Comments on: taking back the streets with Caltrans

By: This must be my lucky week! « Living in the O

This must be my lucky week! « Living in the O — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:58:38 +0000

[...] if the city or county would just paint a crosswalk at my 1 stop, I’d be almost fully contented with my transit [...]

By: Becks

Becks — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:30:33 +0000

All this talk about different configurations of cross walk signals is making me jealous! All I ask for is a crosswalk (signal free) at the intersection where I live on Telegraph at the 1 bus stop. Just this evening I had to wait until the traffic in one direction had passed, run across the street with heavy grocery bags, and then wait in the middle of the street until someone stopped for me to cross.

Maybe Alameda County could spend some of its grant money on basic upgrades like painting crosswalks at all the bus stop locations.

By: Capricious Commuter

Capricious Commuter — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:44:01 +0000

I don’t think that traffic calming is appropriate for major boulevards. It’s something you want for your residential streets or commercial side-streets where there are a lot of shoppers and such. I agree that we could use more completely closed-off streets for pedestrians, but I don’t think it’s an either-or decision. You CAN have it both ways.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:05:38 +0000

Well, yes; you have to pick pedestrians or vehicles, you can’t let both have convenient use of the same road because they’re so different.

The problem with “traffic calming” and other such measures is that it’s a namby-pamby effort to have it both ways. If you’re going to make an area pedestrian-friendly at the expense of vehicles, then just freakin’ DO IT!

By: Reedman

Reedman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:54:34 +0000

My experiences outside the US are that pedestrians don’t get many crosswalk signals. They cross through openings in traffic as the traffic allows. The emphasis is on maximum efficiency of the highways and especially the intersections. The use of roundabouts instead of traffic lights provides for much lower amounts of time spent stopped. Interestingly, the number one criticism of roundabouts is that because they are so effective at allowing traffic to continuously move, they don’t allow an easy way for pedestrians to cross.

By: MikeOnBike

MikeOnBike — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:40:05 +0000

While this sounds like a reasonable idea, you’re viewing it from the motorists’ perspective. You’re not really “taking back the streets” for pedestrians by limiting the Walk signal to half the road.

More generally, the Walk phase of many crosswalks only lasts a few seconds out of the entire signal cycle. Once the Don’t Walk starts flashing, pedestrians are supposed to wait several minutes until the next four-second Walk phase comes around.

At a typical intersection, notice that the green light for vehicles lasts far longer than the Walk phase for pedestrians. And while vehicles can enter the intersection on yellow, pedestrians cannot enter the intersection on a flashing Don’t Walk.

Then there are the intersections with one crosswalk removed, so pedestrians are required to go the long way around, on three signal phases, just to get to the other side.

For the most part, pedestrians are treated as a nuisance that delays important traffic.

By: Capricious Commuter

Capricious Commuter — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:48:25 +0000

That sounds like a great idea, and the thought has occurred to me at other crossings of major boulevards. In Israel, I noticed that the system you suggest seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. I know you aren’t suggesting doing this at places other than where there’s a destination in the median, but I became very tired of getting stuck on median strips waiting for the other light to change.

By: Reedman

Reedman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:34:07 +0000

There are things that could be done to make the combination of cars, transit, and pedestrians work together a lot better. As an example, where VTA light rail runs down the middle of Tasman, if a train rider uses the crosswalk button, it stops cars in both directions on Tasman, even though the pedestrian is only crossing half the road. How about making the crosswalk-traffic light controls smarter to allow cars to continue down the part of the road not being crossed?