Improving Road Safety: Add your own suggestions.

joan_crystal said:

1. The push buttons tend to break (nothing happens when you push the button) and remain broken, in some cases for years.

2. Due to the location of the traffic lights to which they are affixed, the push buttons are often unreachable when snow/ice is on the ground.  They may also be blocked by caution tape or other barrier when wok is being done at that intersection.

3.  When the push buttons do work, they only work at the start of the interval.  This poses a particularly dangerous situation at an intersection such as Baker and Valley.  Looking north, the pedestrian who arrives at the intersection after the cross traffic has been stopped sees a red light governing the  north/ south traffic and assumes it is safe to cross even though they are seeing a red light in front of them.  However, due to the delayed green, south moving traffic may start to move before the pedestrian is fully across the street.  This causes a dangerous situation.

Far better to remove the push buttons and time the lights so that pedestrians have a dedicated interval during which they can cross the street more safely.

I just can't get past how this is such a basic thing that works in other countries, but not here.

https://www.traffic-signal-design.com/pedestrian_facilities.htm

ml1 said:

I’m not sure what the problem is with the yield signs in crosswalks. If people are hitting the signs isn’t that an indication of someone not paying enough attention or not fully in control of the vehicle? The biggest problems with vehicle safety are probably driving at too high speed, and not being attentive enough to the road. The fact that people still think the flashing lights, strobing stop signs, painted indicators on the road, and signs a few hundred yards before the Jefferson/Maplewood intersection aren’t sufficient means the problem is more about driver inattention than it is road design. 

I’m not sure what can be done about that aside from a massive education campaign like there was to raise awareness about drinking and driving. We can try to engineer our way out of car crashes, but if people are going to speed and ignore their surroundings there are still going to be crashes. 

 The problem is that there should be NO obstructions in a roadway... regardless if the intention is good.

As I pointed out, the signs may bring awareness to crosswalks, but they can serve the function equally well if they are placed on the berms. I noticed this when I saw a couple of these that had been hit and were placed on berms. They are perfectly visible on berms.

sprout said:

One problem with the yield signs in crosswalks is that there is zero reflective surface on the sides (it's just the thin part of the sign). That makes it pretty much invisible as one comes to the intersection from the side. I hit one that I was well aware existed, but didn't see as I approached it from a cross-street at night.

They need to have reflectors on the sides.

 This is especially a problem when someone hits one of the signs and turns it so it faces the curb. It then becomes invisible at night.

ridski said:

I just can't get past how this is such a basic thing that works in other countries, but not here.

https://www.traffic-signal-design.com/pedestrian_facilities.htm

If the traffic is always moving unless the button on the traffic light is pushed to stop it, mid-block crosswalks for example, having a push button on the traffic light makes sense.  When the traffic light is at a major intersection as we have here, not so much.  

Just got back from our Summer on an island in Maine. There's one road around the perimeter of the island and one that cuts across the middle called "Cross Road." The island has one police officer, who takes lunch breaks, dinner breaks, and parks his car in his driveway, which is visible from the one road, when he goes to sleep.

Everyone exceeds the recommended speed limit around the island, except for three places: the road to the island's General Store, because a home near there has free range chickens, who are often crossing the road. One house near the South West edge that is on the main road that has a mannequin that has different outfits that change. People don't speed past, but they may text and drive to alert others of the mannequin's current outfit. 

The third is another place down the road, with a mailbox at the end of a long driveway, and another mannequin

Apparently, they are brothers.

You asked for suggestions.

jersey_boy said:

Just got back from our Summer on an island in Maine. There's one road around the perimeter of the island and one that cuts across the middle called "Cross Road." The island has one police officer, who takes lunch breaks, dinner breaks, and parks his car in his driveway, which is visible from the one road, when he goes to sleep.

Everyone exceeds the recommended speed limit around the island, except for three places: the road to the island's General Store, because a home near there has free range chickens, who are often crossing the road. One house near the South West edge that is on the main road that has a mannequin that has different outfits that change. People don't speed past, but they may text and drive to alert others of the mannequin's current outfit. 

The third is another place down the road, with a mailbox at the end of a long driveway, and another mannequin

Apparently, they are brothers.

You asked for suggestions.

 Southport?

Komarovsky said:

 Southport?

YES! Do we know each other? Are you the chicken farmer or the mannequin aficionado? Or his brother?

I think Google Maps and Waze might be adversely affecting driving behavior. There's the obvious factor of GPS apps directing people through less congested areas (like residential streets) to avoid traffic on major arteries.

But another problem is that I think they give drivers a false sense of how much time they should budget for a trip. The apps can't account for stuff like a bunch of intersections with crossing guards slowing things down. So I think y'all end up with people rushing because their estimate is lean.

SDFD (Slow Da F___ Down)

joan_crystal said:

ridski said:

 I'm intrigued by this suggestion, joan_crystal. What is wrong with push buttons on traffic lights for pedestrians? (Apart from the fact that they either rarely seem to do anything or it's not often obvious which traffic light it's for.)

1. The push buttons tend to break (nothing happens when you push the button) and remain broken, in some cases for years.

2. Due to the location of the traffic lights to which they are affixed, the push buttons are often unreachable when snow/ice is on the ground.  They may also be blocked by caution tape or other barrier when wok is being done at that intersection.

3.  When the push buttons do work, they only work at the start of the interval.  This poses a particularly dangerous situation at an intersection such as Baker and Valley.  Looking north, the pedestrian who arrives at the intersection after the cross traffic has been stopped sees a red light governing the  north/ south traffic and assumes it is safe to cross even though they are seeing a red light in front of them.  However, due to the delayed green, south moving traffic may start to move before the pedestrian is fully across the street.  This causes a dangerous situation.

Far better to remove the push buttons and time the lights so that pedestrians have a dedicated interval during which they can cross the street more safely.

I think it is possible to have both and probably needed.

This is the gist of a suggestion I made to Howard Levison (here on MOL as well?) back in 2007:

While Eastbound South Orange Ave. at its intersection with Ridgewood Rd. is a well-known site for various accident scenarios, the extra volume of AM & PM rush hours only exacerbates driver angst, aggressiveness, and, unavoidably, stupidity...

One cause of the many problems at this crossroad is the unregulated (by any sign, paint, or signal) merging of S.O.Ave's two lanes into one as it enters the Downtown area of the Village.

I've suggested that S.O. Ave's right-hand lane become a designated Right-Turn-Only lane as it approaches Ridgewood Road, continuing as such all the way to Church Street. If this driving pattern change is well-marked with signage and lane art, I'd expect the craziness and "accidents" to subside.

Art is below. You're welcome.

-s.

I think those mid-street pedestrian signs (that are meant to survive some impacts) teach the clueless a lesson that they should pay attention. If you can't avoid hitting those, then how can you avoid hitting kids crossing in that crosswalk? those people deserve more than a minor scratch/dent, they deserve a suspended license.... IMHO

soda said:

This is the gist of a suggestion I made to Howard Levison (here on MOL as well?) back in 2007:

While Eastbound South Orange Ave. at its intersection with Ridgewood Rd. is a well-known site for various accident scenarios, the extra volume of AM & PM rush hours only exacerbates driver angst, aggressiveness, and, unavoidably, stupidity...

One cause of the many problems at this crossroad is the unregulated (by any sign, paint, or signal) merging of S.O.Ave's two lanes into one as it enters the Downtown area of the Village.

I've suggested that S.O. Ave's right-hand lane become a designated Right-Turn-Only lane as it approaches Ridgewood Road, continuing as such all the way to Church Street. If this driving pattern change is well-marked with signage and lane art, I'd expect the craziness and "accidents" to subside.

Art is below. You're welcome.

-s.

 The problem is that the road turns to one lane before you get to Church Street. I agree about making it a right turn only lane for Ridgewood, but it wouldn't work for Church.

marylago said:

soda said:

This is the gist of a suggestion I made to Howard Levison (here on MOL as well?) back in 2007:

While Eastbound South Orange Ave. at its intersection with Ridgewood Rd. is a well-known site for various accident scenarios, the extra volume of AM & PM rush hours only exacerbates driver angst, aggressiveness, and, unavoidably, stupidity...

One cause of the many problems at this crossroad is the unregulated (by any sign, paint, or signal) merging of S.O.Ave's two lanes into one as it enters the Downtown area of the Village.

I've suggested that S.O. Ave's right-hand lane become a designated Right-Turn-Only lane as it approaches Ridgewood Road, continuing as such all the way to Church Street. If this driving pattern change is well-marked with signage and lane art, I'd expect the craziness and "accidents" to subside.

Art is below. You're welcome.

-s.

 The problem is that the road turns to one lane before you get to Church Street. I agree about making it a right turn only lane for Ridgewood, but it wouldn't work for Church.

 With current laneage, yes (and of course even that might be subject to change if the idea comes to fruition), but if that right lane (West of the intersection) is well-marked, it would at least clear right-turners before they hit the bottleneck, which might even ease the flow of traffic into Downtown just a bit, as well...

But then, who am I kidding? It'll never happen.

-s

sasquatch2 said:

I think those mid-street pedestrian signs (that are meant to survive some impacts) teach the clueless a lesson that they should pay attention. If you can't avoid hitting those, then how can you avoid hitting kids crossing in that crosswalk? those people deserve more than a minor scratch/dent, they deserve a suspended license.... IMHO

 I suggest you drive on Parker where the construction is. Try driving around those things when the construction trucks are near the intersection and where cars are parked at the pediatrician's office -- add one or both of the stauncheons knocked off the yellow lines. Try weaving around that bull---t.

They are so important to safety that I noticed that one on Prospect was knocked off the yellow lines and stayed in the driving lane for 2 weeks before someone replaced it. If they are so central to safety, they should be moved or replaced as soon as they are damaged.

But one thing I noticed.... they are just as effective and conspicuous on the berms at the crosswalks. Why not just put them there.