Boulevard crosswalk: the finale (for now)
You may recall I was trying to use the power of citizen activism to make my neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly.
I often walk up Boulevard from Grant Park to Cabbagetown or Oakland Cemetery, crossing over Interstate 20 (I even see people jogging through this area).
Unfortunately, while there are crosswalks as you walk over the on and off ramps for I-20, the ‘walk/don’t walk’ lights were not working great and I thought it would be helpful to walkers if there could be a short interval in which cars were prohibited from entering the crosswalk.
And so I enlisted Councilwoman Carla Smith, who represents my district on City Council, to see if the DOT couldn’t see its way to helping us out (since the crosswalks are part of interstate on/off ramps, they fall under the DOT’s jurisdiction).
You can find my last post about it here. Carla managed to find a sympathetic ear at the DOT, which conducted a study of the crosswalk, but as she told me recently, we can’t get what we want.
The DOT has agreed to refresh the crosswalks, and I’ve noticed the ‘walk/don’t walk’ signs are working better, specifically by giving walkers a longer period of time to cross the street before flashing the orange ‘don’t walk’ symbol.
But it’s really not enough because cars can still enter the crosswalk even if the ‘walk’ light is on, as you can see in the photo above.
If you look at the photo, you’ll see the white, solid ‘walk’ symbol.
And yet there is a car moving through the intersection.
So can I really safely cross the intersection on foot? Uh not really.
Carla said all is not lost — she’s ever the optimist — and thinks we may be able to revisit the issue again with the DOT.
But for now, watch it when you walk up Boulevard. It may be called Boulevard but there are many spots where you are not meant to stroll.
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Comments
6 Comments on Boulevard crosswalk: the finale (for now)
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Silvia Medrano-Edelstein on
Fri, 29th Jan 2010 1:37 pm
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Juliea on
Fri, 29th Jan 2010 10:53 pm
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Quentin on
Mon, 8th Feb 2010 9:03 am
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Jeanne Bonner on
Mon, 8th Feb 2010 11:59 am
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Sally Flocks on
Wed, 10th Feb 2010 5:18 pm
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Jeanne Bonner on
Wed, 10th Feb 2010 5:40 pm
Time to put up some scarecrows dressed up as construction workers or mommies with buggies. Maybe the element of surprise will stop those scofflaws!
What’s sad is that in a place like Atlanta, even where there are crosswalks, motorists view pedestrians as an annoyance. “Your crosswalk is interfering with my driving!” is the attitude that prevails. Even transit advocates get aggravated if their driving progress is impeded.
Hey Jeanne, I just wanted to say thanks for your work on this. I walk through that intersection from time to time and I’ve always found it unpleasant at best, terrifying at worst. It’s hard not to get the impression that this city is broken and completely unresponsive, so it’s refreshing to hear that there are some people in the local government who will actually listen. Keep pushing. You’ve inspired me to do the same.
And Juliea, it doesn’t matter if you aggravate drivers. Just step off the curb into the crosswalk, make eye contact, force them to stop, then give them a polite wave for their troubles. People are generally unfriendly and/or oblivious when driving, here more than many places, but they’re too afraid of having their insurance rates jacked up to risk hitting you. As long as they see you, that is.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Quentin, is there a specific place you want to make more walkable or something else that you want to talk to elected officials about? Because you understood exactly why I was posting the info — I want everyone to share ideas and strategies about making our neighborhoods more pleasant.
Councilwoman Smith was very helpful and responsive. And it is a tough intersection to police for the GDOT (I mean, I can understand they may think cars coming off the highway have a higher priority than pedestrians since it’s an offramp — they may not even think many pedestrians cross there).
But just yesterday I saw a normal couple walking through the crosswalk on what I would guess was a nice Sunday stroll. It was about 11:30 and the day was warming up and it was a great time to walk. And they had to dodge cars as they walked through the intersection even though they had the white ‘walk’ sign.
I say a normal couple because I’m a rabid walker and I will walk anywhere (I used to walk several miles in Sandy Springs to catch the No. 5 bus even though there were no sidewalks on Johnson Ferry Road).
But surely the city wants to encourage cozy little couples out for a Sunday stroll?
Isn’t that the kind of city we want?
And again just to reiterate: if you’re on the east side of Grant Park and you want to visit Cabbagetown or Oakland Cemetery or the restaurants on Memorial, it’s logical that you would walk up Boulevard and over I-20 to do so.
To report dysfunctional walk / don’t walk signals or faded crosswalks to the folks responsible for fixing them, go to http://peds.org/take_action/report-hazards/
Thanks, Sally — great resource.
With this crosswalk, the signals have now been fixed and the crosswalk is not actually faded.
It’s just that the geography of the crosswalk on an off-ramp of an interstate highway makes it difficult for a pedestrian to safely enter the crosswalk. As the photo posted above shows, I can legally enter the intersection but I cannot do so safely.
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