Click link to KING 5 video and article of 9/25/2012:
http://www.king5.com/home/Redmond-Police-ticket-drivers-who-dont-stop-for-pedestrians-171267551.html
http://www.king5.com/home/Redmond-Police-ticket-drivers-who-dont-stop-for-pedestrians-171267551.html
What do you think looks out of order with this cross-walk? Good video clip. BY
Pedestrians would not normally walk out into the street in front of cars or trucks and expect the traffic to stop for them. But paint white stripes across the road and add some bright yellow crosswalk signs, and people will not hesitate to step out into the street in front of moving cars. Crosswalks are just thick lines of paint on the pavement, but somehow they make people walk in front of cars - believing that they will be safe. We can’t blame the crosswalk for luring people into the road where they get run over, but we can blame the people who are responsible for installing the crosswalks. Putting the crosswalk on Cleveland Street where there are multiple curving lanes so that visibility is flawed, and then failing to provide a traffic light that would allow pedestrians a way to signal to drivers that they are crossing the road is irresponsible of the City of Redmond’s Traffic Department.
ReplyDeleteThis crosswalk is unbelievably dangerous and should be removed. Pedestrians should not be encouraged to step into the street where they could get killed!
And I also have to say that watching the police officer observe the pedestrian almost get hit by a car again and again and again and again (29 times?) was disconcerting. What if that had been a 12-year-old child crossing the road? Would she really just stand there and hope that the child didn't get hit by a car? When something is so obviously dangerous, we make an effort to remove the danger, don't we? We don't just let it happen over and over and over again until some really gets killed.
It seems to me that too many crosswalks are being placed within Redmond in unexpected places. It used to be that crosswalks were at traffic signals or some other break in the road. But, nowadays they are being overused and, consequently, are losing their impact (drivers tune them out when there is an abundance of them just as they tune out too much street signage).
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, there are ~4 crosswalks along 104th near Hartmann Park and yet I often see children, teens and adults crossing outside of them--especially during baseball season.
--Garden Mom