[Vision2020] Crosswalks near Wendys & in general
Linda Pall
lpall at moscow.com
Fri Jun 30 10:56:35 PDT 2006
Dear Bill and All,
Blame for bad planning on the Moscow-Pullman Highway where there is a perennial accident waiting to happen is disbursable to the many and varied.
It would be more helpful and accurate if one were more specific as to "the negligence of the previous city council." It was NOT the 2003-2005 Council who zoned the portion of A Street you speak of. Who was on the Council when the zoning decision(s) were made? Which particular zoning decisions are we talking about and when were the offending decisions made?
There has been and continues to be considerable discussion about whether A Street was/is properly zoned as a motor business/extensive commercial street. I recall (though I was not on the Council from 83-93) debates about the proper zoning for that area. In any case, if the apartments were not going to be on A Street, the next level of zoning immediately north of A Street WAS to have been high density residential, as I recall, based on the 1990 comprehensive plan and related documents. It was generally contemplated that the area to the north of A Street would have a substantial complement of residential housing. Those folks would probably want to get to the university... and crossing the Pullman Road by foot, bus, car, bike, wheelchair or otherwise could be assumed whether the block of flats began on A Street or one street to the north.
The real problem as I saw it then and as I see it now is the failure of the planning for the Pullman Road construction to include adequate mechanized crosswalks (which I argued for during the design phase, along with a green median for purposes of traffic calming, safety and beautification). I lost that argument. The first claimant for blame is the funders of these projects (state and federal sources), then the Idaho Department of Transportation for short-sighted design, then cities and counties who permit these kinds of roads to be constructed, and finally, we citizens who refuse to pay the real cost of urban infrastructure or development. We are now playing catch up and it is somewhat better. Great? No. Good? Not even. Safer? Somewhat. It's a start, even though belated. I was even threatening a "Die-in" last year where many of us would simply lay down on the pavement and demonstrate but others saw more temperate, responsible solutions.
But we don't get it very often, even with lessons under our collective noses. I call your specific attention to the backtracking of the Washington Department of Transportation in its design of the expansion of Highway 270 which is about to get underway. What originally had more rational design for a separated highway system has become, for budgetary reasons, a speedier duplicate of the Pullman Road, with five lanes of traffic and a center turn lane. I can only think of this as an invitation to high speed traffic fatalities... and an ugly invitation at that, encouraging strip development.
We are all responsible to some extent for the kind of community in which we live. I urge all of you to press for better designed streets for people as we continue to develop our community.
All the best,
Linda Pall
Moscow City Council (1977-83; 1993-2001, 2003-current)
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill London
To: Tim Lohrmann ; Paul Rumelhart
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Crosswalks near Wendys & in general
regarding the accident-waiting-to-happen where students are crossing the Moscow-Pullman highway between the UI and the apartments on A Street.....
The reason this problem is surfacing now is the negligence of the previous City Council. That A Street area was zoned commercial, and the previous council just couldn't say NO when developers wanted to put apartments there.
Now, we all have to deal with the problems that have resulted from that bad decision-making.
BL
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Lohrmann
To: Paul Rumelhart
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 11:04 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Crosswalks near Wendys & in general
Visionseekers,
Mr. Rumelhart makes some good points.
The pedestrian crossings on that part of the Pullman road really can be pretty scary.
Worrisome is right.
There have been new crossing signs with flags put up on the road in a couple of places and that's great. But, unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have helped the situation all that much.
Several on here have likely had some close calls.
Same here.
The last one happened while returning from the Pullman at dusk, going the speed limit or a little under. All of a sudden, a guy in one of those charcoal gray warmup suits was right in front of me in the middle of the lane. I had to brake really hard and veer over or it would have been pedestrian crunch time.
The guy wasn't being careful or using a real cross walk.
But that wouldn't have been much consolation for either of us if he'd been thrashing around under my tires--that came within inches of happening.
With all the new apartment construction out that way, maybe something new does need to be done. More people are crossing wherever they want...without regard to marked crossings.
I'm not sure that more jaywalking enforcement is the answer. I don't think word would get around on that.
Would some flashing caution lights and reflective traffic bumps or just reflectors be a good way to mark the crossings? It's a state highway and that makes it more complicated but it's worth looking into.
The rest of the crossings on other streets in town need better marking too.
It seems like the white paint marking the crossings wears out so quickly.
I've been told the ice melt, gravel, sand and snow tires all do a job on the paint.
Then after the weather clears up it takes quite a while for the city to get the markings re-done.
That's understandable with all that needs doing but the crossings aren't defined very well in the meantime.
Maybe some different approach--possibly raised marking would work better.
I'm sure this would be more expensive in the short term. But if a different marking system saved the expense of repainting every year and made the crossings safer it might make sense.
TL
"Those 'technicalities' have a name, Bobby. They're called the Bill Of Rights."
----Hank Hill
Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
My apologies if this has been discussed here before, but I wanted to
state my opinions on this.
I worry that someday some person (probably a college student) is going
to be seriously injured or killed at this crosswalk. It has all the
makings of a death trap. It's on one of the few four-lane streets
(five, really) around with a higher-than-average-in-Moscow speed limit.
I've seen so many drivers just cruise on through without even thinking
about it being a crosswalk, and I've also seen people just pop up from
the slight incline that leads to it's entrance on the UI side and just
start hoofing it across the road. I'm aware of the dangers here, and
watch it closely, and I've still been surprised to find someone in the
crosswalk there. They either popped up like we're playing whack-a-mole
from the UI side or they were hidden by the other cars that were just
blithely driving through the crosswalk ahead of them or behind them.
The signs are nice, but they are not enough.
I appreciate the need for a crosswalk there, since you either have to
jaywalk or walk a block in either direction or more to get to a valid
crosswalk. As it stands, though, I think we'd be safer letting them
jaywalk - at least they would be cautious of the traffic. With a legal
crosswalk there, the old UI-taught behavior of "just walk out there,
they'll stop" appears to kick in.
Some minor suggestions that might help would include a yellow light
suspended over the crosswalk, or maybe spotlights on both sides so we
can see better at night, or possibly a concrete "staging platform" that
is easily visible amongst the grass so we have a better idea where to
look ahead of time. A better idea would probably be to just put a light
there, one that turns red only if a pedestrian pushes the button.
Anyone have any other ideas? Are there plans for something to happen
there that just haven't been completed yet?
Paul
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