Crosswalk crush

Crosswalk crush - when drivers from two sides pull up and block the crosswalks, even when pedestrians are already in the crosswalk - drivers making a left or right turn into the crosswalk also ignore the pedestrians in the crosswalk as well as drivers directly facing pedestrians at the intersection they are crossing. So pedestrians already in the crosswalk have two cars to deal with, are going directly in front of vehicles rather than at legal distances, when they were already in the crosswalk and legally have the right of way.

Pedestrian safety involves awareness on both the part of the pedestrian and the driver as to the laws that apply to sharing the road, including the crosswalk areas, sidewalks, driveways, etc. Some tips can be found here.

Apparently, from this crosswalk post I ran into from St. Louis, drivers ignoring crosswalk right of way laws are commonplace. Here's another piece from Westbrook, Maine, where a visually impaired pedestrian has been hit twice due to crosswalk violations by drivers. In Provo, Utah, a plainsclothes undercover officer went out to teach drivers a lesson about crosswalk violations. 52 citations in an hour and a half in Spokane were reported....50 citations in three hours in Riverside, California. See also Crosswalk Sting Nets 800 in Montclair. Police are using decoys as pedestrians to cite crosswalk violators.

The beefed-up enforcement apparently is having an impact.

In conjunction with the crackdown, Ranjit Walia of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University has been sending out grad students as trained data collectors. At first, they determined a baseline of 11 percent of drivers who yielded to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

In Montclair, he said, that has since risen to 26 percent, and in South Orange, to 32 percent. via nj.com

Enforcement is clearly a large part of the picture in crosswalk safety issues. Understandably, there's much better enforcement around here on streets with red lights than those with stop signs, since those are major intersections, although occasionally I have seen police come by and ticket drivers who block the crosswalk or "race" pedestrians to be first on side streets. I appreciate anything that's done to correct "crosswalk crush", because the sad part about it is that once pedestrians are in a crosswalk, they're pretty vulnerable when cars are coming at them from two directions.



One good thing for visual purposes is that a geometric brick pattern crosswalk was recently installed at a shopping center near me, where I had great difficulty crossing in my wheelchair since drivers just raced through the crosswalk, not even recognizing it. I once waited there twenty minutes trying to cross with cars whizzing by. It remains to be seen, however, if the brick will buckle, causing problems traversing the area for wheelchair users and pedestrians.

As you can see in this photo, it has two wide white lines on each side and the distinctive brick red color is eye catching, making it stand out from the street.

Crosswalks, to some drivers, are just part of the street, I've discovered as a wheelchair pedestrian. Anything that can be done to distinguish them from the streets is a good idea for the safety of those on foot, pushing carriages or wheelchairs, jogging or biking, as long as ADA requirements are followed.

Resources: FHWA Improving Pedestrian Safety
National Safety Pedestrian Campaign
A Resident's Guide for Creating Safe and Walkable Communities
Accessible Sidewalk Videos (For various disabilities- wheelchair users are not the only ones who require accommodations)

For a discussion in the comments about using decoys to cite drivers at crosswalks see this blog post called Cops in a Crosswalk