More crosswalks for pedestrian safety and convenience

Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 9:07 PM
by Kyle
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Kyle, Tuesday, 19 January 2016, 9:22 PM
An issue many people face, including myself, are the rare existence of mid-road crosswalks within many cities of Washington State. Walking and biking are my main forms of transportation for me. The most problematic issue i encounter walking is having to walk to a distant intersection to cross over to the other side of a road safely and legally. An even worse scenario for me is crossing a wide, busy road on my bicycle to get to a convenient store i'll be working at. The road doesn't have any stop lights or crosswalks at all and by what i’ve seen, fatal traffic accidents occur much more on the road than others. Due to this fact, i fear crossing the road. I’ve known and seen many others that encounter these very same issues as me. To reduce traffic accidents involving pedestrians, I propose that all single and long roads are require to have at least two forms of a pedestrian crosswalk. It could be as cheap as a pedestrian crossing sign to a full blown stoplight intersection depending on the traffic the road has. If a city council wants to use there funding for a different project they will still be required to have the lowest form of a crosswalk. A miniscule increase onto Public Road Construction taxes would pay for materials and construction costs for the crosswalks. Enforcement for pedestrian safety would be based on current Washington State Pedestrian Laws. A new law would also be formed specifically for pedestrians that will fine any seen idlers on crosswalks that prevent traffic flow. Success of this policy will be based on annual pedestrian accident statistics acquired by the Washington State government. GRADE Analysis: Goal: Creation of more mid-road crosswalks Rivals Supporters: students, parents, exercisers, non-automobile commuters Opposers: auto-mobile users, taxpayers, working class Advantages: Reduces dangers and penalties placed on pedestrians and drivers by reducing jaywalking and negligence at costs as low as paint and a sign. Disadvantages: Increases slowing traffic and doesn’t ensure physical protection. Also increase the chances of automobile accidents Evaluate: Comparing a small tax to a human life, this policy seems to outweigh disadvantages. The worst thing to come out of this policy is slower traffic but this could happen also without crosswalks due to traffic accidents caused by jay walkers could happen also without crosswalks due to traffic accidents caused by jay walkers
Tags: crosswalks, safety, students
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BA

No Drop-off on Red Sidewalk

Tuesday, 30 December 2014, 11:16 AM
by Bernardo
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Lourdes, Monday, 12 January 2015, 4:08 PM

There are many parents that either pick-up or drop-off their kids inside the school’s student parking lot, rather than using the “loop,” which is designed for the sole purpose to pick-up and drop-off. It’s causing congestion inside the parking lot and poses a fire hazard because they are parking next to a red fire-lane sidewalk.

The congestion will result in traffic and some student who try to park have complained that they have been tardy to class because of this. Another problem is that in the case of a fire or some other type of emergency, the fire-trucks, ambulances, and police cars will have a hard time trying to park their vehicle because parents’ cars get in the way.

The vehicle code12.64.225 Parking Against Red Curb states: a person shall not stop, park , or leave their vehicle adjacent to a curb that is designated by a red paint. We want to enforce this policy more to let parents know that what they are doing is illegal and hazardous.

We want to work on this to prevent accidents and prevent complications to the emergency services. Surveys that we’ve created were given to students that use that parking lot, and all of them agreed that it indeed does cause a problem for them when they try to park and or leave. Also, students that are dropped-off by the red zone were asked if they knew their parents were parking next to a sidewalk painted in red. Most of them responded that they had no idea and that they didn’t notice the red paint. Our buy-in from this problem is that students that park in that parking lot, which includes me and other students with a permit with a a permit to drive, will not have to go through the congestion that is currently happening, and the emergency services will not have to struggle to find an area to park and quickly respond to an emergency.

We will contact our school’s sheriff and discuss the problem. We are going to have the sheriff park his vehicle by the area where the congestion is happening, for a few days to keep the parents from parking there. We are also thinking of making the district have create a sign to emphasize to the parents that what they are doing is illegal and possibly receive a fine for doing so.

Tags: illegal, red sidewalk, school, parking lot, students, parents
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