It frustrates me to no end that pedestrians in the Village of Pittsford, one of the most walkable areas in our region, have to resort to carrying flags in order to get drivers to stop for them at crosswalks.
Let’s be clear — pedestrians shouldn’t have to wave a flag to get drivers’ attention.
Drivers rule the Village. We have a perfect storm of speeding traffic, wide turning areas, wide lanes, few visual cues and little to no street lighting at crossings. It’s like the Wild West if you are anywhere outside a car. Yet, this isn’t some non-residential arterial road area. Even our main village roads are neighborhood streets, lined with homes and businesses.
So one parent, who now has a high schooler that has to take the treacherous trek across the speeding traffic moat that is Monroe Ave for her short walk to school, took matters into his own hands.
He and his kids bought the supplies and made a set of pedestrian flags for the crossing at Monroe and Washington.
He explains: “The other morning, two drivers stopped to let my daughter cross. When she was mid-crosswalk, a third driver came up impatiently honking his horn, then passed around them, nearly hitting her in the crosswalk.”
Last week, a neighbor walking her dog helped wave drivers to stop during rush hour because she had been trying to cross for 10 minutes to make it to practice. One driver would stop for her, but no one on the other side did. So she waited and waited. It took 2 people on either side to get traffic to stop.
Flags Aren’t New
In May 2014, the Village placed flags at two crosswalks in the heart of the village on State St. — in front of the library and near Boughton. (The D&C article also said there was a set at Sutherland & Monroe, but those are long gone if they were there.) The idea is to help the pedestrian get drivers’ attention on both sides of the crosswalk with a bright orange flag carried from one side to the other. I see people using them out of desperation all the time. It’s embarrassing to have to use one and a sad commentary on the state of our culture that we need flags, but they do get drivers’ attention.
Flags, however, are not the solution to safer streets. Better design is. Traffic can’t fly through at high speeds when lanes are narrower, there is proper infrastructure like protected bike lanes and bulb-outs and there are visual cues like street trees and gateways. That design would also need to be coupled with education and enforcement to lead to a smooth transition to a village culture that puts people before cars.
The village put the flags out, but nothing else has changed.
Here we are 4 1/2 years later and pedestrian safety has not improved.
The Village leadership and DPW is dedicated to keeping an important visual cue out on the streets — those “State Law, Yield to Pedestrians in Crosswalk” signs [photo above]. Drivers smash them regularly and the Village crew fixes them and gets them back in the crossings. (Thank you, DPW. We really do appreciate it.)
Pedestrian Safety gets a lot of lip service around here, but actual improvements have been slow coming.
1.) State-owned Roads: The Village struggles to make changes on its busiest roads, because it does not have jurisdiction over them. The State DOT does. Yet, those are the roads with the most businesses, the most traffic (pedestrian, bike, mass transit and car), the highest average speed and the most crashes. As the town grew, these are the very roads widened decades ago to let more and more traffic through as fast as possible.
2.) Pedestrian Safety Plan: Above, we mentioned design changes that would calm traffic and improve safety. The Village received a state grant to improve 4 trouble-spots for pedestrians and has been trying to finalize the resulting Pedestrian Safety Plan.The crossing where the dad put out flags is one of those trouble-spots. The plan stalled out due to initial funding and some disagreement in the community about the initial design plan. No word on when or if the improvements will be implemented. So we sit. Needing flags in place of real changes.
3.) 25 mph Speed Limit: A bill to allow the Village to lower its default speed limit to 25 mph passed the State Senate but stalled out in the Assembly. Even if it passes in the next session, it still will not allow the limit to be lowered on those State-owned roads we mentioned. And those are the roads where drivers clock in at the highest speeds.
In its current form, the bill allows the Village to do what it can do already — lower the speed limit to 25 mph on any of its own streets (not the many state-owned roads). The bill will automatically lower the default on all Village owned streets to 25 mph, instead of the Village having to do it street by street. And what about the state-owned roads? It appears the bill will need DOT approval to touch those roads. And it would be a Christmas miracle kind of world if that happens. Thus far, no one in a leadership position has taken this on.
4.) Active Transportation Plan: The joint Town and Village Active Transportation Plan will hopefully be finalized and adopted soon. That will serve as the guiding force for improvements to make the area safer for those getting around by something other than a car.
Jumping through the hoops of bureaucracy for big road design changes takes a long time and lots of funding. The Village is taking low cost measures on streets it does have jurisdiction on — speed humps, frequently painting fog lines & parking spots and placing lots of the “Stop for Pedestrians” signs at crosswalks. Our main roads, however, remain dangerous for anyone outside a car (and in them sometimes). And as we sit waiting for real changes, we need flags to get our kids to school safely.
Simple things like what this neighborhood dad did by putting out flags does matter. It’s one intersection, but it matters for those who use that crossing. Now imagine if we can get an army of people adopting intersections on their streets. 🙂 It can be the spark to get people to demand more of its own village and town. Together, maybe we can do what no one else has been able to do — change a culture in a village that puts cars before people.