Peeve O' The Day: September 8, 2011
Thu, 09/08/2011 - 3:11pm | by blindeke
Almost Getting a Crosswalk Correctly
The "stop for pedestrians in crosswalk" sign near the busy Grand and Syndicate intersection.
Here's a busy street corner in St Paul's pedestrian friendly Grand Avenue where the city ALMOST got it right. They took the trouble to put in a "Please Stop for Pedestrians in Crosswalk" neon yellow sign across from the grocery store.
The only trouble is that there are no crosswalks anywhere near here.
Comments
Doh! Didn't mean to steal
Doh! Didn't mean to steal your thunder, Bill.
Sure there's a crosswalk -- it's just invisible! I call these things "implicit crosswalks". I wish they'd bother to paint them more often...
just sayin'
implicit crosswalks are not crosswalks.
i mean
its not just semantics. when i was here walking past i watched a lady madly dash between these moving cars crossing from Kowalski's. if there was an actualy crosswalk painted here, giving clear indication to drivers that pedestrians have the right of way, i doubt she'd have to run for her life.
st paul has always relied on 'implicit' signals for traffic calming, bike lanes, etc. well, that doesn't actually work very well.
Apparently drivers are still
Apparently drivers are still required to stop even when there is no cross-walk, so long as there is an intersection with either a crosswalk or where there are no traffic control signals.
"We live in a motorized society where being a pedestrian can be risky. In 1996 Minnesota made it a little easier to be a pedestrian by passing a law requiring drivers to stop and yield right-of-way to pedestrians in a marked crosswalk or at an intersection where there are no traffic control signals in place. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. "
http://www.minnesotasafetycouncil.org/facts/factsheet.cfm?qs=45336BAD8E87C9B4
Yet, if there is a controlled intersection without a crosswalk, apparently you are free to run over pedestrians. That didn't make sense, so I looked up actual laws.
The actual laws are here:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP_SEC&year=current§ion=169.21
"d) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section every driver of a vehicle shall (1) exercise due care to avoid colliding with any bicycle or pedestrian upon any roadway and (2) give an audible signal when necessary and exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway"
So the law says it is a game of chicken and both sides must yield.
The signs would be more helpful if they simply said "yield to pedestrians".