ACHD
Why No Parking Along Desert Road? MPG Overtakes Speed in 18 Years
April 13, 2014 
Taking a little Sunday drive with Mrs. GUARDIAN we noticed a couple of “NO PARKING” signs along Kuna-Mora Rd. south of I-84 east of Boise.
The seemed so out of place we stopped to see if we could figure just why they were installed. There isn’t a structure within sight. There wasn’t another road or or even a break in the barbed wire fence for a driveway.
There wasn’t a construction site or other spot where farm equipment or construction trucks would be entering the roadway.
The location is outside the city limits, so Team Dave’s parking Nazis wouldn’t be able to write tickets. The only conclusion we could make is that SOMEONE with enough political pull has requested the signs. We will await word from our friends at Ada County Highway District to track down the rationale for installing no parking signs on a lonely desert road.
Meanwhile, feel free to offer your own thoughts.
THE ANSWER IS…
It took a while, but we got to the bottom of it: ACHD installed the signs in 1996 at the request of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office to help fight drag racing – presumably, the spectators stopping along the side of the “track,” I guess. (Your memory or intuition was right on.) Eight signs went in and only three remain. We checked with S.O. today, and they no longer want the signs along the road, as the issue seems to have gone away sometime in the last 18 years. We’ll be pulling them out in coming days/weeks, as work allows.
Craig Quintana
Chief Information Officer
Ada County Highway District
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 6, 2014, 1:04 pm
To keep people from going through the barbed wire and then using the desert land for plinking, dumping trash, legal or illegal hunting, etc. That would be my guess.
EDITOR NOTE–Those thoughts went through our minds as well…but wouldn’t “NO SHOOTING” or “NO DUMPING” signs be more logical than “No Parking?”
Apr 6, 2014, 1:57 pm
It tends to be a high-speed road. Parking on it is not safe.
Perhaps part of the Prison’s security.
Hi use military area. Their night-vision fun is ruined by lights.
Great place to stop and shoot.
Probably the most likely reason is to prevent the long-haul truckers from parking there on rest breaks. Most roads can’t handle a 120,000 lb. parked truck.
Apr 6, 2014, 2:15 pm
That is the Kuna drag strip. They put the no parking signs up so they could help combat the spectator drags that usually occur every weekend in the summer.
EDITOR NOTE–Again, why not put up a “NO DRAG RACING” sign. Or it it the spectators they are after? Do the Ada sheriff deputies write parking tickets?
Apr 6, 2014, 3:44 pm
No garys boy’s would manufacture.. ooppss…find a reason to arrest..
gotta keep the jail full and the money rolling in..
Apr 6, 2014, 5:13 pm
Asking for rationale from ACHD… that will be interesting to read their reply (after your 3 levels of FOIA request).
Regardless of the rationale, Guardian, the Geography Nazi says, Kuna-Mora Rd. is not so much “East” of Boise.
And you stopped (p a r k e d) to see if you could figure out why the No Parking signs were there? Funny! The parking camera’s likely got your plate # and will be sending you a citation. 🙂
It doesn’t take much political pull to get signs planted by ACHD.
You want one?
“Sure, we’ll add it to the budget”.
My guess is the prison.
For the safety of the unsuspecting driver and to make a planned get away a little longer walk. 🙂
Apr 6, 2014, 6:01 pm
The only thing I can think of is that many of the reasons above are correct — and No Parking helps thwart a bunch of things in one fell swoop. A “No dumping, shooting, drag racing, hunting, prisoner picking up” sign might be a bit much??
Apr 6, 2014, 8:08 pm
Remember the great old BurmaShave highway signs that kept you amused on the highways? Could these be a sad imitation of humor?
Apr 6, 2014, 10:53 pm
Signs– it comes to mind there should be a category of “Here’s Your Sign Signs” from ACHD.
The stupid signs.
And what about the size of ACHD signs? There are little itty bitty signs that one is expected to read at 35mph and then the GIANT street signs. ParkCenter (the East side for the Easterner) has a few of those… it’s like, “was there a sale on aluminum or something?” Why are those signs 4 times as big as any other related sign? At least they have plenty of PR people to answer the question and plenty of tax dollars to pay The Statesman to publish the Q&A.
Apr 6, 2014, 11:32 pm
Having driven that road and wondered about the signs myself I concluded from the quality of the fence that it was prison property and the signs were somehow related to the constant vigilance worries involved with keeping the prisoners safe from the many tourists using the K-M road.
EDITOR NOTE–The signs are actually quite a way from the prison and there are NO SIGNS closer to the prison. A sign warning of “PRISON AREA” would make sense, but the “NO PARKING” are strange.
Apr 7, 2014, 8:15 am
Maybe people were parking there to use the field for a shooting range or hunting rabbits. It became such a popular area the land owner/county decided it was a hazard.
Apr 7, 2014, 9:29 am
Brought to you by the same Bureaucracy that gave you the solitary parking meter in front of the court house in Murphy – the only parking meter in 7700-square-mile Owyhee County.
Some things will ever remain mysteries.
Apr 7, 2014, 10:55 am
Bike events occur out there fairly often, and I suppose some might park along the road for a couple of hours. Oh, the horror. Regardless – typical paternalistic Government, arbitrarily micromanaging every conceivable facet of our lives for no other reason than they can. That this happens even in a supposedly “conservative” state like Idaho, makes one despair that there is any hope for reasonable, proper Government…anywhere.
Apr 7, 2014, 2:41 pm
Bikeboy,
The parking meter is not the only one in Owyhee County. The one at the courthouse was intended as a joke, but it also provides a small source of revenue for the county museum.
Apr 7, 2014, 2:54 pm
Rather than everyone moaning, supposing, coming up with conspiracy theories – someone should ask ACHD why there are a couple of signs out in the middle of nowhere. There may be a reason for them to be there or a reason to remove them. It shouldn’t take more than a minute to call and ask.
EDITOR NOTE–What! And ruin interest in a perfectly harmless post? (We are awaiting a return call or message.)
Apr 7, 2014, 10:32 pm
Why did the Chicken cross the road?
Because there was No Parking Allowed on that side.
Apr 8, 2014, 2:06 am
Using Google resources (see link). I found the exact location of your photo. Due to it’s close proximity to I-84 and very remote location. I will bet large that the signs are to prevent truck parking and all the disgusting things truckers do when not trucking.
BTW, what is the tall object in the background of your photo? It’s not showing on the Google photos.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.455172,-116.105115,3a,75y,264.55h,78.9t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sVIFIHgpW7iqatHSAH2OC_w!2e0
Apr 8, 2014, 10:17 am
Good work Zippo!
And looking at who owns the adjacent ag property is interesting… nothing political- just interesting.
Apr 8, 2014, 11:13 am
Zippo, the tall thing in the background is likely a cell tower. It is in the Google file if you move the little person closer to the bend in the road… just not as clear as the Guardian’s professional photo quality. From the sat. image or street view from the freeway it is identifiable. love google.
Apr 8, 2014, 1:50 pm
zip… what disgusting things are those?
Apr 9, 2014, 7:08 pm
I think it is about sex. Idaho is terrified of sex. Some one had sex in a car there and the government had to stop it.
Apr 14, 2014, 9:47 pm
Someone died dragging that section in 1996 hence the response.
Apr 15, 2014, 3:12 pm
I remember being called to a Injury accident on a Saturday night in that stretch. When I arrived, I saw a motor cycle down and several bystanders hurt. This area was where most of the street drags were held. Two Motorcycles had run a drag and when they returned to the start, one was coming back at high speed hitting several bystanders. One was in critical condition with several others with varying injuries. Installing the signs was a way to help curb the crowds from parking and having accidents.
Apr 15, 2014, 8:01 pm
Wow… I need to buy stock in no parking signs if they are going to put them near the scene of every accident…. next idea…
Apr 15, 2014, 11:16 pm
typical ACHD.
Inconsistent and incomplete.
So I think I win the guessing game.
There is not an rational explanation.
Guardian, I am curious when you received that response from the top dog PR person at ACHD, to compare to JBowlby’s comment of it shouldn’t take “more than a minute to call and ask”.
EDITOR NOTE–The response was timely. We have been in a remodel here at the GUARDIAN world headquarters and computers have been down, so we missed it at first.
Apr 16, 2014, 1:07 pm
Thanks for running this to the ground Guardian.
To Easterner, I said it would only take a minute to call and ask – it’s certainly reasonably for it to take ACHD staff a day or two to search records, get the an answer and then contact the Sheriff’s department to see if the remaining signs were still needed.
Not sure about your ‘typical ACHD’ comment. It is a reasonable response. The initial reason the signs were installed may be questionable, but after 18 years of them being in place (and without previously being asked about them??) for ACHD to have a response with a week isn’t bad.
Apr 16, 2014, 2:46 pm
Lets open up Midnight drags again out there
Apr 17, 2014, 11:36 am
JBollby, the inconsistent and incomplete has to do ACHD’ action on the signs.
Their were 8 signs.
At some point they realize, ‘hey these aren’t needed anymore’ and they pull out 5. 5 of the 8 is an incomplete job.
Inconsistent… by some theory ACHD should know where they have signs and where they don’t- and why.
These 3 signs were up some amount of time AFTER the other 5 were pulled… and it takes Guardian to bring it to their attention. One might think ACHD has a district manager(COMMISSIONER) that actually drives around their district from time to time evaluating the condition of the road, signs, lights, etc.
In a story form:
imagine you owned a retail computer store. Five years ago you realized you have 8 Model T’s in your inventory; they are 10 years obsolete. You decided to get rid of your obsolete Model T. You junked 5 of them. Then yesterday your janitor comes up to tell you, Hey, JBolwby, you have 3 Model T’s back there in your warehouse. Are you crazy? Those things have been worthless for 15 years!”
Good business practice?
Thanks janitor Joe, I’ll get rid of them when work allows.
Inconsistent and incomplete is everything from the yellow sidewalk pads, to street lights, to chipseal, to paving alley aprons, to CommuterRide.
It is a tough job.
With better structure and better management in the past, there should have been better results across the board. Hopefully the new Director is interested in improvements instead of hiring more PR people.
Apr 17, 2014, 5:21 pm
I am sorry that they are removing them. They sound like a bit of local history. On the other hand, take them out and you may just be bringing back drag racing or “parking” to that area. Time will tell.
May 8, 2014, 5:37 pm
Ha I knew it!! I was a student at Kuna High in 1996 so I might have knowledge of such activity that might or might not have taken place in this area at the time. BG do I get a prize for having the right answer or just the sweet satisfaction of being a 5th generation Kunan!?!?