CROSSWALKS
MADE OF BUMPY PAVERS AND COBBLESTONES
MAKE NO SENSE
If you were
designing a place for human being to cross four, sometimes six or more lanes of
traffic – you would want it to be safe, right?
You would create
a surface that is smooth and free of tripping hazards.
Something
low maintenance.
What have
cities done for decades?
The install brick,
paver and cobbled crosswalks to look cool and urban.
The bumps
and inevitable missing pavers jar wheelchair users from their mobility devices.
They trip
older and younger pedestrians.
When the
person falls and is injured by the fall – or terrible injured or killed by a
vehicle…authorities call it an accident.
Poor design
is no accident.
For ages, we
have been planning, engineering and building urban corridors where the giant
speeding vehicles that weigh several tons get the smooth surface.
Pedestrians –
including those using wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes and other assistive
mobility devices – are exposed to an uneven surface – as they are given 30
second or loss to avoid rubber tired killing machines racing 45 mph or faster.
If this makes
sense, please tell me how.
I suggested
smooth, pigmented concrete or painted asphalt.
But pedestrian-centered,
urban-minded traffic engineer told me paint is rarely allowed under the Manual
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTACD) – created by
the Federal Highway Administration to allegedly make the world safer for people
walking, rolling and biking.
Painted crosswalks
could and should be a better visual cue for cars, trucks and buses to slow down
as they are approaching a crosswalk.
We cannot
keep creating the hazardous pathway of bricks, pavers and cobbles – and pretend
it is for pedestrian safety.
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