This is often repeated and utterly beside the point. We don’t enforce our crosswalk laws at all. When was the last time a motorist was ticketed for failing to yield to a pedestrian that wasn’t the result of a pedestrian being hit? How many crosswalk sting operations have the police conducted in the past decade? There is no motorist education, and there is no enforcement either, when it comes to crosswalks.
If we actually tried enforcement, the word would get out pretty quickly that, like other communities around the country that care about pedestrian safety, pedestrians really do have right of way. What the mayor should have said is that it does no good to change the ordinance, since the police won’t enforce anything other than the status quo.
]]>The best solution at State from Washington to William would be to ban cars from this entire area, but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon. Meanwhile, more pedestrian friendly signal timing would help a lot. Cycle times should be kept to 60 seconds max, and pedestrian lights should be green a significant portion of the cycle time (it’s as little as 5% of the cycle now for some of the signals).
]]>I almost did a stopped-watched item yesterday when I saw this: two mothers with three small children waited for some minutes to cross Beakes near Kerrytown, while cars whizzed past. Finally they put their feet into the road near the curb, and a car coming up actually came to a full stop, inhibiting the rest of the traffic so they were able to cross.
]]>If we “fix” half of the intersections in town, we still have half the city with pedestrian crossings that are unfriendly to pedestrians. Let’s try the easiest fix first, which would work city-wide: citizen education.
]]>With the on street parking, buildings close to the corners and the number of pedestrians in the area makes it very difficult for drivers to get through the intersection with the way the lights are timed.
The many pedestrians, some oblivious and more of them frustrated by the traffic and poor timing of the lights cross against the light adding to the hazards.
How much have merchants benefited from the changes they requested when weighed against the hazards to pedestrians and cyclists? How many accidents have happened at that intersection? Do merchants profits outweigh public safety?
One option there is to have all car traffic stop completely at all three lights for a specified time and pedestrians to use the entire intersection for crossing.
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