Pedestrian killed had complained about feeling 'invisible' in crossw alk before
Surrey is not alone.
Most British Columbian municipalities are included.
Their association UBCM, should be involved except that their focus is on speeding motorist, not motorist seeing pedestrians.
District of North Vancouver's action on this front is to put up more signs alerting motorists that there are pedestrians at the curbs. The problem with their signage is that most motorists are not interested in reading signs, even if they come with a YELLOW background, BLACK printing of NEW.
The problem is that the expectant Green light that the motorist is waiting for, to proceed through, and/or turning left or right, happens at EXACTLY the same time that the Pedestrian light indicates its SAFE to WAL K.
The answer:
A BC Liberal government December 8, 2016 document was published to alleviate the pain but they only went one third of the way on a promise of Three modules.
"Community Road Safety Toolkit Module Protecting people who wal k and cycle"Google Search Criteria: BC Community Road Safety Toolkit
Leading Pedestrian Intervals (Page 7 of 32)
Document Properties:
- Leading pedestrian intervals, aka advanced green for pedestrians, are re-programmed intersection signal phases that provide pedestrians a head start of 3 to 7 seconds (or longer) over drivers, reducing the potential for driver-pedestrian conflicts and crashes. Given this is a proven and low-cost safety design, it should be strongly considered for widespread implementation.
- http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2016_2/604183/community_road_safety_toolkit_module1.pdf
- This module is the first of what will ultimately be three modules of the BC Community Road Safety Toolkit. This first module focuses on road designs that work to better protect pedestrians and cyclists from motor vehicle-related injury. This module also contains information on strategies that encourage more people to wal k, cycle and use public transit since shifting to these methods of transport decreases private car use and that, in turn, generates better road safety benefits.
Unfortunately people don't read road signs. There is so much along streets, its difficult to notice. It would make much more sense to have the walk lights go on prior to the green lights so pedestrians can cross safely.
ReplyDeleteHave found the most dangerous situations is when the cars are turning right and don't wait to see if the pedestrian is going to walk off the curb. Its almost like a race with some drivers. we might try a new thing, hit a pedestrian in a cross walk, loose that driver's license for three months, right then and there. You can plead you case in court to get it back sooner. At intersections where more people are being hit than usual cities might want to consider installing cameras to monitor what is going on. That could slow some drivers down.
How very sad for the young woman's family.