In which our heroine thinks about something other than herself for a minute

[anagramofbrat]

In Things Going On Outside Of My Head® news, I've actually been thinking a lot about That Accursed Crosswalk in light of yet another person getting severely injured in it, and wondering what all could be done to make that crossing safer. If, indeed, it's even possible, considering this latest accident happened after they installed a stoplight there, which was in response to the last accident six months ago. Flashing reds are just as easy to blow through as a regular red, especially on a straightaway part of 116 like that. Dropping the speed limit? Maybe, though I'd think it'd have to go down at least 10 miles (it's 40 currently) to have any sort of actual effect. Really making that light and area a major speed trap might be the only way of helping things from the controlling traffic end - park a statie at Dunks, or even better set up a camera system at that light that tickets by mail. Course, all of that is hideously expensive so who knows what, if anything will happen.

Granted the last two accidents occurred in the crossing with pedestrian right of way, but I think something probably ought to happen regarding pedestrian control too, considering people jaywalk like all fuck when getting off the bus on the Cliffside side of the road because the actual bus stop is a little ways ahead of the light. In various traffic clog points around Manhattan they actually put rails up to curb the jaywalking. Of course, maybe it's a thought to just drastically reduce the need for pedestrians to be in the road at all and make it feasible somehow to route the bus through both Cliffside and Squire themselves thus eliminating 85% of the need to cross 116 right there? Again, probably not... and I seriously doubt I'm coming up anything new here, but it shuts up the parts of my brain thinking out loud about this.

In other news, beautiful day out there. Nice to see some sunshine, and I've been seeing crocus shoots shyly poking up from the ground already. No robins yet, but I am keeping a lookout. I'm ready for Spring, allergies be damned.

Comments

[harinezumi.livejournal.com]

If someone's willing to run a red light, they probably don't care much about the speed limit. Lowering it in the area would just make life harder for the law-abiding drivers without impacting the behavior of drunks and idiots. Aside from putting a camera on the light, all you can really do is be paranoidly vigilant when crossing that street.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the things that helps me when I'm driving is those stupid orange flags they have at some crosswalks for you to carry across. I try to look for folks at crosswalks, but it's not always easy. Do they have a few of those around?