Streetfilms: Seattle Crosswalk: Tap foot, Lights blink, Cross street
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 9:35am | by mlang
Our friends at Streetfilms take a look at an innovative mid-block cross walk treatment in Seattle that helps connect people to the Puget Sound waterfront. This foot activated, lit cross walk could be another project to learn from as various agencies throughout the Twin Cities struggle with finding the best way to treat mid block crossings including our numerous regional mixed use trail crossings.
Comments
crosswalk
To my mind, this is just another high-cost, high-tech attempt to solve problems which will always be with us as long as we have to live and die on roads rendered lethal by directional priority. Remove priority, and you remove the "need" for lights and the need for speed, enabling everyone to do what is natural and intrinsically safe: approach carefully, give way to others who were there first - whether on foot or on wheels - and filter (more or less) in turn, just as we do in all other walks of life. Only on the roads are we required to fight for survival, gaps and green time. The culture of priority needs to give way to equality. Traffic engineers won't like this simple, non-interventionist approach because it will put many of them out of a job. But the benefits are universal. More about this at FiT Roads.
cost
this is so useful! I'm asking the city for something like this and i was wondering how much would a thing like this cost?