Hill & Dale Issue 8 | A Conversation Concerning Crosswalks

If you’re not a subscriber of Hill & Dale, join other runners that receive it directly in their inbox—it’s free.

A November 10 Vox video on YouTube outlined America’s deadliest road for pedestrians: US-19 in Florida. Based on 2001-2016 data from urban planners, seventeen people died on a 1000-meter corridor of US-19 in the city of New Port Richey.

US-19 corridors appeared multiple times in the study’s list of sixty communities with the highest number of pedestrian fatalities.

As a Georgia resident, I wondered what treacherous corridors exist in the Peach State. Four communities emerged as I scanned the document: Brookhaven, College Park, Jonesboro, and Pittsburg.

Thirteen people died at the Brookhaven location from 2001-2016, though the authors noted that PHBs (Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons) were added in 2014 or 2015. Two median islands with RFBs (Rapid Flash Beacons) were added at the Pittsburg location in 2017-2018 after nine deaths over the same time period.

The College Park and Jonesboro locations in the study were void of notes indicating modifications to enhance pedestrian safety. However, city officials may have improved the intersections since the study’s publication.

According to the Georgia Department of Transportation’s (GDOT) 2018-2022 Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, Georgia experienced the highest number of fatalities in 2016 & 2017 since 1975 (the earliest year for which traffic fatality data is available).

GDOT projected approximately 400 fatalities for 2020, though that figure was likely much lower based on the drastic reduction of vehicles on the roads due to the pandemic. Of course, it’s reasonable to conclude that pedestrian deaths are returning to pre-pandemic levels as roads return to similar congestion levels.

As part of the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, GDOT conducted a survey about walking behavior. 61% identified driver behavior, “especially speeding and distracted driving,” as their primary deterrent from walking without fear for safety.

Honestly, distracted drivers concern me more than speedy drivers. Georgia has a Hands-Free Law too, but I regularly see people checking their phones in motion. And, based on a recent near miss in a crosswalk, I think many drivers are mentally “automatic” behind the wheel.

On Sunday, December 4, I started running in a crosswalk that stretches across a four-lane highway. Halfway through the crosswalk, a bulky, black truck turning left kept approaching me before finally stopping.

I stopped, looked at the driver’s side window, and put up my hands in sheer disbelief. 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning at a fairly boring intersection, folks. With tinted windows, I don’t know who drove or whether a pesky phone led to a complete breakdown of awareness that pedestrians (and cyclists I might add) regularly hit the roads on Sunday morning.

And about that “automatic” remark: I wonder if drivers switch into a mode that winnows out all activity except the next light or next turn. At first glance, that assertion seems absurd considering the brain’s need to monitor so much information in the course of a trip, i.e. other vehicles, weather, lane spacing, turning, accelerating, decelerating, etc.

But have people failed at seeing the wide shot of activity that occurs at intersections? The moment a red light stops traffic, I regularly notice people go back to their phones.

No attention to the sidewalks or the crosswalks. The signal changes to green and a walker or runner appears out of nowhere. Yet they were there the entire time—hoping to cross a street without fear of

I hope you have a great day. We’ll talk soon.

---

If you’re not a subscriber of Hill & Dale, join other runners that receive it directly in their inbox—it’s free.

Photo courtesy of Ryoji Iwata