March 2019 – Person versus Automobile

Hit in a Crosswalk (Part 3)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

The previous post explained how the City of Boulder addressed the flashing crosswalk where Laura was hit by an SUV. In short, they addressed it gloriously:
(1) they upgraded to a light that first flashed, then turned solid yellow, and finally turned solid red (putting the fear of Officer MacDougal in drivers), and
(2) they later made the supreme fix: building an underpass
to completely insulate pedestrians and bikers from those big, heavy chunks of metal and plastic that accelerate more easily than they brake.
Continue reading “Hit in a Crosswalk (Part 3)”

Hit in a Crosswalk (Part 2)

Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.

The previous post was about Laura’s experience of getting hit by a car while in a flashing-light crosswalk (2007). The crosswalk where the accident occurred was replaced by a high-intensity activated crosswalk (HAWK, which provides a flashing yellow light followed by a solid yellow light followed by a red light). After installing the HAWK, Boulder went a step further, replacing it with a pedestrian underpass (the best and costliest solution).

Pedestrian underpass on Baseline Road, east of Broadway, Boulder, CO

Quotes & Notes

"One good example is that motorists are required to stop for pedestrians who intend to cross at crosswalks, but regularly flout this obligation. A Wisconsin study found that drivers yielded to pedestrians expressing intention to cross only 16 percent of the time at observed crosswalks. Legally required yield rates differed from intersection to intersection but never exceeded 60 percent and, at four intersections, no driver yielded to a pedestrian during a two-hour window. Experiments have found that motorists yield less often for people of color."—Gregory Shill, "Should Law Subsidize Driving?"