I ran across the scene yesterday. I was pretty sure they were drilling a hole to anchor a center-line sign, as part of the pedestrian safety pilot program.
Then this morning, there it was, a thing of beauty!
[Location is the Streetcar platform at NW 23rd and Marshall.]
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7 responses to “Drilling for Safety”
It’s nice, but very sad that our society needs such things.
So now that it is there, anyone wanna wager on how long before some infinitely wise automobile driver knocks it clean off it’s post? :o
After literally years of agitation, we had one of these installed in front of our workplace last week. Within a couple of days, it was clear that it had been run over at least once in each direction; already looking pretty grim.
The thing that worries me about it is that it may give people a false sense of confidence. In spite of the installation, I stood in the crosswalk as two cars sped through at 4:30pm at 40 mph. Another stopped just at the intersection, at the last minute, at the same time a middle-schooler ran across the crosswalk toward me.
I recently walked blatantly in front of a car while the driver didn’t pay attention, lunged myself onto the car since I had “right of way”. Just to prove the point of course… and the fact I love some adrenaline – it’s free ya know.
Needless to say the unobservant driver will probably NEVER talk on her “phone” again as I scared her to death as I plummetted onto the hood of her vehicle… (also obvious that she wasn’t going 40 – rarely do people reach that high of a speed in the 23rd/21st area)
…also needless to say, people should NEVER assume they are safe crossing a street, EVER. But they should be able to.
This is great — we need these downtown, too; I frequent the walkways crossing Park (Clay, Columbia, Madison, etc), and on the one crossing 10th near the Safeway, and while most drivers are attentive and considerate and stop, there’s too many fools who recklessly zoom up those streets so they can make it to the red light 2 seconds sooner. I’ve had a couple of close calls in just the last few months. Too many drivers don’t know that those white stripes on the ground mean CARS MUST STOP for peds, so we need these unignorable signs to tell them that before some pedestrian gets run over.
How do we find out where those signs are going up? How do we encourage the city to put them in our neighborhood crossings?
How do we encourage the city to put them in our neighborhood crossings?
I would recommend letting Sam Adams’ office know that you want them.
I noticed one of these in person myself, while waiting for a transfer at SE 17th Ave. and SE Center St.
Too many drivers don’t know that those white stripes on the ground mean CARS MUST STOP for peds, so we need these unignorable signs to tell them that before some pedestrian gets run over.
Even if they see them, we have to remember that many motorists are talking on their cell phones and paying more attention to their stereo than driving. So, the burning question is: will they notice the sign, but not the pedestrians?
I don’t know that having the stop sign there, in that sign, is such a hot idea, because this is NOT a stop sign. It’s confusing and, ultimately, contributes –in my opinion– to stop signs being just background noise for drivers, easily ignored. I have a stop sign in front of my corner house…if I could collect the fines for running it, it would pay my mortgage (and pay for my vacations as well!)
I drove home from work today, through downtown, and the red-light running is amazing. It’s not signs and signals we need…it’s enforcement. Absent that, all the signs in the world aren’t going to mean squat to most drivers.