Posted
by Liz Weslander
June 6, 2006 at 10:07 a.m.
A little pedestrian protection
One question I always ask in the [parent profiles][1] on Free State Family is: what would make Lawrence a better place to live? More bike lanes and turning downtown into a pedestrian walkway are two popular daydreams, but a recent [accident][2] involving a young pedestrian at the South Park crosswalk, inspired me to come up with my own little "wouldn't it be nice" for Lawrence.Wouldn't it be nice if local law enforcement spent as much time standing watch over crosswalks and areas that were teeming with pedestrains as they did saturating their predicatable [speed traps][3] where nary a pedestrian looms?To be clear, I'm not trying to blame local law enforcement for this latest accident in which a girl talking on her cell phone ran a red light at the crosswalk, but I do wish I saw officers staking out some place besides the 2000 block of Mass every once in awhile. If pedestrian hotspots became known as places that carried a high risk of traffic citation, it might make people more careful.Nearly every day I watch folks dutifully slow down to 30MPH near 20th and Massachusetts St (where pedestrians are not all that common) to avoid the speed trap. I then drive a few more blocks to my home on the 2400 block of Massachusetts only to find college students zooming through this area where cyclists, pedestrians, and children are abundant. Never a cop in sight.And, hello, the Arts Center crosswalk! I see people blow that pedestrian crosswalk at least once a week at 30+ MPH, and have yet to see a person cited. We get it, don't speed between 23rd and 19th Street. Can we please move on to "teaching" the public to be more careful in areas where the risk of hitting humans is much higher?And on a completely different note:If you plan on attending the [Wakarusa Festival][4], and purchasing beverages while you are there, look for the Lawrence Community Nursery School beverage stand near the Sun Down stage. The booth will have a bubble machine and lots of freindly service (including me on Saturday afternoon). The school gets gets a share of the money form the drinks sold, and every cent of the tips. See you there! [1]: http://freestatefamily.com/parents/ [2]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jun/06/driver_phone_hits_8yearold/?city_local" target="blank [3]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/mar..." target="blank [4]: http://www.wakarusa.com/"target="blank
and 3 others
Comments
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gaiapapaya (anonymous) says…
i've often wondered why people aren't ticketed for not yielding to pedestrians. Especially downtown, drivers turning right and ignoring people in the crosswalk. Cars that pull into the crosswalk at lights really bother me, too.
I thought it was ironic that the yield to pedestrain sign was missing from the arts center croasswalk for a bit. I'm assuming it was run over, and has since been replaced. I've almost been hit in that crosswalk, probably most frequent LAC visitors have had the same experience.
It's frightening that a child was hit in or near a crosswalk at a park. The city traffic engineer tells me that middle of the block crossings don't work and children will just be killed if we install a puch button crosswalk for kids to get to New York school across 11th street. This total space-off by a 16 yr old is going to just give him more ammo to deny pedestrain friendly traffic practices in this town. I wish the commish would have dumped him when they cleaned house at city hall. Maybe the new city manager will put a higher priority on making this town walking friendly.
lazz (anonymous) says…
I think I agree with most of the stuff being said here so far (certainly with the need for greater pedestrian safety), but the answer as I read it never seems to get mentioned: Rather than a failure of enforcement, I think it's a failure of education, combined with a disinterested mass of drivers who shouldn't have the privilege of a license.
simply put: i don't think many (most?) drivers even know what a crosswalk means.
as for the proposed cellphone ban: Am I the only person who thinks music --- specifically, changing radio stations and/or CDs -- is just as distracting, or more, than phones? It's pretty easy to get or make a quick phone call and be done with it. Radios and CDs are ongoing matters, and we're always noodling with them....
just my little crank call for the day ...
gaiapapaya (anonymous) says…
I don't think they need to ban cell phone use. It wouldn't even be enforced, but lazz is right about music. My kids are always complainng that I make them wait til we get to a light to switch the station or song. I just know my limitations and try to live within them. I can't drive and do other stuff.
I've also pulled over because of fights and told the kids we can't keep going because I can't drive with all that commotion.
Why not just make it so if you cause an accident or speed or are pulled over for any traffic related reason, you get the inattentive driving fine. Let drivers prove they weren't on the phone with their billing records. Then the inattentive part can be taken off if the officer was mistaken.
gaiapapaya (anonymous) says…
Uh, to clarify that last part, I meant if the officer accuses said driver of driving and using the cell phone at the same time.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Excellent thoughts there, gaiapapaya ...
Actually, though, I sort of favor fewer regulations. Even speeding. Everything. The works. It just feels silly to be Joe or Jane Citizen driving the roads and having Officer Friendly being paid to be out there shooting radar at us and making silly stops that COULD end up being dangerous (I think most officers will tell you few things are as perilous as stepping up to an unknown car, alone, in a traffic stop.)
My idea is to make penalties for actually causing or DOING some bad event much harsher, stricter and longer lasting, but get away from the ticky-tack crapola we put ourselves through with traffic codes.
I can't think of any other area of the law where engaging in the behavior that COULD result in harm (speeding, etc) is penalized as if the harmful event had actually happened. Feels like we gave away a lot of our rights when we created traffic regulations. ...
It all feels a bit hypocritical.
Figure out severe penalties to be handed out when actual problem occur, use those as the incentive to drive safely, and otherwise start using police officers for more important work ...
OK, I know this probably wouldn't work in the real world, just a hypothetical I've had running around the noggin' for a while ... It comes down to the fact that it does not feel right --- or constitutional -- to have a police officer HIDING, or otherwise obscuring him/herself, to shoot radar at you. You are ambling down the road and being secretly observed/measured/regulated by a police agency, having done absolutely nothing to induce this surveillance other than your mere presence.
And even if you are going over the speed limit, say, 40 in a 30, and you cause the lurking officer to lurch out of his cubbyhole and pull you over and write you a ticket, was what you were doing wrong, really? On an otherwise empty road, going 40 rather than 30 is a matter of semantics, irrelevant games ... but it's a legitimate ticket, legitimate surveillance and enforcement work being done by our hired officers, because we grant it that legitimacy...
It's a small matter, but it feels wrong, and when it feels wrong, it doesn't feel like a small matter ...
gaiapapaya (anonymous) says…
I totall agree about the 40 in a 30 on an empty road. It's silly to have cops stopping people on Mass between 19th and 23rd. That area of road is safe for 40 MPH. However, ever tried to cross east 11th street? the 30 MPH really isn't obeyed too much. It's not uncommon to wait 5 minutes to cross. And a huge portion of traffic is city vehicles going to fuel up or to the garage or the landscaping place at that corner. If there wasn't a speed limit, cars would easily get to 45 between Haskell and Connecticut.
I think the main reason cops lurk on Mass is it's safe (traffic wise) to pull someone over along that stretch. You don't see them on Vermont and New Hampshire getting cars going 35 downtown. It's not as safe and they create a traffic jam by stopping cars, even though there is a lot of pedestrian traffic on those streets. I'm not defending it, just pointing out the obvious.
Dazie (Aileen Dingus) says…
Liz- I'm with ya about the south end of Mass. (I live just around the corner from you)
What I'd like to see are stop signs at Mass and Indian, going onto and coming off of Haskell campus. People coming from campus on to Mass have over a huge distance to ramp up, with nothing stopping them from behind the buildings on campus to 23rd street. By the time they go past my house, they're at 35+, by the time they go past your house, they're doing 40 or faster!
Who do we talk to about getting stop signs there?
gaiapapaya (anonymous) says…
You can call the traffic safety engineer about stop signs. They'll do a study and tell you that if 500 cars per hour throughout the day don't go through, they won't put up a stop sign. He'll also tell you that stop signs don't work and people will just run them and they go even faster between intersections if you make them stop.
Your next stop is to take it to the city commission to appeal the stupid ruling. The commish is way more likely to approve it with neighborhood backing.
I'm not familiar with the neighborhood. Is part of this speed build-up occuring before the cars leave Haskell property? Maybe asking Haskell to install a stop sign at the end of the drive before you exit into city streets might help.
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
Laz "Actually, though, I sort of favor fewer regulations. Even speeding. Everything." hahahaha!!! If you are actually serious (and I hope you are), then all I can say is "welcome to the dark side" and I am with you! LOL.
I'd be a libertarian for real if I weren't scared off by the extremist nature of some of their members! I really would like to see the government "butt out" in general.
MORE laws and regulations every year hasn't put a stop to many social ills. Maybe trained people to find more loopholes....Usually, laws are aimed at impacting everyone else but me. In general, laws just provide more red tape and more jobs for beauracrats (myself included).
Common sense and natural selection seem to be endangered species; have you read some of the "warning" labels on products?? It would be funny if it weren't so sad!
I'm all for safety measures to protect people from harms, and punishing those whose negligence and outright mean behavior causes harm to others. However, being paranoid goes a long way too!
I think it is a real good idea to create a little/lot of fear in anyone who puts their body on a street also traveled by cars! My son Trey will tell you he never ever left my presence as a child without a kiss, an "I love you" and some lecture on how he must be careful that day! Come to think of it, I am still doing that to his 28 year old self!
The other ideas discussed here would probably best be sent to Ron Olin (police chief) and/or the traffic commission!!! http://www.ci.lawrence.ks.us/ can get you to the right folks.
liz (Liz Weslander) says…
I did the traffic commission thing more than two years ago , and they approved two speed bumps for our block. The problem is that the commission can approve anything they want, but nothing gets built until they have the funds, and apparently they don't have the funds yet, because we have no speed bumps. Maybe a stop sign would be cheaper - there is certainly the traffic for it.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Careful what ya wish for, Liz. I strongly agree with the earlier observation (which I think was being ridiculed) that some drivers tend to zoom between stop signs, rather than driving at safer, constant, lesser speeds without them.
Perhaps it's just that I'm on a side street connecting 23rd Street with parking streets used by high school students, but they screech up to, and away from, the stop signs at 22nd and 21st streets all day long; around midnight, the same thing starts up with bar-goers returning home. Zoom zoom zoom, screech screech screech.
City even made a big production of making it a 20mph zone, with one of those "you're going this speed ------" machines to serve as a warning ... and of course, never once is anybody there enforcing it, or doing anything to stop the block-long drag races from one stop sign to another ... the traffic would be MUCH smoother if the young goofs weren't forced to stop and then prove their machismo all over again every block ...
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
I live on a corner without stop signs in any direction, and my drive way is right after the turn. One of these days people are going to read about me dying when someone going too fast sped around the corner without looking, and I wasn't going my normal snail's pace out of the drive-way. Why anyone thinks it is a good idea to speed thru residential areas is beyond me.... But there you are.....lack of common sense....
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says…
LL:
You need a traffic calming circle!!
ladylaw (Terry Bush) says…
NO thank you!!! I swear - I am not a conspiracy theorist (usually) but I really wonder if someone in the city dpt. that approves round-a-bouts isn't related to the people manufacturing or installing them. Someone somewhere is definitely making some money on them!
Todd (anonymous) says…
I'm surprised no one mentioned the cool underground tunnels near Pickney and Broken Arrow elementary schools. Not saying we should dig tunnels everywhere but elementary schools next to busy roads are a great idea.
Are there anymore in town? Perhaps we should build on the good ideas instead of bitchin' about the things we can't change. (ie selfish people)
lelly (anonymous) says…
I was struck in a cross walk by a small pickup while 6 months pregnant. All turned out ok, but it was a scary time. Crosswalks are meant to be a SAFE place to cross. i completely agree that policing cross walks (downtown, near schools and parks and other pedestrian areas) is an excellent idea. How about just putting them in the rotation for ticketing? For instance, Lawrence ave in week one, Kasold in week two, downtown crosswalks in week three, school zones and so on and so on.