I think we have bitched repeatedly on this site about the lack of pedestrian consideration in this town. There are a couple cross-walks of death in cville:
- between the Lewis and Clarke building andthe downtown mall. And no, that crosswalk button won’t save you
- crossing Monticello Rd at the Carlton Rd intersection. Cars come blind uphill
- crossing Levy Ave at Avon St
- crossing McIntire Rd to get to the C’ville Coffee shopping plaza
This town is not short on areas that can cause serious injury, fortunately the local gov intends to fix this with $700k. How?
The committee first making improvements at intersections along Market Street, Water Street, West Main Street, and University Avenue. Black and white crosswalks, ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and countdown signals will be added in the following locations: * University Avenue (Ivy to JPA) – Total cost of improvements: $48,610
* Market Street (Ridge St. to 10th St.) – Total cost of improvements: $88,425
* Water Street (Ridge St. to 10th St.) – Total cost of improvements: $60,985
* Main St. (JPA to Ridge St.) Total cost of improvements: $50,140
Don’t know about you, but that hardly seems enough! What areas do you avoid death at on a frequent basis?
[dead bird on sidewalk pic from Little boy on Flickr]
Popularity: 14% [?]
Tagged as: accident, congestion, sidewalk, traffic
Has anyone tried to cross Ridge McIntire between the Omni and the McDonalds? That is a death trap. I avoid that crossing as much as possible.
oh how could i forget that? yes, the many fateful trips to Staples. Risking our lives for lead pencils seems a bit strange in retrospect.
I think all the traffic should be stationary outside Staples.
Crossing the right turn lane on the southeast corner of Ridge McIntire and Preston is like a sick joke. There’s a huge bush blocking the view of what is about to run you over coming down the hill and the best part is the drivers don’t even slow down as they take that right turn onto Preston.
well, that’s not a crossing, that’s why it’s dangerous.
haaaaahahaha - nice one, flooze!
why aren’t they directing some of this money to the bypass? or, like, 64? i’ve almost been hit several times in both places. i don’t get why people just won’t slow down sometimes.
next to staples there is a painted crosswalk that no one stops for, i think its at the entrance of the omni or a little down the road…basically its these two reflective sticks pointing out of the ground that are supposed to save us.
@4: The crosswalk painted on the street would indicate a crossing, no?
My mistake, I was almost positive there was no crossing there, like on Hydraulic where people similarly and hazardously cross.
Paging Kevin Cox to the pedestrian thread, paging Kevin Cox to the bitching about crossing the street thread.
I tried to cross at a crosswalk on Avon the other day and while one lane stopped for me, I stood in the middle of the GD road for a good 60 seconds waiting for the downtown bound people to realize I was there. Peeps be maaaad dumb.
Also, $14,539 street crossing signals!? That is unreal. That’s prooty much my pay for the year.
/I should moonlight as a street crossing signal.
I bet if you pulled out your wang, people would stop for you.
That would have to be a pretty impressive wang.
I am upset about the lack of crossings on 29 north of town. There isn’t a SINGLE crosswalk north of hydraulic that I can find, so I end up having to haphazardly jaywalk whenever I take the bus to work. And I wait until there AREN’T any cars. There’s constantly some shady characters trying to play chicken with 18-wheelers out there, though…
I think pedestrians should have jetpacks so that they can just fly over the cars.
Hey Vanilla bena, don’t you mean “Crosswalks of Death”? Has anyone really been hit while on the sidewalk?
For all you non-stoppers-at-crosswalks, please take into consideration runners that use crosswalks. We’re not lard asses that’ll take 78 seconds to cross the streets. And it really harshes our mellow when we have to break cadence to wait for drivers to stop. Jogging in place is annoying. So be kind and take a few seconds out of your day to stop at crosswalks. For runners/walkers street crossing in non-designated crosswalk areas, you have my full permission to run them over. Only a few points off your license is all.
I have hit a pedestrian before, but its ok, it was in norfolk…I have yet to clip one in cville
@ 15 i fell off a sidewalk once, but i suppose that doesn’t count…?
i’ve been hit in a crosswalk *after* the guy made eye contact with me. note to male drivers: that’s not a good way to try to get a first date.
@ 16 For runners/walkers street crossing in non-designated crosswalk areas, you have my full permission to run them over. you have mine too. hear hear!
people are always trying to cross 5th street south of Monticello where the daycare is. In many cases, it’s women crossing the road with their toddlers in tow. They are stupid. Believe it or not, most cars don’t stop for them, either.
Yo Shen!
Sorry, but I just now got your page.
A couple of random things:
1. I walk through the intersection at the statue of Sacajawea and those two explorers every day. It’s no death trap! In fact it’s easy to navigate if you just take the time to watch the lights. I first cross Water Street at the crosswalk near the Omni to the Lewis and Clark building side. It pays to be watchful but most people do stop. More stop now than used to. I think maybe they’ve gotten tired of the stress and of hearing me yell. Then I cross to the statue island. That’s easy too. When cars headed east on West Main and going either to Water, South or Ridge McIntire get a green light it’s completly safe to cross to the statue. It doesn’t matter if the WALK light is lit or not, no cars have a light to go through the crosswalk from the corner of Ridge and South at that time. Then it just a short hop over to the sidewalk in front of the Greyhound station. A few years ago that turn lane off of West Main onto Ridge had a Yield sign. The cars always slowed and it was much easier to get across than it is now that they’ve replaced the Yield sign with a traffic signal that is usually green.
2, Many pedestrians need to be more assertive. Not agressive or crazy necessarily but they just need to go ahead and walk cross the street instead of trying to wait until there are no cars in sight. Cars have drivers with eyes and they also have brakes. If there’s enough room and time for them to comfortably stop they (me too, I drive plenty) should stop. Most drivers are cooperative and do yield. The attitudes of a few need some work and so I smile and try to get people to “just get along”. At least I do now. A few years ago some fool tried to run me down in the crosswalk from the Omni to the Lewis and Clark building. That was fun! He came close enough to me that I was able to hit the side of his van with the palm of my hand and get him enraged. He stopped in the middle of the street and jumped out to beat my skinny butt. I was ready too rumble too, but neither one of us saw the police officer that witnessed the whole thing. As the guy was screaming in my face and working up the rage to sock me, the cop grabbed him and gave him a ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Then he turned on me and chewed me out for smacking his van. The paper , I don’t remember if it was C’ville or The Hook, did a cover story on it. Smilin’, back slappin’ Tim Longo actually thanked me after the article was published. I was baffled.
I run across town too, and I stop and jog if I have to. If the way is clear though, I’ll run across the street no matter what color the light is.
Jacking up your blood pressure by getting pissed off and angry over the microseconds it takes to let someone walk by is dumb but so is stroking your ego by walking out in traffic and forcing cars to stop when they do have the right of way.
With Warmest Regards,
Kevin Cox
That’s a great story, Kevin.
Levy & Avon is horrible to navigate. Another bad one, near UVA is Cherry Ave & Roosevelt Brown Blvd. If you are trying to cross Cherry Ave, you get the “Walk” signal at the same time as people from RBB get a green arrow to turn left and run you over. Just today, somewhere on Massie Rd, at one signal, there was a large sign that said “Left Turn Yield to Pedestrians.” This was on grounds, so UVA must have put up the sign, but the city would do well to post the same sign at many of our intersections.
Paging members of City Council to read this post–not my comment, the whole post–and respond.
Monticello and 6th(coming from downtown) for the win!
Patience,
I have tried and tried to get the city to put up signs reminding drivers that turning vehicles must yield to pedestrians. The signs work but the city just will not do it. Lonnie Randall, the head signal technician says that there are too many signs already. There are a lot of signs at some of the intersections but not at all of them. I think he’s just stubborn.
Drivers behave differently on different streets. Almost every driver is courteous and stops at the crosswalks at The Corner but then the opposite is true at any crossing on Cherry Avenue and Avon St. The police could change this but they seem to be too busy ticketing students going to class for crossing the train tracks behind the Corner.
Sincerely,
Kevin Cox
ok changed the name. i dunno how that happened, i thought about something dead on the sidewalk for the pic, and well, it just went from there.
@23 Kevin I do believe they are too many signs. We need better drivers and more enforcement not more signs
I disagree with the left turn yield. It’s hard enough managing to get a left turn in at some places much less having one more thing to yield to.
@26 A solution to that is having the walk sign flash first, before the left-turners get their arrow, so that pedestrians can cross. There are a few intersections set up that way.
@27: Yes, that would be fabu.
Shen,
What make, model and color of car do you drive? Will my blood clash with your upholstery? Can your body shop fix dents from my head?
Love,
Kevin
dieter,
There are too many signs at some intersections but not at all of them. The message conveyed by a sign at one intersection could be retained by the driver the next time they are turning and there’s a pedestrian.
There should be a whole lot more enforcement but the police aren’t doing it and the politicians aren’t making them do it.
Cordially,
Kevin
The city is going to install talking walk signals for the visually impaired at some intersections.
Shen,
From all indications, Kevin has a very hard head. Better to just yield.
@32: I’m sure shen is fully abreast of just how hard cox’s head can be.
Oh Echo!
I’d be content if drivers realized that intersection = crosswalk. It doesn’t matter if there’s a light. If there’s a crosswalk/curb cut, it’s a street crossing.
To the city: for god’s sake, please make curb cuts functional. Half the cuts in town seem to only face the opposite side of the street, whether or not there’s a sidewalk there. If we’re walking down Cherry, curb cuts that actually roll onto the side streets (you know, where the sidewalk is continguous?) would be nice for folks with wheelchairs, wagons, and strollers. And stop putting telephone poles, streetsigns, benches, and trash cans smack dab in the middle of narrow sidewalks. Navigating recycling bins is hard enough, but at least those can be kicked to the curb.
@31 i’ve always wondered, how can you tell which direction the beeping is telling you to cross?
@36 to the other side?
A whole lot of this town’s traffic issues would go away with better enforcement. If drivers thought there was a chance in hell that the cops were watching for things like running stop signs, running red lights, speeding, and generally not paying attention, everyone would be a lot safer.
And on an unrelated note, more dead bird peektures (and some shameless self-promotion): http://andrewhersey.com/archives/flown/
saw a pedestrian get hit at the jpa/jpa intersection south of the hospital last year. it was horrible - that’s one of those intersections where everyone - even the pedestrians - have to look behind them to even move. there’s a lot of those in cville - makes my neck hurt.
The city will respond to calls about vegetation blocking sight lines at intersections and sidewalks and similar problems. I’ve gotten bushes trimmed and sidewalks fixed that wouldn’t have been done if I hadn’t called in. It may take more than one call but persistance pays. There were a couple of pieces of sheetrock, about 4′ x 4′, on the sidewalk on West Main near the Amtrak station. They were there there for a month before I called. I was hoping that the city would take care of it but after a month I realized they weren’t going to. It did take several emails and phone calls to get it cleaned up but they did finally take care of it. Sometimes they really don’t know about the problem and other times they do know but don’t do anything unless somebody complains. Public works: 970-3830, Neighborhood Development: 970-3182. A call to them works a lot better than a call to C-ville’s Rant Line.
Orchid,
The new audible signals will actually talk, not beep. When you push the button it will say “wait” if the walk signal is not lit. If the walk light is lit the audible signal will tell the pedestrian that the walk signal is lit and give the name of the street. Something like, “The walk light is on to cross Ridge Street.” It will not say that it is safe to cross and it will not beep or buzz. At least this is what they told us at the pedestrain committee meeting and I am pretty confident we’ll get what they told us will be installed.
Regards,
Kevin Cox
@41 interesting, thanks.
This was the quote of the day:
I have lost friends, some by death… others through sheer inability to cross the street.
- Virginia Woolf
the pedestrain committee
“A few members were appointed, but most of us were walk-ons.”
(Kevin: good info, by the by. Thanks!)