Pedestrians and Intersections

“This (intersection) has caused a death. That one will, too, unless they do something.”
–Gregory Wilson

As pedestrian safety becomes a major issue across American cities  and states we explore how to improve safety standards where many accidents occur: intersections. Creating safer intersections is not rocket science though, it is just difficult to convince city officials and traffic engineers to change their old auto-centric way of thought to make things safer.

Curb Radius Design
Courtesy of: http://www.fabb-bikes.org/guide/commonissues2.html

We apologize but things are about to get a bit technical. The greatest threat to pedestrian safety at an intersection is the radius of the curb. This determines how sharp any given corner is and effects the travel speed of vehicles and the width of the street (see diagram below). Unfortunately, a wide curb radius has become the norm in today’s design standards. Traffic engineers advocate for them because their design manta is “to move cars quickly” so they want traffic to not have to slow down for a tight corner because traffic will clog up behind them. Another advocate for the use of a wide curb radius are emergency response vehicles. They believe that a wider curb will help them to respond to emergencies quicker. However, this has a catch 22 effect because the wide curbs to get to emergencies faster but what is actually happening is creating more accidents due to unsafe intersections. You can read more about this in Suburban Nation.

There are several design elements to improve crosswalks. The goal is to make pedestrian crossings as visible as possible by ladder stripes and signage. The safer it is for pedestrians because it is more visible it will be for vehicles. Some communities are taking an initiate and being creative with crosswalks markings to make them unique to a community and more visible. Some communities are learning the benefit of installing roundabouts at intersections to improve traffic flow and enhance pedestrian safety. While there is some opposition to roundabouts they are proven to help control traffic flow and be safer for pedestrians.

Textured and colored crosswalk
Photo courtesy of: http://grandlakeguardian.org

Fast cars and poor planning is not the only thing to blame though. Pedestrians need to take responsibility for their own actions. Jaywalking sounds like a minor offense but it is the same as running a red light. Pedestrians should  cross the street only at a crosswalk and if a signal is available only go ahead when it is your turn. If there is no walk signal be sure no cars are coming before you cross. Always remember what your mom and dad always said, “look both ways before you cross the street.”