This week on foot

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This week brings more news about HAWK lights to help reduce pedestrian deaths in metro Phoenix. The High-Intensity Activated Crosswalks have been installed at a number of ped=heavy locations throughout the city to help improve pedestrian safety at midblock crossings.

Not so ped-friendly is the a Wall in White Flint endangers pedestrians. The wall forces pedestrians to travel far out of their way to access a bus stop, and creates some visibility issues for motorists.

Los Angeles seems to be doing just as poorly in providing good pedestrian access to transit stops, as one LA blogger discovered when Blogger Walk Scores Metro Rail Stops, Finds L.A. has Long Way to Go in Walkability

In San Francisco, pedestrians are taking matters into their own hands. Walk San Francisco was part of a group Appeal filed against downtown mall for failing to adequately evaluate the impact that designing the mall without regard to walkability would have on the environment. 

And across the world, EMBARQ is taking a look at the impact that another mode of transportation is having on pedestrians. Are India’s Auto-Rickshaws Safe for Pedestrians and Cyclists? Maybe not, but they sure aren't as bad as other types of motor vehicles...

Walk Score Gets Even More Awesome

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This week your friendly neighborhood walkability evaluator Walk Score launched some great new features to help you evaluate where you live (or where you might want to live). The new Transit Score ranks a location based on transit availability, considering stop locations, frequency, and type of service. So far the service is only available in a few dozen cities, but will hopefully expand as more transit date becomes available from local agencies.

Walk Score has also integrated info from Google Maps to help you evaluate your commute options with the new Commute Report tool, which lists travel times between locations by foot, bike, car, and transit (where available). There's even a handy elevation map for those of us who like to know just what kind of walk/bike commute we're getting ourselves into.

The Commute Report also uses Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index to estimate combined housing and transportation costs for your location, which is important because transportation costs can put a serious dent in the affordability of neighborhood. Not that anyone was thinking Woodland Hills was affordable, but it was discouraging to see that on average transportation costs in my area are 11 percent higher than the average for the region.

You can get more details from the Walk Score Blog.

NYC Releases Ped Report

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The NY Times and NYC Streetsblog are buzzing over a report released Aug 16 by the NY DOT. The The New York City Pedestrian Safety Study & Action Plan evaluated crash data from about 7,000 severe and fatal pedestrian crashes to better understand the facors that impede pedestrian safety in the city--and help to address them. The report includes some pretty interesting/depressing info about the impact of pedestrian fatalities on the city (e.g. pedestrian crashes are the number 2 killer of children in NYC and pedestrian crashes cost the city $1.38 million per year). Some more key findings:

• Pedestrians are 10 times more likely to die than a motor vehicle occupant in the event of a crash.
• Pedestrians accounted for 52% of traffic fatalities from 2005-2009.  
• Driver inattention was cited in nearly 36% of crashes resulting in pedestrians killed or seriously injured.  
• 27% of fatal pedestrian crashes involved driver failure to yield.
• 80% of crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians involve male drivers.
• 79% of crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians involve private vehicles, not taxis, trucks and buses.

Happily in all this negativity there was at least one encouraging statistic:

• Traffic fatalities in 2009 were down by 35% from 2001. 

 Way to go Janette Sadik-Khan. Now will you move to LA?

 

Read the full report here. 

6 principles for safer walking

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I'm such a list person, so naturally I was excited when I found this list from a recent webinar  presented by Charlie Zegeer, director of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.  In one succinct slide, he sums up the best ways to create safe pedestrian streets:

• Keep it simple
• Shorten crossing distances
• Carefully select crossing locations and marked crosswalks
• Create visible crossings
• Proper traffic control (signs, signals, guards)
• Slow down traffic speeds

I've read my share of tomes on improving pedestrian safety, but sometimes short and sweet is easier to digest. Like a cookie.

This week on foot

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This week's rundown begins with a slap in the face for Ohio pedestrians, where BG police pass out tickets to pedestrians in construction zone. Some of the 70 people who received the $125 tickets claim there were not signs in place indicating that the sidewalk in question was closed. Of course I don't think pedestrians should be walking through construction zones, but that means that contractors and cities need to provide adequate "alternative routing" during construction. It is not enough--as I experienced this very morning on Victoria Ave at Telephone, if any Ventura officials are reading this-- to just slap up a "sidewalk closed" sign and leave it to pedestrians to figure out how to get past the construction (and Ventura, giving pedestrians the "choice" of walking through a gas station parking lot or walking in the vehicle travel lanes doesn't cut it).

And in a similar attempt to distract our attention from the real problem, the AA slams 'iPod zombie' pedestrians for walking while listening to their music devices. Ummm AA, how many "distracted pedestrians" have killed another person lately?
At least there's a little good news. In Georgia GDOT Gives DeKalb Pedestrians Green Light, and in Deleware and elsewhere New traffic signals make it safer for pedestrians. Even notoriously pedestrian unfriendly Beverly Hills searches for some Instant Karma: Beverly Hills Cops Nab Drivers Failing to Yield.

And in my favorite story of the week--maybe even the year-- an Anonymous donor gives funds for crosswalks to a city in New Jersey. I don't know who you are, but can you come live in my city?