{"id":258748301,"date":"2013-03-14T18:31:41","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=258748301"},"modified":"2013-03-14T18:31:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T18:31:41","slug":"life-or-death-americas-crosswalks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=258748301","title":{"rendered":"Life or Death: America\u2019s Crosswalks"},"content":{"rendered":"

[There’s some pics around Baltimore in the article]
\nVia Comeback City
\nThere are some good crosswalks out there, but there are heck of a lot more that are pretty mediocre. Many have the striped paint worn away and are in dismal shape. Others are in okay condition, but just not prominent enough to forcefully convey to oncoming drivers that road space is for pedestrians too! The sad state of crosswalks extends to the heart of cities, even areas that garner walkscore.com \u2018s prestigious \u201cwalkers paradise\u201d rating. Next time you are on a walk, notice the street crossings. Are they prominent? Are they in good condition? Do they slow car traffic?
\nIn health circles, advocates preach that walking is good for your health. That is not true if you get mowed over by a car, truck, or SUV. Walking can be deadly. In 2009, 4092 pedestrians were killed and 59,000 injured in the US according to walkinginfo.org According to the New York Daily News, \u201cabout 19% of the 770 pedestrian fatalities from 2005 to 2009 (in New York)- roughly 150 deaths-were people crossing at an intersection with the walk signal in their favor.\u201d Over the five year period, 335 deaths occurred at intersections controlled by traffic signals. To me, this means crosswalks are not doing a good enough job, and there is room for innovation and upgrades.
\nIn the 2010 Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State, prepared for the Governors Highway Safety Association, the study makes no meaningful analysis regarding the quality or type of crosswalks in pedestrian safety, nor does it dive into vehicle speeds or road design in areas where pedestrians frequent. It does offer impotent conclusions like \u201cpedestrian fatalities are affected by the amount of walking\u201d and \u201cno single countermeasure can make a substantial impact.\u201d Pedestrian infrastructure deserves an out of the cubicle analysis.
\nJeff Speck, author of Walkable City, argues walkability is the single factor to attracting and retaining business and entrepreneurial talent. Surely, playing frogger from one side of the street to the other is not part of the recipe for Speck\u2019s walkable prosperity. Kaid Benfield has a persuasive post about poor walking conditions across America where he points out, that in 1973, sixty percent of American kids walked to school and by 2006, kids walking to school had dropped to 13 percent. Should walking to school in America be an unusual thing? I don\u2019t think so.
\nI write this post, because crosswalk (and street) design does not consume enough of the discussion about safety, walking for health, or economic revitalization. It should. Pedestrian planners are often not the ones with the big influence at DOTs or MPOs and their influence is not heard enough. A notable exception may now be Los Angeles. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is championing the investment of 53 \u201cContinental Crosswalks\u201d starting implementation near transit lines and schools. These crosswalks will have a vehicle stop line, have wider stripes, and be more prominent than LA\u2019s other 5250 crossings. LA has recognized the challenge and is beginning to overhaul its pedestrian infrastructure.
\nIf your town, suburb, or city needs better crosswalks, let people know. It may save someone\u2019s life. I\u2019ll conclude with a slideshow of good and not so good crosswalks.
\n…
\nhttps:\/\/comebackcity.us\/2013\/02\/08\/americas-inadequate-crosswalks\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[There’s some pics around Baltimore in the article] Via Comeback City There are some good crosswalks out there, but there are heck of a lot more that are pretty mediocre. Many have the striped paint worn away and are in dismal shape. Others are in okay condition, but just not prominent enough to forcefully convey … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Life or Death: America\u2019s Crosswalks”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258748301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258748301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=258748301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258748301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=258748301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=258748301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=258748301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}