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Add to this that pedestrian bridges are often very expensive (not to mention the ADA issues and sometimes having to provide an elevator in addition to the stairs) and you've got a pretty good case for just having exceptionally awesome street-level pedestrian accommodations instead.
I'm not a bike/ped expert, how would you suggest improving street-level pedestrian accommodations at say a Six Forks Road at North Hills with 6 lanes.
I'm not a bike/ped expert, how would you suggest improving street-level pedestrian accommodations at say a Six Forks Road at North Hills with 6 lanes.
Specifically looking at the intersection of Six Forks and Dartmouth/"Main Street" (entrance to North Hills) I'd say it would help to:
- reduce the speed limit on Six Forks
- stripe the North Hills side of Dartmouth/"Main Street" as a crosswalk (there's a signal but no pavement markings that I can see)
- add a signal/refuge to the median on the south side of Six Forks with an additional button for pedestrians
- possibly increase the time pedestrians are given to cross (adjust traffic signal timing accordingly) and/or maybe have a "pedestrian only" phase so no cars are moving when pedestrians are - so less chance of antsy people turning right into people crossing and other incidents)
- MUCH better signage for motorists (over head "yield to pedestrians" etc)
That's all I can think of now. Sometimes separated crossing structures are needed and used, but not always and other things need to be tried first. I'd also wonder about the pedestrian volume there and counts should be done.
That's a place where it would be worth the trouble and expense, IMO.
Do you say this because it's dangerous for pedestrians because of the traffic volume and road width, or because there's a high volume of pedestrians that cross near here? Or both?
- possibly increase the time pedestrians are given to cross (adjust traffic signal timing accordingly) and/or maybe have a "pedestrian only" phase so no cars are moving when pedestrians are - so less chance of antsy people turning right into people crossing and other incidents)
I'm a big fan of this. Charlotte recently implemented this at several intersections (where cars weren't allowed to turn right if a pedestrian pushed the crosswalk button) and it won best project award at the NC Institute of Transportation Engineers annual meeting last year. There are definitely several spots where Raleigh should consider it.
I don't think the City will push the speed limit any lower than 35 mph.
Road width is definitely an issue there in that it takes too long to cross the street without a decent median refuge.
I'm not a bike/ped expert, how would you suggest improving street-level pedestrian accommodations at say a Six Forks Road at North Hills with 6 lanes.
I'd also have to add that while there may be things that can be done to help this situation now, it's probably best that better land use, traffic and other forms of planning head this kind of problem off before we get there. That is...when is it ever really safe for pedestrians to cross this many lanes in this kind of condition? Take Capital Blvd for example. I'm not sure there's any sort of treatment that can be implemented to make crossing Capital as safe as we'd like to. Even if there were 1 pedestrian bridge across it, putting it in a place where the majority of people would use it is unlikely - people cross Capital mid-'block' all the time and don't even use the crosswalk! So in that case we'd need more and more bridges (that people still may or may not use) so what can we do to decrease the need to cross by making other kinds of choices before we get in this situation? I don't have lots of answers, but I think that's where we should be looking in the future.
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