Pedestrian Upgrade on Wilson Boulevard
Almost a year ago, The Green Miles blogged about the danger of crossing Wilson Boulevard at Oakland Street:
There's a crosswalk at Wilson & Oakland, but in a bizarre sequence of events, the county, drivers, and pedestrians all ignore it:But recently, a new light went up:All that means I have two options for crossing Wilson Boulevard on the way home:
- The county hasn't fixed the broken flashing yellow pedestrian warning in at least a year, and rarely does any kind of pedestrian or traffic enforcement there
- Because of that, drivers may or may not stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk (usually not)
- Because of that, pedestrians rarely bother to use the crosswalk -- if you're just standing there waiting for all traffic to go by so you can run across, then the crosswalk is no safer than any other spot in the road
- Walk up to the corner of Wilson & N. Monroe, which has a traffic light but adds a minute or two to the walk
- Try to cross at the dreaded Wilson & Oakland crosswalk, where cars fly by at 30-40mph
It's not a perfect solution (what is?). Now cars never stop for pedestrians unless the light is red, so you can either wait a minute for the light to change or take your chances beating traffic.
But from an overall safety perspective, it's a major upgrade. Less-nimble pedestrians don't have to take their chances in a crosswalk. And cars can't fly from Monroe to Quincy without having to at least keep an eye on a light.
Nice job, Arlington County!
Labels: Miles, pedestrian safety, Virginia Square, Wilson Boulevard
4 Comments:
And yet they still can't seem to get the lane dividers painted almost three months after construction on the new street-scape there has been completed. Painted cross-walks at the intersection of North Monroe and Wilson Blvd still elude drivers and pedestrians as well.
8:41 PM
And yet they still can't seem to get the lane dividers painted almost three months after construction on the new street-scape there has been completed. Painted cross-walks at the intersection of North Monroe and Wilson Blvd still elude drivers and pedestrians as well.
8:42 PM
Yeah, the temporary yellow strips they laid down as a median have started to come off and now look like they're tracing the steps of a failed Kiefer Sutherland sobriety test.
2:26 PM
This part of Wilson Blvd. is still one of the worst!
4:17 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home