Crossing West Hollywood’s busy streets may become a bit easier, and safer, if the City Council on Monday approves a proposal to install flashing lights at three more locations.
Those locations are Santa Monica Boulevard at Palm and Hancock avenues and San Vicente Boulevard in front of the West Hollywood Library. The city’s Department of Public Works and Department of Community Development also recommend that the council authorize the retention of flashing lights at crosswalks on Santa Monica Boulevard at Westmount Drive and at Orange Grove Avenue and at Crescent Heights Boulevard at Norton Avenue.
A report to the council notes that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has identified four accidents involving pedestrians and one involving a bicyclist at the Hancock Avenue crossing and three pedestrian accidents at the Palm crossing. The city also is researching the possibility of improving lighting over the crosswalks so that pedestrians will be more visible to motorists at night.
i was a witness to a young jogger hit by a car as her head smashed into and broke the windshield. The man who hit her truely did not see her as he had a truck on his right obstructing his ability to see the girl as she thought all was clear for her because the truck driver waved her on, The lights (especially IN the road surface) would allow a driver to know that there is a pedestrian currently in the crosswalk. They are really the only logical responsible thing that the city can do to protect both walkers… Read more »
These lights are better than nothing, but a far better solution would be the pedestrian light in the heart of Fairfax district. It turns into a regular red stop light but after a few moments. So, a busy intersection like westmount and smb (24 hr to Starbucks) it would force pedestrians to gather for a moment, just a minute or two, before turning red and causing all traffic to halt. This is FAR safer for walkers and FAR better for drivers as it can be infuriating to have one by one jump off the curb and grind traffic to a… Read more »
Wholeheartedly agree with the posters here who feel that the pedestrian “problem” is indeed the pedestrians’ problem. To say “the pedestrian has the right of way” is a technicality. While the driver of the vehicle in a vehicle/pedestrian encounter can be more easily held liable under California law, the law serves to make pedestrians complacent and naively apathetic, as though there’s a legal ‘force field’ protecting them from danger. Note to those who have never lived outside California – the car has the right of way in almost every other state, and you’ll notice that pedestrians in those states will… Read more »
That’s just ridiculous. Driving is a privledge – not a right. Just because a driver is late for whatever it is doesn’t give him to the right to drive dangerously and at high speed in a high pedestrian area that has bright warning signs indicating their presence. The driver MUST drive with caution and at a speed at which he can stop quickly and easily in case a pedestrian rightfully enters the crosswalk. I’m not saying pedestrians shouldn’t be careful – I think that’s obvious. Nor can they just fling themselves into traffic. But that is NOT what’s happening at… Read more »
They should put these lights at every single pedestrian crosswalk. Anything to reduce the chances of a pedestrian being hit and to get drivers to pay more attention is worth the investment. These flashing lights also put some of the responsibility on the pedestrian, which I think is a good thing.
Coby you are correct, pedestrians do have the right of way, and also the right to be stupid and inconsiderate. I have sat at Starbucks and watched people crossing at that crosswalk without even looking to see if there is any traffic. Nor do they even bother to push the button on the post which would make the lights on the signs flash. I am a pedestrian; I don’t even own a car. I value my life too much to just walk out into a crosswalk and expect the traffic to stop for me. I know I’m in the vast… Read more »
This will be a good move. I am a driver and there are blind spots when there is heavy traffic and someone is crossing and is hidden by trucks and vans yet the opposite side of traffic is moving freely. It is hard to see someone crossing until they try to leap out from behind the standstill vehicles into a lane of free flowing cars. I’ve nearly hit a few people and I make certain to look intently but since I drive SMB frequently, I do see some people throwing themselves into traffic creating a very dangerous scenario. Especially at… Read more »
@skylar, with all due respect, pedestrians HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY in the crosswalks. NOT cars. Cars HAVE to stop and should already be driving slowly through what is clearly a heavy pedestrian area. Those big neon pedestrian signs? Those are to let cars know that there are pedestrians in the immediate area and they need to SLOW down and look both ways before ramming through at 50 mph. I have been almost hit more times than I can count by drivers who CLEARLY saw me and just don’t care because they are in a hurry. I actually think that… Read more »
actually, ‘if you get hit by a car because you’re in a cross walk then
the driver was probably drugged, drunk, texting, or on the phone..
YES to the flashing lights in the pavement, too. At Crescent Heights and Norton there are already flashing lights on the signs and people just ignore them.
I am a pedestrian (with dogs), a driver and a resident in the crosswalks area. Drivers need to slow down and pedestrians HAVE to have some respect for drivers. As a driver it pisses me off when the gym bunnies and starbucks groupies “jump” into the crosswalks against the stop and go of traffic almost as if they want to “stop traffic”. They race into the crosswalks and expect the world to halt where others feel it out and respectfully wait for the traffic to slow down a little before crossing. Jumping in front of traffic going 35-40 MPH is… Read more »
Lets not forget to mention the 2 guys who DIED at SMB/Palm over a year ago and a guy who was just hit in the same crosswalk a few weeks back—-why did the city take a YEAR to do something about this hazard and why aren’t other such crosswalks like SMB/Hayworth getting them too??—also, the council really needs to vote for the retention of the existing flashers? CRAZY—and yes, those crosswalks need to be better lit too; they are extremely dark for drivers—-i’m predicting some who respond will say it’s up to the walker to make sure cars are stopped,… Read more »
This should have been done long ago. But they also should install embedded flashing lights in the crosswalk pavement itself. Anything to improve the chances of pedestrian safety and accident avoidance is a better use of funds than things like a $20 million robogarage.