By Clarence Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 19, 2008
D.C. officials are planning to release a five-year, $12 million pedestrian strategy today that includes better timing of signals, clearer marking of crosswalks and other steps to reduce accidents and injuries.
The initiative, devised through the D.C. Department of Transportation, will target 61 "high hazard" traffic intersections, including many with a large number of pedestrian injuries or deaths over three years. The plan calls for measures such as restriping crosswalks and changing signal timing to allow more time for people to cross intersections.
The heavily congested intersection of Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue NE tops the list of dangerous pedestrian crossings from 2004 through 2006, with 13 pedestrians hit; 14th and U streets NW, with 12 crashes, is second.
George Branyan, the city's pedestrian coordinator, spoke about creating "a culture of civility" between pedestrians and drivers. For now, however, the city must depend on new public education programs, better engineered intersections and a lot of tickets for lawbreakers, he said.
In recent years, officials have faced growing pressure to make Washington more walkable. Although the struggle of pedestrians vs. automobiles is a century old, the increased urbanization of the District over the past decade has created new battle zones downtown and in many neighborhoods.
First among them is the area around Verizon Center in Penn Quarter. In addition to the volume of traffic brought on by development, the problems there involve the high-tech video billboards that emulate New York's Times Square and are a distraction for drivers and walkers. First District police Cmdr. David Kamperin said he thinks the huge screens were at fault for a hit-and-run accident along Seventh Street NW that seriously injured a woman.
Last year, 25 pedestrians were killed in the city, the highest number in the past five years. Two of those were female friends who were struck and killed by a turning Metrobus as they were leaving their offices on Valentine's Day.
Traffic safety advocates, city officials and residents said the number of fatalities is troubling but not necessarily the best indicator of pedestrian safety. The fear created by repeated near misses is a more reliable yardstick, they said. And throughout the city, people can attest to more and more close calls.
Almost every morning, retiree Anna Boyd, 61, must walk six blocks out of her way, just to find an intersection where she feels safe crossing busy I Street SW. At that time of day, her neighborhood is the destination for thousands of federal employees, who she said often drive through crosswalks where she has the right of way.
"They not only will not stop for you," Boyd said at a recent forum on pedestrian safety, but they also make rude hand gestures, she said.
Francis Campbell's east Capitol Hill neighborhood has seen such an increase in evening commuters along 19th Street and Independence Avenue SE over the past two years that, he said, he and others take "their lives into their hands running across the street."
Outside the Anacostia Metro station in Southeast, Sean Gaston, 42, a cook at American University, sometimes holds his breath watching teenagers jaywalking in front of speeding Howard Road traffic as they "walk out in the street like they have bumpers."
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said that "people are terrified crossing the streets, depending on the time of day and the location." He said immediate action is needed, and not just downtown. One hot spot he cited: 16th Street and Park Road NW, where a 24-year-old District woman was killed by a turning Metrobus just days before the Valentine's Day 2007 accident.
In recent months, meetings have taken place across the city. Council members Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) are among officials who have sponsored safety workshops for their constituents in the city's upper Northwest and Capitol Hill areas.
Many talks feature Bill Schultheiss, a traffic engineer and consultant to the District, who has made it his avocation to get his message across at such forums. Although he's also an advisory neighborhood commissioner, it's his laptop rather than his elective office that commands attention.
Over the past year, Schultheiss has loaded his computer with maps and photos of the entire city. With those, he has compiled hundreds of PowerPoint slides illustrating ways to slow down cars and make some of the city's more dangerous intersections safer for those who walk.
He stressed that streets would be safer if people simply slowed down and obeyed the laws. "Instead," he said, "we have to pay a fortune to make people change."
Schultheiss often tells residents and officials that they have options besides loading the streets with more red lights and stop signs. "To rely on one tool leads to failure, you need variety," Schultheiss said. "It's more than a speed bump, it's more than a stop sign."
Among his suggestions:
· Give pedestrians a few seconds head start at stop lights, before cars are given a green signal.
· Combine speed bumps and crosswalks.
· Add Rapid Flash Beacons that alert motorists to crosswalks and even set off brilliant lights in the pavement when a pedestrian enters the intersection.
The District's new strategy mirrors some of Schultheiss's recommendations. The city already is installing Rapid Flash Beacons, with the first put in last month along Brentwood Road NE. The light show must be activated by a pedestrian pushing a red button. It sets off orange strobe lights around the "Stop" pedestrian crossing signs posted on either side of the crosswalk. As the lights go on, a soft, female, digital voice advises walkers to "please wait for traffic to stop." Other written instructions urge pedestrians to "Thank the driver" as they pass.
On a recent afternoon, the new system was met with mixed results. Some pedestrians used it, others didn't seem to notice and some drivers paid no attention.
Tammy Brown didn't even see the new warning system as she navigated her Brentwood Road crossing, pushing her 3-month-old son Majayden in his stroller. "It's steady traffic going through here," she said later. "They need to put something here."
Randolph Brevard, 73, said it took him a couple of days to figure out the new signal system, which is on his daily route to the supermarket for orange juice and a newspaper. "Before they put it up there, the traffic wouldn't even stop. It was stand and wait."
A similar device is being installed on Howard Road SE at the Metro station, where five people were hit in a three-year period. This one will also have lights embedded in the street to illuminate the crosswalk.
Currently the intersection has just a yellow pylon to slow traffic -- similar to those at scores of other dangerous intersections across the city. They clearly haven't helped. The one on Howard stands battered and barely upright. In a 30-minute period one recent afternoon, the pylon was plowed down by a private bus and two Metrobuses in rapid succession.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.