The TAB/Wicked Local Newton reports that, on Friday, a twelve-year-old boy was hit by a car on Parker St., between Ridge Rd. and Glenwood Ave. We'll have to wait for the police report to know what happened, but some thoughts and observations ...
Inevitably, someone's going to say that Parker St. is too dangerous to be crossed by a twelve-year-old. As made clear by this incident, that's a fair observation. But, the question is whether it should be. A twelve-year-old ought to be able to cross Parker or Beacon or Washington or Walnut or ...
We should not be forfeiting streets to cars only. Streets can connect or divide neighborhoods. Kids on both sides of Parker go to the same schools. It shouldn't require an adult -- and particularly not a ride from an adult -- to visit a middle-school friend.
Another likely response is to request a crosswalk at Parker and Browning. The address noted in the article as the site of the incident is about 1,000 feet from a crosswalk at Cypress and about 600 feet from a crosswalk at Daniel St. (rough estimates using Google maps to measure). It's simply not reasonable to expect that pedestrians are going to walk 1200 to 2000 ft out of their way to avail themselves of the protection of a crosswalk. Especially not tweens and teens.
But adding a crosswalk is not necessarily the right answer. We already have a cross-walk compliance problem in the city. The crosswalk at Parker and Daniel is heavily used, but you can stand there and wait for up to ten cars to pass before one stops. Adding another crosswalk, which would be lightly used, will just lead to more non-compliance.
The real problem is design. From end-to-end, Parker St. is a ram-rod straight invitation to speed. There is routine police presence nabbing speeders at Parker and Daniel St., but the speeds are high nonetheless. Only traffic calming interventions are going to make a meaningful difference.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Child hit by car on Parker Street
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7 comments:
is it me or does this summer seem particularily horrible wrt accidents? something has got to give. And yes a 12 year old should be able to walk anywhere in this city. It is why we all moved here no? For our children to wander the streets safely? If not- I'd be in alphabet city ( where actually I might feel safer irt walking and owning the neighborhood... hmm maybe I need to move)
How about installing a bump-out at Daniel Street to slow traffic down?
Yes, 12 year olds should be able to cross the street. There are also 30year olds that don't know how to cross the street. Ram-rod straight also means that you can see cars coming from quite a distance. I don't think you can say that kids won't walk 1200 ft to get to a crosswalk. They need to be told that is a requirement. And they need to be taught that they don't step out into the street until the car is definitely coming to a stop. And they don't go out into the street until both sides are stopped or they know the drivers on both sides see them. Given all that, if parents can't trust their kids to be mature enough to do that, then they shouldn't be letting them out to cross by themselves. Don't give them rides, walk with them. And yes, the drivers should be going slower, but that doesn't matter as much. If they take their eyes off the road to fiddle with the radio or look to the side, even at 25 or 30MPH they will miss a kid coming out into the road. The pedestrian has to watch out for the car, they don't materialize out of nowhere. Especially on a ram-rod straight street. It'd be nice if you waited for the facts before you spouted off with your thoughts, observations and dubious, at best, solutions. What about the incident where the driver plowed into a stopped car WITH the crossing guard there? You can't fix the road to protect yourself from every inattentive driver.
How exactly does a crossing guard qualify as a roadway improvement? Who's spouting off, exactly?
"And yes, the drivers should be going slower, but that doesn't matter as much." ??
Get your facts straight. Speed matters a lot. Accidents with pedestrians, vehicle traveling 40mph or over: 80% fatality rate. Accidents with pedestrians, vehicle traveling 25mph or under: 5% fatality rate.
Isn't the whole gestalt of this blog, and its commenters, "spouting off"?? Does the blogger, or do his commentators, really know anything about road, street, sideway, bikeway, or urban design?? About what are they off aside from spouting?
Reginald
I'm glad someone finally got the point of all this typing. Obviously, if we knew anything, we wouldn't be bothering to write in this blog.
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