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City to try 'tactical crossing islands,' other steps to make Tremont Street in the South End safer for pedestrians
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"crossing islands"
aka "jaywalking launch platforms"
Many other cities deal with these things in more reasonable ways - LIKE SLOWING THE CARS DOWN.
What?
If they're being built in the middle of existing crosswalks, how could the people be jaywalking?
The City reduced the speed limit to 25. Yes, BPD needs to enforce it better.
How could they be jaywalking?
Simple.
The light going their direction is RED and/or the crossing light says DON'T WALK.
Check out how well the divided highway on Cambridge Street works sometimes. All that space could have been used for far better things than making drivers speed even worse and pedestrians play semi-frogger.
If these are unsignalized crosswalks, it would be far better to just slow all the cars down.
Pedestrian refuge islands are
Pedestrian refuge islands are primarily beneficial at unsignalized crosswalks, where the jaywalking argument is irrelevant.
Also, median islands when done properly ARE one of the primary tools to slow drivers down.
Jaywalking
Easy. If there's a Don't Walk sign.
Yes, please
Both walking and driving on Tremont are harrowing experiences right now.
Then why the hell did the
Then why the hell did the city remove the crossing island on Tremont Street next to the government center T stop?!
The whole length of Tremont needs a road diet. Take away driving lanes and use the space for wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes. If drivers complain then tell them this is what they get for killing pedestrians in crosswalks. Better yet make it pedestrian only like St Catherine street in Montreal.
Surprise surprise
Kinopio accuses all motorists of homicide and proposes punishing them all by making it harder to get where they need to go.
What's a Kinopio dilemma? A government-run motor vehicle. Like a city bus.
City buses
Are driven by people who are trained, specially licensed and often very experienced, and who face consequences if they hurt or kill someone.
Regular drivers' licenses are handed out like Halloween candy, and their owners almost never face consequences if they hurt or kill someone.
Why only prioritize drivers?
Why only prioritize drivers? What about prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists so they can get more quickly (and safely) to where they need to go?
I've never understood this "Get out of the way of my damn car" attitude - we're talking about making streets better & safer for everyone, whether you're on foot, bike, car or bus.
Why should cars be the only consideration? This is a city and people use lots of ways of getting around. Car owners are no more special or deserving of priority treatment than anyone else.
Right on!
Cars are the problem: they spew pollution, take up ridiculous amounts of space, kill their drivers (obesity, inactivity, stress), and kill other people.
Cycling, buses, walking are the solution: compact, adequately fast for urban travel, healthy
Thumbs up
I so want to "thumbs up" this post but until Adam fixes the problem, this will have to do.
Thanks Markk!
I'll take your thumbs up however you dish it up!
Why only prioritize drivers for punishment?
Pedestrians have their sidewalks and drivers have their streets. Everyone needs to get where they're going and we separate different modes of transport to allow everyone to do so safely. More people live outside the city of Boston than in it and we ought not penalize them in favor of the younger crowd that likes the city life and can bike and walk to work.
I've never understood the mentality that labels anything not anti-car as a mean-spirited and callous "get out of the way of my damn car" and nothing else. And I still don't. The reason I don't want you in the way of my damn car is because I don't want one moment of inattention from me to be the end of you. If it's a car I bump, it's no sweat off anyone's back. If it's you, that's another story entirely. I try to be attentive. I drive carefully. I've never caused an auto accident in my life, but I've been rear ended a couple of times, and I can't promise my perfect streak will keep going. So I don't want to see you, whether on foot or on bicycle, in front of my car unless I'm stopped at a red light or a stop sign. For Your Own Safety. Period.
More people live outside the
God damn right we could and should penalize people who don't live in the city if it helps people who actually lives here. There are almost 700k living in the City of Boston right now, and our population is growing. Little whiny suburbanites can either deal with it or move to the city - maybe they shouldn't have abandoned Boston in the first place and left it to rot.
People like you
deserve yourselves.
But don't mind me. I'm over the wall. There's nothing to envy beyond the walls. I'm just a voice in your head.
Ummm
You do realize a big chunk of those 700,000 live in car-dependent part seems of Boston and own a car and only a small percentage live in places where they can walk or bike to work, right?
Suggestion
Look at census data and demographic information before making idiotic comments.
You have limited access roads
You have limited access roads to go fast. Slow down and pay attention the streets are for more than motorized traffic.
Public resource PAID by far more than just drivers, so share the resource which means it is optimized for safety and NOT just for the impatient and inconvenienced.
If I have every right to be on front of your car and you are butt hurt about it, I have a rehab program for you.
Want to make it easier for drivers to get where they want to go?
Simple solution: make it easier for drivers to get out of their cars and use a more appropriate means of transport.
That frees up the roadway space for those who have disabilities, and reduces future disabilities through fitness.
That's the sort of thing that
requires building rail lines without turning them into multibillion dollar giveaways to the in-crowd construction companies that still manage to get bogged down in design-by-committee nonsense with community paths and the kitchen sink and everything except the bloody train.
Raised median for pedestrians more valuable than bike lanes
Research studies have shown that raised pedestrian medians reduce crashes far more than bike lanes, thus saving more lives. Pedestrians will jaywalk no matter what, and these medians provide harm reduction (similar theory to needle exchange) by 50%. Bike lanes are nowhere near that effective, not to mention cyclists are far fewer in number than pedestrians.
Sidewalk widening has been needlessly excessive in many places where transportation is inadequate. The purpose of roads and sidewalks is for people to move about, not to make cafe' seating for businesses who want cheap rent for patron seating, at taxpayer expense.
"Daylighting" is nonsense. Better lighting at night is what saves lives despite pedestrians and cyclists doing their best to not be seen with dark clothing and no mandated headlights.
Ste. Catherine's is
Ste. Catherine's is pedestrian only?
The Court/Tremont/Cambridge intersection redo is a mess
...for everyone who uses it. It goes much further than the removal of the island. Add to that extremely poorly placed traffic signals (placed way beyond where cars should stop on both Cambridge and Court streets) which confuse drivers as to where they're supposed to stop and trap them in the intersection after the light changes (and induces crosswalk blocking), excessive waits for walk signals, crosswalk placements that completely ignore the flow of pedestrian and auto traffic, and the aforementioned removal of the safety island. It's like they got a deal on a traffic signal and roadway paint but didn't have quite enough to do it right.
St Catherine St in Montreal
St Catherine St in Montreal is not pedestrian only.
In fact it looks remarkably like many streets in Boston (e.g. Tremont along the common): https://goo.gl/maps/HT9taKGAMzq
They do close segments of it to vehicles for special events, and did a trial of closing a few blocks of it for a few months this summer (except for delivery trucks and emergency vehicles) in the Gay Village though.
Crazy idea
How about we enforce traffic laws? I routinely cross Tremont on foot and I cannot remember a time when cars have actually stopped for pedestrians in a marked crosswalk... Including cops!
But yeah, let's lower the unenforced speed limit and install yet another obstacle for impatient drivers to navigate in the form of "tactical islands." Walking in a city shouldn't require anything "tactical."
island hopping
Better get Kon Tiki out of storage.
It's sunny out
But maybe the cold has made everyone here all bitter and whiney.
I'd like to commend the citizens groups who proposed some smart ideas for making this street safer. And the city for moving relatively quickly (as these things go) to make improvements.
Thanks to both the Civic groups and public officials for moving this in the right direction.
.
Nice idea. How about speed
Nice idea. How about speed detectors with cameras and heavy fines?
Why do they bend over backwards to allow drivers to become worse in order to maintain levels of safety for pedestrians?
Attack the problem. Poorly behaved inattentive drivers, the source of the hazard.
That is Half the problem...
On this stretch of road (Tremont St in the S. End), I agree that drivers move too fast and need more respect for peds and cross-walks.
But for the most part, pedestrians in this city are half the problem. They seem to have no idea what a 'Dont Walk' sign means, among other problems.
And I walk more often than I drive. I definitely support improvements to walking infrastructure, but the number of people I see stepping off curbs against a Don't Walk in front of legally turning cars blows my mind.
I love this talk about the sanctity of Don't Walk signs.
Its hilarious when people treat jay-walking like it's murder one (it's ILLEGAL!). I also love the idea that you shouldn't simply install a couple of pieces of curb, but instead man all cross-walks with cops to dispense tickets (Why don't they enforce the law!). Thanks kids, you've been a big help. Not hysterical at all.