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The Crosswalk to Hell
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5/01/2007
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Atlanta, in her unending efforts to make the city something it is not, has recently begun wasting a bunch of our money making the streets more pedestrian friendly. As a guy who walks a 6 mile round trip to work 2-3 times a week, I certainly appreciate the hazards of crossing busy streets. I also understand that this is not New York City and I am in the minority as a pedestrian. Furthermore, I realize that cars are much bigger than I am, and all of the warning signs and government attempts to save my life will not put my guts back in my abdomen if I step in front of a minivan.
Atlanta seems to think that making our inner city surface streets look like a goddamn video game will make drivers more aware of those who walk. WRONG. If you have driven in the Virginia Highlands/Little Five Points areas lately, you will see all manner of curbing, signs, and other construction designed to slow drivers down. As you approach a pedestrian crossing zone you will see the curbing swell out to narrow the lane, a blinky yellow light overhead, two huge green ped-xing signs on the sides of the road, and a new thing they call a "delineator", which is a sign that is actually sitting in the middle of the road getting bashed to hell on a daily basis. While walking to work I have been known to move these signs to the sidewalk to get them out of the way. I would move them to the nearest dumpster, but I think that's illegal.
You definitely don't want to be reincarnated as one of these.
At night, the plutonium coated warning signs reflect your headlights with the intensity of a thousand suns, making it difficult to see anything that might lie beyond them (like people). Now you have to consider the physics of putting your car up on two wheels so you can fit through the tiny space they left between the curb and the delineator, and not much of your brain is left to worry about whether someone is crossing the street. I have personally seen four instances this year where a driver was trying to thread the needle between a sign, some unnecessary curbing, and a cyclist (in the city's infinite wisdom, they almost completely left out bicycle lanes) and almost pegged a ped.
Here is the way I think it would work better - if there was nothing in my way except a human being, that makes a total of one thing I have to avoid, thus reducing my cockpit workload and increasing the chances that said person is going to live to see the other side of the street. Or how about this one - when the pedestrian gets to the edge of the curb, have a motion sensor activate a flashing light. That way we know that if the light is flashing, there is someone there.
If you want folks to slow down, try actually enforcing the speed limits you have posted everywhere. Use those stupid intersection cameras to give us chicken shit tickets while we are on our way to pay more taxes if that's really what it has come to. People who can't read speed limit signs deserve to pay fines, and paying those fines will definitely get their attention for longer than it takes to cross an intersection.
While we are at it, let's not forget to levy similar fines for those pedestrians who cross against the light or don't use crosswalks at all. If pedestrians only had the right of way within designated crosswalks, maybe everyone would pay more attention.
 Dusty
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posted by Dusty at 10:09 AM |
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