A pedestrian-friendly community is one that accords the same priority and respect to pedestrians as to other travelers. Walking is transportation, and it is a vital part of our economy and our city. The time of considering pedestrians as second-class citizens on our roads should end now.

I. Intersections with Stoplights

A. Pedestrian Crossing Signals

Audible signals

All new crosswalk signals should be audible, It's as simple as that.

Go-Flash-Stop Signals

These are the older style that are hopefully being retired.

Countdown Timers

We think it's obvious that the safety increases these timers give are from giving the pedestrian a realistic estimate of the time they need to cross the intersection, so that they do not get trapped. However, not everyone agrees with giving pedestrians a realistic estimate - somehow in Louisville many (most?) of these are calibrated to count down to some arbitrary time, after which the || green is still lit, often for up to a minute. This just baffles us. Pedestrians are corralled waiting up to two minutes again for a "white man", while || traffic is allowed to proceed unimpeded? This is not fair to the pedesrians, they have too narrow a crossing time window. They will violate the law and cross illegally, more than reversing any safety improvements. We strongly oppose this timing system. The count-down should count-down to the time when || traffic gets a yellow light, not 35 seconds before!!

No Crosswalk Signals

Intersections without crosswalk signals are fine. The law allows pedestrians to cross when the light is green.

B. Crosswalk Buttons

Crosswalk buttons are similar in purpose to the car-sensing devices buried at most signalized intersections. When a pedestrian presses the button, or a car rolls over the device, the timing of the light is changed. The cars have the better system, as they don't have to (a) find or (b) go out of their way or (c) actively press their button to be granted the right of way. In addition, many ped buttons have other issues described below.

Existence

At some intersections, mainly downtown, we assume always for the presence of pedestrians, granting them a crosswalk crossing time without the press of a button. This is the best design for pedestrians, because they don't have to have free hands to traverse the intersection. We've been far too conservative in adopting this scheme elsewhere. For example, there are always pedestrians trying to walk along Bardstown Rd, there's no reason to have buttons there, but we have them anyway.

Placement

Placement of crosswalk buttons is important. They should be easy to see find, in the logical traffic path, and it should be easy to figure out which crossing they control.

Button

The button should be easy to press even for people with little finger-strength. The big silver type is good. Put it jutting at hip level so you don't have to put down packages to press it.

Green time-changing

In the case of extremely broad intersections, pedestrian crossing buttons may (I'm not sure) extend the time || green lights are lit, to give the ped time to cross. We support these, but we think they are rare.

Ornamental (White time-changing)

In other cases, pedestrian crossing buttons don't extend the time || green lights are lit, instead they extend (often from zero) the time that crosswalk lights are lit. We strongly oppose these, because of the flipside: when you don't care to press the button (can't find it, too far, arrived at the intersection 0.0001 second late) , you lose the legal aegis of crossing with the ped light and have to wait for an entire new stop light signal to legally cross, even as || traffic crosses. Argh. It's probably better for most customers to have no button at all.

Head-start time-changing

In some cities the crosswalk lights go white before the || traffic light turns green. This is not really a button issue, but a timing issue. We support this is a safety improvement, as it gets peds into a more visible position quickly, making them less susceptible to hook turns from motorists. We do have at least one of these, on 4th opposite the ped entrance to the Belvedere.

II. Intersections Without Stoplights

no opinions.

III. Intersections Without Vehicular cross-traffic

An example of this is a "mid block crosswalk". We are generally dissatisfied with motorist behavior at these crossings, and we are optimistic about modern engineering techniques to calm the situation.