[Vision2020] Crosswalks near Wendys & in general

[Bill London]

regarding the accident-waiting-to-happen where students are crossing the Moscow-Pullman highway between the UI and the apartments on A Street.....

The reason this problem is surfacing now is the negligence of the previous City Council.  That A Street area was zoned commercial, and the previous council just couldn't say NO when developers wanted to put apartments there.

Now, we all have to deal with the problems that have resulted from that bad decision-making.
BL
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tim Lohrmann 
  To: Paul Rumelhart 
  Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 11:04 AM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Crosswalks near Wendys & in general


     Visionseekers,

    Mr. Rumelhart makes some good points.  
    The pedestrian crossings on that part of the Pullman road really can be pretty scary. 
    Worrisome is right. 
    There have been new crossing signs with flags put up on the road in a couple of places and that's great. But, unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have helped the situation all that much. 
    
      Several on here have likely had some close calls.
      Same here. 
      The last one happened while returning from the Pullman at dusk, going the speed limit or a little under.  All of a sudden, a guy in one of those charcoal gray warmup suits was right in front of me in the middle of the lane. I had to brake really hard and veer over or it would have been pedestrian crunch time. 
    
      The guy wasn't being careful or using a real cross walk. 
      But that wouldn't have been much consolation for either of us if he'd been thrashing around under my tires--that came within inches of happening. 
     
      With all the new apartment construction out that way, maybe something new does need to be done. More people are crossing wherever they want...without regard to marked crossings.
      I'm not sure that more jaywalking enforcement is the answer. I don't think word would get around on that. 
     Would some flashing caution lights and reflective traffic bumps or just reflectors be a good way to mark the crossings? It's a state highway and that makes it more complicated but it's worth looking into. 

     The rest of the crossings on other streets in town need better marking too.
     It seems like the white paint marking the crossings wears out so quickly. 
     I've been told the ice melt, gravel, sand and snow tires all do a job on the paint. 
     Then after the weather clears up it takes quite a while for the city to get the markings re-done. 
     That's understandable with all that needs doing but the crossings aren't defined very well in the meantime. 
     
     Maybe some different approach--possibly raised marking would work better. 
     I'm sure this would be more expensive in the short term.  But if a different marking system saved the expense of repainting every year and made the crossings safer it might make sense. 
      TL

        


    "Those 'technicalities' have a name, Bobby. They're called the Bill Of Rights."
                                                                                                            ----Hank Hill
   
   
    

  Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
    My apologies if this has been discussed here before, but I wanted to 
    state my opinions on this.

    I worry that someday some person (probably a college student) is going 
    to be seriously injured or killed at this crosswalk. It has all the 
    makings of a death trap. It's on one of the few four-lane streets 
    (five, really) around with a higher-than-average-in-Moscow speed limit. 
    I've seen so many drivers just cruise on through without even thinking 
    about it being a crosswalk, and I've also seen people just pop up from 
    the slight incline that leads to it's entrance on the UI side and just 
    start hoofing it across the road. I'm aware of the dangers here, and 
    watch it closely, and I've still been surprised to find someone in the 
    crosswalk there. They either popped up like we're playing whack-a-mole 
    from the UI side or they were hidden by the other cars that were just 
    blithely driving through the crosswalk ahead of them or behind them. 
    The signs are nice, but they are not enough.

    I appreciate the need for a crosswalk there, since you either have to 
    jaywalk or walk a block in either direction or more to get to a valid 
    crosswalk. As it stands, though, I think we'd be safer letting them 
    jaywalk - at least they would be cautious of the traffic. With a legal 
    crosswalk there, the old UI-taught behavior of "just walk out there, 
    they'll stop" appears to kick in.

    Some minor suggestions that might help would include a yellow light 
    suspended over the crosswalk, or maybe spotlights on both sides so we 
    can see better at night, or possibly a concrete "staging platform" that 
    is easily visible amongst the grass so we have a better idea where to 
    look ahead of time. A better idea would probably be to just put a light 
    there, one that turns red only if a pedestrian pushes the button.

    Anyone have any other ideas? Are there plans for something to happen 
    there that just haven't been completed yet?

    Paul

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