The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
Do you think all crosswalks on major roadways should have lights, or some other kind of marking that clearly shows when somebody is walking across the street?
Talk about it….
I like them as long as people have to actually press a button. I do not like the automatic ones like on Cowell Road at the canal crossing.
That crossing is absolutely confounding.
Blind approach from both directions with no push button = bicycles appearing from nowhere in front of traffic traveling 40-45 mph (on average) with about 1/10 second warning.
Yes, particularly at mid-block crossing as Shoulda Coulda mentioned.
These have been around for at least a decade. They do get a drivers attention, nice solution for problem or high foot traffic cross walks. Some are wireless and solar powered.
manufacturer pages and videos,
https://tinyurl.com/58csxt4s
https://tinyurl.com/fkz8jztf
A body walking across the street clearly shows that a pedestrian is crossing, and drivers and pedestrians need to pay attention. People ignore red lights, so what good would lights do?
The lights increase the visibility, especially in the evening and early morning hours. Help prevent that “body walking across the street” from not being seen and becoming a dead body.
Of course lights increase visibility, but my point was it doesn’t mean they’ll stop. Pedestrians get hit when drivers (or driver and pedestrian) aren’t paying attention. What increases pedestrian safety is cautious pedestrians and cautious drivers. Lights are a band-aid on a situation that needs to be resolved between both parties being more careful.
Why not? The problem is that many pedestrians are killed or injured in crosswalks. What also works are neon colored flags that are held in two small containers by each crosswalk. Then the pedestrian holds and waves their flag from while crossing in the crosswalk. That is extremely effective.
Yes. Sometimes, when there’s a lot going on at an intersection, or when it’s dark, it can be hard to see a pedestrian about to cross the street. Flashing lights make it much more obvious.
… no – waste of scarce taxpayer $$
Um, indoctrinating kids with leftist critical race theory swill is a waste of taxpayer money among a thousand other things I could list…but a relatively simple project to install road-level lights to provide better visibility of people in crosswalks on busy roads is not.
Yes, especially the one on Concord Blvd / Second Street…EXTREMELY dangerous with the sun eastbound in morning and westbound in evening.
Plus many idiot drivers merging from Sunset onto Concord Blvd act like the curved merge is a slingshot and haul a** with that crosswalk just ahead, plus vision can be obstructed by those white plastic lane dividers.
Many times I’ve seen an eastbound vehicle in lane 1 stopped for pedestrian/bike in crosswalk, but then Speedy McF***face in eastbound lane 2 pays no attention and blows through without wondering “gee, why is that car stopped there at this crosswalk?”
Depends no the implementation. Martinez put embedded ones at a crosswalk and they stopped working after a year or two. So they replaced it with a signs that activate when the pedestrian pushes a button. Those are more effective and probably easier to service. That intersection probably needs a stop light but I don’t think they want to spend for that.
Definately, but they have to be the kind that are buried in the asphalt.
.
Every crosswalk? No. That would likely result in needless spending.
.
Only where warranted like major pedestrian routes to shopping center, school routes, trail crossings, etc.
.
Walnut Creek has used them effectively
at mid block locations where drivers might
not be expecting a crosswalk.
@Shoulda Coulda
I agree. The Walnut Creek traffic engineers have done very good job at leveraging monies towards prioritizing projects and improving pedestrian safety. They don’t spend willy-nilly on “feel good” projects.
In addition, they control signal timing on Ygnacio Valley Road and it is possible to go non-stop westbound or eastbound if driving the speed limit. Where it goes “wrong” is when an emergency vehicle interrupts the timing because it takes a while for the signal network to re-coordinate.
Yes, particularly at mid-block crossing as Shoulda Coulda mentioned.
If you want to improve the crosswalks, one should start in downtown Concord. They are terrible–at night or during rain, you cannot see them–they do not have white lines on the borders and that dark color blends in with the street–solution, put a white lines on the border of the crosswalks.
I believe they should also include a large pile of baseball size stones next to each crosswalk. Any vehicle that attempts to blow through the crosswalk is fair game.
Sure. While they are wiring the lights, how about also installing a mild electric current to give pedestrians an incentive to be alert and to continue moving forward.
Being alert and aware of your surroundings is adaptive behavior. They used to discuss that back when we had school.