Seattle Times article about Seattle’s plans
The good:
The effort includes public-service announcements on television and radio, repainted crosswalks, billboards and signs encouraging safe driving, and stepped up enforcement of pedestrian-safety laws.
The really, obscenely bad:
The city also will start installing traffic cameras to photograph cars that run red lights.
I won’t go in to the whole “anti-red light camera” argument here — plenty of sites cover that already — but suffice it to say I am wholly against red light cameras and how they are implemented.
This plan for pedestrian safety completely fails to take into account the realities of driving in downtown Seattle. Pedestrians tend to cross whenever the traffic light is green or yellow, regardless of the walk/don’t walk signal’s status. Pedestrians rarely seem to look or care where they are walking. In part, I blame parents and the educational campaigns. How many times have you seen parents dragging their kids across the middle of the street, not even at a crosswalk? I was taught early on that “pedestrians always have the right of way”. Luckily, I was also taught (or born with? I dunno) enough smarts to know that just because I have the right of way doesn’t mean I can be a jackass and expect that everyone will avoid hitting me 100% of the time.
A real pedestrian solution to downtown Seattle would involve more “delayed start” walk signals. This would allow some cars through every light, and still give pedestrians a chance to cross the street. As it is now, it is lucky if two or three cars make a right turn during a green light.
Additional enforcement of crosswalk laws would help a lot, too. Convince people to stop entering the crosswalk when “don’t walk” is flashing.
And for the busiest intersections, overhead or underground crosswalks could be installed, such as used in Las Vegas. Help the pedestrians stay safe by simply removing them from traffic.
Until Seattle addresses the pedestrian safety issue using methods other than simple education or signs, it will continue to be a serious problem for the city.
May 26th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
Blame is problematic and useless. Look forward rather than back, mister.
May 26th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
You’re right, of course. I’m just hoping they’ll look forward instead of back.
May 26th, 2005 at 10:09 pm
I’m gonna git you, sucka.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Actually, the research indicates an improvment in pedestrian safety with a Leading Pedestrian Interval, where the walk signal comes on before the green for cars. Once the stream of right turning cars starts, it becomes very difficult for pedestrians to start crossing the street. A “delayed start” pedestrian signal is a bad idea — I have not seen any research that supports it. If the volume of pedestrians and the volume of turning cars is too great to allow for simultaneous operation, the intersection may be a candidate for an exclusive pedestrian phase.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
What I’ve noticed, with “LPI” setups, is that pedestrians just continue to cross as long as the traffic light is either green or yellow, and sometimes red. “Exclusive pedestrian” phase has been tried and has been determined to be a complete failure by the City of Seattle, because it just causes traffic to back up everywhere.
Perhaps LPI could work with significant education and enforcement, but I just don’t see that happening any time soon. I have personally seen the delayed start work very well however — on the highway 99 exit on to 1st Ave, pedestrians actually respect the “don’t walk” signal, and a few cars can get through per cycle.