I Question the Effectiveness of This Crosswalk

My town of Fairhaven, MA makes little effort to clear sidewalks and crosswalks and this winter's historic snowfall has made things even more dangerous than usual.

"Large stretches of sidewalks disappear entirely on Main and Union streets in Fairhaven," reports Auditi Guha of the Standard-Times. “There’s an ordinance in town that’s, quite honestly, not enforced much,” said Vincent Furtado, Board of Public Works superintendent.

What baffles me is how towns are so interested in looking safe for people on foot, while being totally disinterested in the actual safety of pedestrians. Why spend money on crosswalks and signals if you're going to leave them buried under 8 feet of snow? Why have ordinances if you don't want to enforce them?

Apparently Crosswalks Aren't Legally Binding

Twice in recent weeks, people crossing the street in crosswalks have been hit by cars with no repercussion for the drivers:

• Man in crosswalk seriously injured after being hit by driver in Warwick, RI at twilight without headlights on; driver not charged.
• A 71-year-old New Bedford woman was injured November 24 when she was struck by a car in the crosswalk while she was walking across County Street at Union Street, reported The New Bedford Standard-Times. No citation was issued to the driver, Capt. Dennis Hebert said. (No link available.)

What's the point of crosswalks if drivers can run over people using them and not get charged with anything?

Is Childhood Obesity Only a Problem When It's Warm Out?

UPDATE 2/14: Thanks to the New Bedford Standard-Times for reporting on the icy Fairhaven bike path.

In towns like Fairhaven, good intentions on walkability are often buried under the reality of policies that strongly urge everyone to drive everywhere.

Take the Fairhaven bike path. In October, it was an important way to encourage children to get outside and combat obesity:

Ella Tveit, 8, agreed that it would be fun "because we're going to exercise. Usually I just jump rope or hula hoop," she said. "This is way more fun."

Before the event, [Rep. William] Straus told the children that bike paths are "important forms of alternative transportation."

But in the winter, kids spending all day inside and getting fat must miraculously stop being a problem. Bike to school days stop November 15 no matter the weather, and the town lets bike path look like this:

Obviously there aren't many great biking days in Massachusetts in the winter. But even when the temperature does rise, the bike path remains covered in ice. While the town pays to plow every road and cul-de-sac, it doesn't budget money to plow the bike path that's used by hundreds of people on nice winter days. The snow that's allowed to build up gets packed down into ice by ATVs that use the path and neighboring marshes as race tracks.

But even if THAT obstacle was cleared, how would anyone safely get to the bike path? Bike lanes are few & far between, and the Fairhaven town code only requires landowners to remove snow from their sidewalks if they're asked to do so by the police.

On one of Fairhaven's busiest roads, I came across this wheelchair ramp and crosswalk buried under banks of snow plowed off of the adjacent road and alley:

Why is allowing people to walk & roll enough of a priority to install sidewalks, ramps & crosswalks, but not enough of a priority to require they be cleared in the winter?

New Walking Safety Project Blamed for 40 Years of Car-Centric Decline

From wasting prime real estate by paving it over for parking to funding expensive road-widening projects, some communities are realizing that taking a step back from the car culture is good for business. But much like parts of Appalachia won't give up on their abusive relationships with Big Coal, businesses that have suffered from their car dependency are often surprisingly reluctant to try a different approach.

Take Wareham, MA. A project called Streetscape is progressing on Main Street, hoping to make the business district easier and safer for people to get around on foot:

Finance Committee member Dominic Cammarano said something had to be done to resuscitate downtown, "which was dying even before Wareham Crossing Mall was built." He said Streetscape provides "a badly needed makeover."

Most businesses seem generally happy at the upgrades and some are understandably concerned about construction-related delays and inconveniences. But this business owner takes a special prize for blaming the treatment for the original illness:

She squarely blames the road project. While the end result is beautiful, she said, "people got out of the habit of coming here and driving down Main Street. Many customers were so bummed that they stopped coming because they could never find a parking place."

Maybe shoppers aren't returning in droves quite yet, but other people are. Irving, who has been downtown 24 years, said, "Ever since the '70s and late '80s the number of businesses has declined, as has the clientele."

Clearly, the safety improvements that started in April are to blame for the declines in business that started four decades ago. Maybe folks should give this whole "making people feel like it's not life-threateningly dangerous to window shop" thing a chance.

DC Moves To Protect Pedestrians With New Cameras

During the first 6 months of 2010 (the most recent data period available), 8 pedestrians were killed by cars in DC & 41 pedestrians were run down in Virginia, both sharp increases. Recently, The Green Miles wondered if traffic cameras were possible to protect pedestrians.

Turns out it's not only possible - Lisa Sutter, the head of the MPD’s photo enforcement program, wants to bring crosswalk cameras to DC:

The D.C. police are hoping to install smaller, more mobile cameras in neighborhoods around town, catching drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, block the box at intersections, or even fail to fully stop at stop signs, among other potential violations. The portable units would probably be battery- or solar-powered and affixed to small concrete pads set up around town, making them far more versatile than the permanent streetside cameras or cruiser cameras now in use. Their modest size would allow them to be used in areas where cameras couldn’t go before. [...]

The department would be continuously moving the cameras around to keep drivers guessing, and they’ll be accompanied by more signs telling drivers to obey the speed limit and stop for pedestrians. With the new technology, the units may be able to detect when a pedestrian has come to a crosswalk, then capture the plates of drivers who fail to yield. “I want to stigmatize [drivers] blowing past pedestrians,” Sutter said.

The new cameras could be on the streets this summer. Any chance we can get some over here in Northern Virginia?

I do have to wonder: Has Lisa Sutter considered the alternative of giant cats?

Time For Crosswalks To Go High-Tech?

Over at GreaterGreaterWashington.org, they track crashes between cars, bikes & pedestrians on a weekly basis. It's a stark reminder that while shootings & stabbings lead the 5pm news, as a society we've quietly decided that cars smooshing a certain amount of cyclists & walkers are the cost of getting those drivers to work on time.

If pedestrians are lucky, their interests will be taken into consideration when deciding whether to put a traffic signal at an intersection. If they don't have a signal, what safety do we offer pedestrians? Crosswalks, which are about as effective protection as crossing lion territory wielding a paper towel tube.

What percent of drivers actually stop when you're waiting in the crosswalk? Maybe 10%? I get that up to maybe 30% by taking a step into the crosswalk & looking like I might do the Matrix stomp on their hood. I don't think that's the best option though for, say, my mom.

But the "solution" of crosswalks fails to protect pedestrians a vast majority of the time - or even lulls them into a false sense of security - and we've just sorta shrugged & moved on. And drivers know we don't care about enforcement & act accordingly.

What if we attacked crosswalk enforcement with the same zeal for safety (and revenue) that lawmakers have with traffic red light cameras? What if there was a button you could push that signaled drivers to stop AND activated a small video camera that recorded what happened next, with steep tickets given out to drivers who didn't stop if they safely could have?

Given such a system might be relatively pricey to install, you could do it at just a few particularly busy intersections. The benefit could be widespread if it changed the wiring in drivers' brains by sending a clear signal with enforcement & penalties that we actually cared about getting them to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.

Bad idea? Good idea? Already being tried somewhere? Let me know & I may use your comments in a follow-up post.