With this weekend's bad news, Chapel Hill's pedestrian death toll rises to THREE in the past month. May 17: Barbara Boone Sims was killed crossing Weaver Dairy Road at Perkins Drive, May 15: Lisa Carolyn Moran was fatally hit by a bus on Manning Drive near UNC Hospital, April 27: Clifton Walker Steed was killed crossing MLK Blvd at Hillsborough Street. All were killed within a block of the NC 86 corridor (South Columbia Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard).
I know the Town has studied the MLK portion of the corridor and proposed some pedestrian improvements (PDF report), but none have been implemented yet as far as I know. We also need to remember that crosswalks don't exist in a vacuum, we need safe sidewalks, well-lit bus shelters, adequate bike lanes, and much more.
I've heard people say that you have to get killed to get improved pedestrian facilities in Chapel Hill (as are now being planned for 15-501 near Manning Drive where a pedestrian was killed last year). Along those lines, I sadly predict the next trouble spot as West Franklin Street. Hopefully lower speeds will mean it won't be fatal, but it's only a matter of time before the inherent conflict between cars and people come to an unpleasant junction there.
At least two of this month's pedestrian deaths occurred near people's homes, so remember that it's not just businesses that benefit from sidewalks and crosswalks. Let's do everything we can to make sure there are no more of these tragic accidents.
Issues:
Comments
No Assumption Needed
peds vs vehicles
wow...there seems to be quite a bit of pedagogery for something that seems so simple to me -
as far as i know, it is ILLEGAL to cross a street where there is no crosswalk or stop light - J-walking. Please correct me if I am wrong...
A person who attempts to cross the street in such a manner is putting themselves AND the driver of a car (or a motorcyclist) who may encounter them at risk.
Let's assume some responsibility here folks. If you dart into the road at an inappropriate place, you may get hit. End of story! While Ruby doesn't mind slowing down or stopping for a pedestrian that is J-walking, I do. I think it is rude to assume we can just stop for you because you are not in or on a machine.
Trust me, and I'm not trying to be ugly or cavalier here, but I will run you over if the alternative is my harm or death. If I have to swerve into the path of a truck, a semi, even a car head on or mow over a pedestrian who just decides he is going to blast into the street in an unsafe place or manner, guess who is going to get crushed?
I won't ride my motorcycle or drive my car on the sidewalk or in the bike lane, and you don't walk in the street in an unsafe manner and we will all be happy.
I get the sense that some people here just don't "like" cars and are putting a moral spin on something that really is more of a practical problem...
Gil
I could not agree with you
I could not agree with you more.
"...I won't ride my motorcycle or drive my car on the sidewalk or in the bike lane, and you don't walk in the street in an unsafe manner and we will all be happy...."
DOT pave past the yellow line please!
Cheaper & Quicker: Just move the line
jaywalking?
Hmm. I heard once from someone who posts here regularly that jaywalking is not illegal in NC. Or maybe that was just in Chapel Hill? Or maybe I've just made this all up.
Also - Kenya sounds great.
jaywalking and yield laws
Illegal or not, it should not be a capital offense.
Out of curiosity, I went to the NC DOT website and found the following (emphasis in the last provision is mine):
20-174. Crossing at other than crosswalks; walking along highway.
(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
(b) Any pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
(c) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.
(d) Where sidewalks are provided, it shall be unlawful for any pedestrian to walk along and upon an adjacent roadway. Where sidewalks are not provided, any pedestrian walking along and upon a highway shall, when practicable, walk only on the extreme left of the roadway or its shoulder facing traffic which may approach from the opposite direction. Such pedestrian shall yield the right-of-way to approaching traffic.
(e) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian upon any roadway, and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary, and shall exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway.
"Illegal or not, it should
"Illegal or not, it should not be a capital offense."
It's not a capital offense. It's an activity that is illegal but rarely enforced and has a small punishment associated with it but that sometimes is dangerous and can be fatal. "Capital offense" implies the state is killing them when instead they are killing themselves.
There are some forgotten victims in all this. They are the drivers of the vehicles that hit the pedestrians. There are three people in the last month who had their lives changed drastically for the worse even though they did nothing wrong. And a direct cause of their misery is the ethic promoted around here that pedestrians should be able to walk anywhere they want to and that it's up to the cars to avoid hitting them.
And just for the record, I'm not one that drvies everywhere I go and that just wants to get rid of the annoying walkers. I walk in this town a lot, probably more than 95% of the people on this board. But I do drive on occassion too and it bothers me that no matter how careful I am my life could be ruined at any time by behavior that is dangerous but encouraged.
Enforcement
I don't want to excuse
I don't want to excuse careless drivers at all. But this thread was about how pedestrians are endangered after three incidents for which drivers bore no fault. I get the impression people reflexively take the stance "cars bad, pedestrians good" and that seems counterproductive.
As far as crosswalks go I have two points. First I suspect that there are some drivers that aren't aware that a crosswalk means the pedestrians have the right of way and instead think it means "When pedestrians cross they're supposed to cross in the crosswalk, but they have to wait until no cars are coming before crossing." Educating them would help a lot.
Secondly, painting lines on pavement doesn't change the laws of physics and automatically make things safe. Painting a crosswalk on I-40 wouldn't make it safe. Crosswalks should be put in places where the speed limit is low enough so that by the time drivers become aware they have to stop they have sufficient time to stop safely. Or if they're put in places with higher speed limits then the speed limits should be subsequently lowered accordingly.
I agree with you here as
I agree with you here as well.
"... Secondly, painting lines on pavement doesn't change the laws of physics and automatically make things safe. Painting a crosswalk on I-40 wouldn't make it safe. Crosswalks should be put in places where the speed limit is low enough so that by the time drivers become aware they have to stop they have sufficient time to stop safely. Or if they're put in places with higher speed limits then the speed limits should be subsequently lowered accordingly."
Herzenberg
Joan, that's what Joe Herzenberg used to say. I don't know if it is true.
Priscilla, good points. That law, of course, only relates to who should yield, rather than whether jaywalking is illegal or not. But basically, it would never be legal to wilfully hit a pedestrian (unless doing so served some greater good - like avoiding a worse accident or preventing that ped from shooting someone or some other highly improbable extreme scenario).
Blinded by the light
glare
That crosswalk on N. Greensboro near Fitch is a baaaad scene.
About glare- I read somewhere that it makes more sense, in town limits, to keep the natural curve of the landscape and make streets curvy. It makes for slower traffic and cuts down on glare since low sun is continually blocked by trees/buildings in the distance and the angle of the drive is always changing. Prettier too.
Marked crosswalks not repsected
We walk in our neighborhood a lot and find that marked crosswalks re not respected. In town, crosswalks are increasinly marked with extra signs warning of pedestrians. And stating the state law. But at Hillborough and James Street in Carrboro, for instance, a marked crosswalk, not one car in a hundred stops for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Let's get serious about marking crosswalks and educating drivers about their responsiblities. Marking more crosswalks would be helpful, too. A half mile between marked crosswalks is unreasonable and unfriendly to our "walkable" community.
Signs in the road
Bicyclist killed in Orange
Bicyclist killed in Orange County
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1094584.html
Memorial
They say they're going to
They say they're going to raise the awareness of bicycles. Someone should raise their awareness of the Laws of Physics. When some big, heavy vehicles can legally go 45 MPH on a (sometimes winding) piece of asphalt and other small, light, hard to see vehicles can go as slow as 10 MPH or even less on the same piece of asphalt then the Laws of Physics says you're going to have problems. And that is especially true when most of the vehicles on the asphalt are the big ones, thus making the drivers of them even less prone to noticing the small, hard to see ones.
One way to remedy that would be to slow all the cars down to 20 MPH but if you did that then the now-silent majority of drivers would uprise and insist they be permitted to go 45 MPH again so that wouldn't work.Another way would be insist that each road either be made safe for biking or else bikers not be allowed to use them but that won't work either because bikers would refuse to go along.
And so things will stay as the are and bad stuff will continue happening on occassion. I just hope I'm not one of the people that kills or injures a biker someday, even though I'm very careful when I drive. I know a driver won't kill or injure me when I'm biking because I don't own a bike since there's no point owning a bike in an area where there are so few places you feel safe using it.
I have no idea what the road is like where that biker was killed but based on what I've seen around here to date I suspect that by common sense standards it is dangerous for biking and yet still legal.
We can do as many rides to raise awareness as we like and pass as many laws in our legislature as we like. The Laws of Physics doesn't care about any of it. Nature is going to enfore the Laws of Physics regardless of what we think and wish and hope and pray.
Give us a brake
Jose, you have really made your opinions quite clear. I do not agree with you. I am not willing to outlaw a clean and efficient form of transportation in favor of a dirty and inefficient one. Frankly, to me, the frequency and (misguided) poignancy of your comments begins to take something away from your credibility on the subject. In short, your idea of outlawing bicycling is absurd.
I've been working on the problem of bike/ped safety in our community for a long time - about 18 years now - and many others in our community have been working on it for much longer. We are beginning to see changes in the state and federal bureaucracy that allow local governments to spend our transportation dollars on bike/ped facilities.
Carrboro has built about 3 miles of new sidewalks in the last few years and we have about 3 more miles of sidewalks in the works in the next few years. We are also building bikepaths and bikelanes in numerous locations around town. Chapel Hill is taking similar steps (but I can't quote the numbers to you). UNC has also taken many steps to make the campus safer for bikes and pedestrians.
The Bike/Ped safety situation has actually improved a lot over the 20 years that I have lived here, but there is only so much good that can be done by structural changes to our roadways. A part of the solution is changing the behavior of motor vehicle drivers (and also the behavior of some cyclists and pedestrians too). I think all of the recent accidents could have been prevented by more cautious behavior on the part of one or both parties to the various accidents.
A bikelane on Pleasant Green Road might have prevented this accident, but probably it would not have. True, outlawing cycling on Pleasant Green Road would probably have prevented a death in this case. But more cautious driving could have prevented the accident altogether (ie this accident would have happened and thousands of dollars of property damage would have occurred even without the cyclist present).
The cyclist in this case apparently did nothing wrong. He was riding along safely and was mowed down by someone who swerved into oncoming traffic. That cannot and does not lead to the conclusion that bicycling should be outlawed.
"I am not willing to outlaw
Don't see many hands?
I am told that Carrboro is already the most densely populated municipality in the entire state. Both the Board of Aldermen and the Town Council have taken many steps to increase the towns' population densities. There are many new condo developments underway in both towns. Both towns have actively resisted sprawling out further.
And we are protecting green space . . . and we are making car-free transportation more feasible . . . and it is making the local area a better place to live . . . and it is protecting the environment within the towns . . . and in the region . . . and in the world.
Take a look at the roads
Take a look at the roads coming into Chapel Hill each workday. They're filled with cars. They come from northern Chatham and northern Orange and Durham and Morrisville and Raleigh. Northern Chatham is essentially a suburb of Chapel Hill / Carrboro. And UNC continues building new buildings in which people will work.
If there isn't enough housing in Chapel Hill / Carroboro to accomodate the people that work at UNC and Chapel Hill / Carrboro doesn't build more then it isn't resisting sprawl but is instead changing the locations where the sprawl will occur from this area to places it won't have to look at each day.
Another bus on pedestrian accident?
It occured at the corner of Mason Farm Rd. and Columbia. I haven't seen any reports of it anywhere, but based on what I found shortly afterwards, it did not look good for the pedestrian. I don't know any details.
All too often I see folks of all ages darting across the roads against the DO NOT WALK signal. We've all done it. But, with all the construction, with i-pod buds in our ears or with cell phones to our faces we seem to be more at risk. I'm especially disturbed when I see one person charge across the street only to be followed by a crowd of people who think the light must have changed, but who are too busy talking on the phone or with friends to notice. I'm even more disturbed when the person leading the charge is someone who should know better.
One man with courage makes a majority.
- Andrew Jackson
CHH Report
From this morning's CHH:
My recollection about that interchange.
I cross it quite a bit. I seem to recall that the walk signal does not come on automatically, you have to hit the button to make it change.
One man with courage makes a majority.
- Andrew Jackson
I cross at that light every
I cross at that light every day although fortunately for me it's usually at times when there isn't much traffic. You do have to push the button to get a Walk signal and when the Walk sign lights up, the light for the drivers (turning left from Mason Farm onto S. Columbia) does turn green at the same time.
If you're crossing S Columbia from west to east (from the UNC side to the non-UNC side), as (I think) the pedestrian that got hit was doing, then you do have to watch carefully for cars turning left from Mason Farm onto S Columbia. First of all it's a greater than 90 degree turn for the cars (ie, less sharp than at a regular intersection), which means they don't have to take it as slowy. Secondly it's downhill for the cars as they turn left, which is an enticement to go more quickly. Third, it doesn't look or feel like a real intersection with pedestrians, which means drivers might not be expecting pedestrians. And fourth, the actual intersection space isn't very big, which gives drivers less time to react if they notice a pedestrian in their path (which I suspect is intensified when you're driving a large vehicle like a bus, which has a longer stopping distance).
You could change the light there so that when there is a Walk sign every driver has a red light but it's just that much more time that cars spend sitting at intersections. From a selfish standpoint that would be good for me. I could cross without having to be ultra-careful. But I'm aware that the increased benefit to me would be coming at the expense of others, some of whom are in cars because they have no other choice.
An "All-Walk" Phase
This film depicts intersections where the traffic lights stop motorists in all directions to give pedestrians a safe opportunity to cross in all directions--including diagonal:
http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/la-gets-diagonal-crosswalks-again/
That looks like a good idea
That looks like a good idea and it might work at some CH/C intersections. At many others though you'd have cars stopped in all four directions while two people crossed the road. Or else you'd have pedestrians waiting for 20 minutes until a large enough number of them wanted to cross the road to justify stopping car traffic in all four directions.
Diagonal Crossings!
The Town agrees! and takes action:http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1023385.cfmYea Kumar!!! ...The Town of Chapel Hill and N.C. Department of Transportation are
testing what is known as an exclusive pedestrian phase at the busy
intersection, a coordination of traffic signals and pedestrian "walk"
displays that will allow those on foot to cross in all directions at
once, including diagonally across the street.
Kumar Neppalli, engineering services manager for the town, said drivers
in three directions still will be able to make a right turn on the red
light, but they must yield to pedestrians. He first asked DOT to try
this system a few years ago and when the agency warmed to the idea, the
intersection of Columbia and Cameron was recommended because of the
regular conflict there among vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle traffic....Neppalli said the town would establish guidelines for selecting
exclusive pedestrian phase locations in Chapel Hill. He named the
intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets, South Road and Columbia
and other areas near campus with high pedestrian volumes as likely
candidates.
walk and turn
This latest accident seems
This latest accident seems to not be the bus's fault, since it was going at such slow speed. However, I have noticed a few buses acting in complete disregard for the safety of passengers-- a few days ago at the main Carrboro intersection by the police station, a bus completely cut me off by turning left as I was already halfway through the intersection. I had to slam on my brakes and stop in the middle of the intersection. It was highly dangerous and thoughtless of the driver. They sped to make the turn, but there very well could have been a hapless pedestrian walking across the street to Open Eye who would have gotten smashed into. There would have been no time for the bus to stop. I've seen a few other such incidents.
Sure, pedestrians need to watch out. But bus drivers need to be careful too.
Schedules
Curb Congestion Management at UNC Hospital Stop
Terri, if this is the UNC Hospital stop just east of the Manning/West intersection on the north side of the street, then what you observed is the normal course of action at this stop for all buses.
The UNC Hospital stop has such heavy usage, especially during peak hours, that instead of stopping at the bus shelter, all buses try to pull as far forward within that block (indeed, right up to the crosswalk) to accommodate the near certainty that another bus will momentarily pull in behind the first bus.
If this procedure was not observed, buses would likely clog the intersection at Manning/East, or perhaps be stuck in a westbound turning movement off of Jackson circle to Manning. This presents its own safety problems.
As a regular bus rider who talks to the bus drivers, I know that many of the drivers are very concerned that a student on a cellphone or listening to an ipod will walk in front of their bus, distracted, at the wrong moment, even with the bus moving at an appropriate speed, correctly positioned within the right-of-way.
Most of south campus was poorly designed for pedestrians. The recent adjustments to the area outside UNC student stores on South Road has probably mitigated the amount of jaywalking in the Student Union/Fetzer area (low stone wall/planters along the curb channel people to the crosswalk) but more of this type of improvement is needed to enhance safety. I believe the campus master plan also includes a bridge over South Rd, which is a good idea.
TTA bus drivers -- more agressive than CH Transit drivers?
Terri, a few years ago I actually wrote a letter to the TTA Board of Directors about agressive driving by TTA drivers through the chaotic UNC campus, which includes the hospitals area. It seemed to me then, and still does today, that the CH Transit drivers are much more sensitive to the bicyclists (like me) and the pedestrians (again like me) than the TTA drivers are. The TTA operators seem to bring more of an I-40 mindset, and a "gotta make the schedule" attitude. I'm not sure if it stems from TTA's training, or simply that their drivers spend less time on campus than CH Transit drivers do or what. The only reason that we don't see many TTA accidents on campus is that there are far fewer TTA buses on campus.
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