Poplar Pinch Costing Taxpayers

Memphis, Tn - Driving up and down Poplar Avenue in Memphis can be like playing a race car video game. As Fox 13 found out, not only are the narrow lanes a possible safety issue, they're costing taxpayers money.

For some, the thought of driving down Poplar is nerve-racking.
In fact, Memphis bus drivers are specially trained on how to navigate the tight road. And with accidents, missing mirrors and slashed tires, the road isn't only wreaking havoc on drivers, but taxpayers as well.

For drivers who regularly travel on Poplar, trucks and cars hanging over lanes, is not an uncommon site. For Mark, a truck driver, he says traveling down the narrow Poplar lanes is tough, "I hit one of the poles traveling towards downtown last week, so it does happen."

For MATA city bus drivers, Poplar is the most traveled route. It's also the most difficult to navigate. MATA Safety Manager Yuri Chambers says, "We experience 10-14 accidents a month due to the narrow lanes."

Chambers says 92 buses run up and down poplar every day. Most MATA buses are 8 and a half feet wide. City officials say Poplar lanes are as narrow as 9 feet in some areas, not leaving much wiggle room for the drivers. "It's something we have to face everyday," says Chambers.

Fox 13 took to the streets with our own tape measurer and found an area at East Parkway and Poplar was 8 feet wide, 6 feet to avoid the protruding storm grate. MATA says its drivers are specially trained how to navigate the narrow lanes.

Chambers says, "We ask operators to keep left tire closest to the line as possible giving more room to the operator on the right side of the bus to avoid making contact with poles or drains in the area."

So, instead of hitting the right side bus mirrors on utility poles, bus drivers risk smacking their left side mirrors with passing motorists, like Linda Smith, who drives an SUV. Smith says, "If I pass a MATA bus I have to press a button that puts my mirrors inside, towards the door so I don't lose a mirror."

It's not just other cars MATA drivers need to watch out for, Chambers, who drove a bus for 6 years, says some utility poles, close to the curb lane have been marked so bus drivers can easily avoid them.

In 2009, MATA spent $11,265.07 on repairs from incidents on Poplar. Chambers says, "Most damage on the buses on Poplar are cracked mirrors, glass broken out of the left mirror up to rear-enders."

MATA officials say bus tires are also damaged from interfering storm grates.

But city officials say, in 2009 they did not pay out any claims to drivers whose vehicles were damaged on Poplar. In fact, the City Engineer Wain Gaskins says he doesn't hear a lot of complaints about the narrow lanes, although he admits they're not ideal. In some sections of poplar we have narrower lanes than we would like to have, overall it's functioning fairly well," says Gaskins

The City follows lane width recommendations from AASHTO. Their street guideline book shows, for *lower speed, low-volume roads* with *little or no truck traffic*, 12 foot lanes are preferred although 9 foot lanes are acceptable.

But Gaskins doesn't consider lane width a safety issue, "We haven't had that many crashes associated with narrow lane widths."

Gaskins says Poplar was re-stripped years ago, as a way to increase capacity without impacting property along the route.

Driver Linda Smith says, "There's no where to go, we need to widen the lanes, seriously."

Another driver, Dederick Blair, says, "They're too narrow definitely they could be widened."

Gaskins says the only way to widen the lanes now, is to take Poplar down to two lanes which he says, would only increase congestion.

However, he says the city is looking at coordinating traffic signals as a way to make traffic flow more smoothly.

Gaskins says, "We have plans designed right now, we're seeking funding in order to implement the plans."

MATA officials are not lobbying for wider lanes but say 2 additional feet on each side would help tremendously.

Still, they say they'll continue to navigate the best they can through the Poplar pinch.

Chambers says, "We experience it everyday. It's something we have to deal with and we do a good job at it."

Others say they'll just continue to squeeze past buses, come with in a close shave of a truck and avoid the right lane altogether.

Gaskins says they're addressing the storm grate issue, working with the department of transportation to make sure there isn't constant build up of asphalt around the drain.