[Vision2020] With gas at $2.50 a gallon it is time to cut Crosswalknumbers

[Dick Schmidt]

Wayne, 

The only other town I have been in that has anything as severe or comes close to the number of pedestrian crossing as Moscow is Gatlinburg, TN a true tourist town. They have a sign when you enter town explaining that pedestrians have the right of way. I have traveled a lot of states and never have seen the amount of pedestrian crossings that Moscow has. It was fine when gas was $0.59 a gallon but it is more than 4 times higher than that now. I have never heard of a law that pedestrians have the right of way except for the above. Moscow may have some sort of horse & buggy law on the books but others don't.

Dick Schmidt
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Art Deco 
  To: Dick Schmidt ; nchaney at moscow.com ; johnd at moscow.com ; pegh at uidaho.edu ; jon at n-k-ins.com ; jmack at turbonet.com ; lpall at moscow.com 
  Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] With gas at $2.50 a gallon it is time to cut Crosswalknumbers


  Dick,

  I am afraid I disagree with you on this one:

  1.    Unless the law has changed, pedestrians have the right of way at all intersections in all 50 states.

  2.    To avoid the energy wasting stops (and reduce the probability of accidents):  everyone that can should drive less; walk more.

  Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
  deco at moscow.com


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Dick Schmidt 
    To: nchaney at moscow.com ; johnd at moscow.com ; pegh at uidaho.edu ; jon at n-k-ins.com ; jmack at turbonet.com ; lpall at moscow.com 
    Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com 
    Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 1:23 PM
    Subject: [Vision2020] With gas at $2.50 a gallon it is time to cut Crosswalknumbers


    All,

    I have noticed the huge amount of pedestrian crosswalks in the city. With gas prices at $2.50 a gallon it is time to cut the number of crosswalks, where traffic must stop solely for a pedestrian, by at least half and you probably could cut 2/3 and still have adequate crosswalks. Every time you cause a 4,000 vehicle to stop it wastes gas and pollutes the air. Think of all the trucks that have to stop at the same crossings.

    I particularly noticed on 3rd street between Hayes St. and Line St. there are 15 crosswalks not including the 3 stoplights between them. In the main part of town there are 4 crosswalks on Jackson and 9 on Washington St. in addition to 2 stop lights on both streets. 

    There will be some who whine that we need to have them for our college students but these college students aren't paying my gas bills. This situation just adds more unnecessary costs to the cost of living in Moscow which is already very high. They can learn to cross where there is a light to get to the downtown area. 

    I hope you will look into this situation and right after school lets out next month would be an excellent time to implement this. 

    Dick Schmidt



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