It seems important we check our prejudices when attempting to draw conclusions. My comment on J-walking has a corollary; traffic lights were designed to control automobile traffic at intersections and pedestrian traffic incidentally, as it is present. Where a large amount of pedestrian traffic is anticipated, additional signalization is often employed, only occasionally in a beneficial manner for the pedestrian. A NHTSA report for 1998 - 2003,
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809-456.pdf, listed behaviors for both drivers and pedestrians in crashes resulting in pedestrian deaths. One of the conclusions of the report was for
Pedestrian Fatalities and Location:
Since over three-fourths of the pedestrian fatalities occur at non-intersections, motor vehicle operators and pedestrians should be made aware of the necessity of sharing the public roadways in order to reduce pedestrian fatalities. This is especially necessary on roadways without crosswalks. [Emboldening, mine.] Complete streets analysis has shown us how most roadway design has only addressed motor vehicles and has generally ignored or provided only minimally adequate facility for non-motorized traffic. Mostly, we have an overlay of regulation and behavioral prejudice governing non-motorized traffic. In the same report, 30% of pedestrians killed were assigned a fault of
improper crossing of roadway or intersection. That is a fairly high percentage. In architectural programming, I'm sure if we found a high number of problems from a particular behavior at a facility, we would be proposing a design solution so it would be possible elect a different behavior or remove the hazard to what might otherwise be normal ways of acting and moving.
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Roger Retzlaff AIA
Green Bay WI
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-15-2014 21:25
From: Reade Elliott
Subject: Why traffic signals have many bad outcomes for urbanity
This is a very interesting discussion. We cannot just discard our rules and regulations of the road and have total chaos or anarchy on the road. Imagine how many lives would be saved if people did not j-walk. How many people would be dead if drivers just shot through red lights. I believe we should enforce the laws that we do have and try to save more lives. It seems that every month in the D.C. area someone is hit by a car because they were not in a cross walk.
The installation of traffic lights and their use is a science and an art that we rely on experts for their installation. I say there is an art to it because the installation of traffic lights doesn't always work as intended. An interesting example of this occured on Que Street in Georgetown, Washington DC over the last 10 or so years. Que Street is a narrow residential street that has a bus route on it, and most of the intersections, except at the main business street Wisconsin Avenue, have only four way stop signs and no traffic lights. There are two intersections, one at 33rd Street and the other at 34th Street that never had traffic lights until about 9 years ago when the city installed two sets of traffic lights here. These were intersections of very narrow residential streets and many residents found the traffic lights as a disturbance more than a convenience. Now cars had to stop and idle their gases in the neighborhood, and many cars tried to beat the yellow lights. I believe there were more accidents with the red lights than with the original stop lights. They even had pedestrian lights installed for 24 feet wide roads. All this electronics was so commercial and placed in a residential neighborhood seemed to be overkill. After three or four years, the city came in and took the traffic lights out and put back the four way stop signs. Now they seem to be doing the job quite well and peace is back in the neighborhood. This is a case where traffic consultants could not devise the ideal system to use until they actually tried it out in the field. I do not know what caused them to put the traffic lights in these two intersections in the first place.
There is a place for traffic lights and we should all abide by them.
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Reade Elliott AIA
Purcellville VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-10-2014 17:26
From: Roger Retzlaff
Subject: Why traffic signals have many bad outcomes for urbanity
Remember... "J" walking was a law developed for the convenience of motorists, not pedestrians.
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Roger Retzlaff AIA
Green Bay WI
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