs of any damage the tree causes, including injuries to others on the sidewalk, and 5) they’ll get cited and fined if they don’t keep the sidewalk in good repair.
It sounds to me like “reporting it” is not the way to actually get change. A better way might be to contact local politicians (on the city level) or maybe to ask a lawyer to write a threatening letter to the authorities.
Part of being a democracy is that you can contact your local politicians with problems if the government works badly. Local politicians get a lot less citizen engagement than those at a higher level and are thus more willing to write the necessary emails to put some pressure on the bureaucrats in question.
Out of curiosity, how many serious accidents have there been at that intersection at that time? Not that I’d expect that to change the reply you got.
I think stories like this are unfortunately common in many places. Odd-seeming divisions of power and responsibility with no repercussions for failing to act create bizarre-seeming planning decisions. I have a family friend who has spent a decade repeatedly trying to have the city remove or prune a tree in front of their house. It has regularly dropped large branches on their driveway (recently crushing the roof of their car) and into power lines (causing local outages, enough that the city has relocated power lines to route around it). Its roots have caused recurring sewer problems and flooding in their house, and they’ve had to repave the sidewalk multiple times. Each time they report it and request the tree be removed or pruned, they’ve been informed that 1) it won’t be, 2) they, the homeowners, are not allowed do anything about it, 3) they’re responsible for removing branches that fall, 4) they’re responsible for the costs of any damage the tree causes, including injuries to others on the sidewalk, and 5) they’ll get cited and fined if they don’t keep the sidewalk in good repair.
It sounds to me like “reporting it” is not the way to actually get change. A better way might be to contact local politicians (on the city level) or maybe to ask a lawyer to write a threatening letter to the authorities.
Part of being a democracy is that you can contact your local politicians with problems if the government works badly. Local politicians get a lot less citizen engagement than those at a higher level and are thus more willing to write the necessary emails to put some pressure on the bureaucrats in question.