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:

• 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

All that means I have two options for crossing Wilson Boulevard on the way home:

• 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

But recently, a new light went up:


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!