Living Car Free - Finally, someone with a little power in my city gets it (as a ped, at least)

The editor of Spokane's newspaper just posted his experience with walking to work on his newspaper blog: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/conversation/archive.asp?postID=25296

As I and other posters have suggested, it's not just Downtown Spokane. I'm thrilled that someone with some power and reputation in our community realizes there's a problem and is experiencing the physical peril that goes with living car-free. Mr. Smith often reads and responds to those who comment on his blog entries. My suggestions (I'm Autumn in the comments) probably isn't feasable, but can any of you suggest anything pedestrian-oriented that might work and make a difference?

Maybe if more people like Mr. Smith from the newspaper have problems, they can advocate for all of us and we'll see some change.

(I hope this isn't a Advocacy and Safety thing, if it is please move it and smack me with a noodle of your choosing. I think it relates more to living car-free, but since I'm new around here I'm not sure where this should be.)

I think it takes a little bit of skill and practice to be a safe pedestrian. I can't say precisely what are the necessary skills, but to walk safely it's important to maintain good situational awareness, to think ahead, and to know a little bit about the common kinds of mistakes drivers make.

I think it takes a little bit of skill and practice to be a safe pedestrian. I can't say precisely what are the necessary skills, but to walk safely it's important to maintain good situational awareness, to think ahead, and to know a little bit about the common kinds of mistakes drivers make.

You develop a different mental filter along the lines of "If it can't kill/maim me don't worry about it, if it can whats my plan?"
For example, in the DC area you gotta always watch the "hot rights" that the urban planners are so fond of. The car driver is looking left for the cars that can get him, and turning right ignoring the pedestrians in the crosswalk to his/her right. A car might be doing something fascinating while driving across the intersection but you shouldn't waste mental energy on it when its trajectory won't intersect yours. Biking in fast traffic can be the same. With walking you have these long intervals of respite between danger zones.

For some reason, it sounds like the downtown area needs some kind of traffic-calming engineer. It sounds like adjacent towns are actually OK, so I would conclude that some of the problems mentioned in the article must stem from the way streets are laid out.

One thing I notice about downtown is that when there are very straight streets and when lights are set up so that driver can go from green to green very easily, drivers tend to almost unconsciously step on the pedal. If the lights were randomly set to slow down the flow, the downtown might get safer at lights and crosswalks.

Is this just a feature of Spokane?

^ Heh. Set the lights to run as opposites. Whenever one set is green, the other set should turn red. When that set turns red, the next set turns green. Would do a lot to slow things down.

^ Heh. Set the lights to run as opposites. Whenever one set is green, the other set should turn red. When that set turns red, the next set turns green. Would do a lot to slow things down.

I'm not sure you would have to go to that extreme, but when pedestrians feel they can't safely walk in an area, something should be done. I suspect there are a number of similar tricks that could greatly improve the situation and would probably get more cyclists and pedestrians on those streets.

[QUOTE=gerv;7236406

One thing I notice about downtown is that when there are very straight streets and when lights are set up so that driver can go from green to green very easily, drivers tend to almost unconsciously step on the pedal. If the lights were randomly set to slow down the flow, the downtown might get safer at lights and crosswalks.
[/QUOTE]
I lived in Alexandria when they set the green wave on US 1. They set it for 10 mph or so ABOVE the speed limit so in order to stay in the green wave you had to speed. Nice traffic calming. I'm not sure if they ever fixed it. I had a car at the time and had the opportunity to test it. If I caught the end of the wave and did the speed limit I'd loose it. If they set the green wave to be just below the speed limit drivers who speed would outrun the greens and be forced to slow down.

I'm one of the few Spokanites, as a pedestrian, that don't really like crossing at intersections in the downtown area due to the seemingly heightened risk of a collision with a situationally unaware driver. When you're at a crosswalk, you're at the mercy of the person looking into the direction their turning which, often times, is neglected by looking in the direction that other drivers might be coming from. When you're crossing between intersections(in the one-way downtown area, anyways.), there's much more advanced notice of potential traffic conflicts and the frequent traffic stops make for vast opportunity between blocks being traveled. Also, a driver who could potentially collide is, hopefully, much more likely to look in your direction: forwards.

Anyways, I don't really go downtown that often but I praise its one way design. The persistent storm of bidirectional traffic on regal street between 37th and 57th anywhere after 10 A.M. often makes crossing it an absurdity(Or, expect absurdly long wait times) EXCEPT at 37th or 57th, especially on bicycle.