It is SUCH a scary intersection, I hate it, I do it because I absolutely have to! Such a tragedy what happened to Mrs. Coleman

http://ubrayj02.blogspot.com/2009/01/ladot-friend-to-pedestrians.html

If there is some justification that the LADOT needed to install these crosswalks, what was it? Or was it mostly political winds blowing in pedestrian’s direction?

Ubrayj02 stated: “The LADOT’s most recent internal newsletter brags about the installation of several (5 or 7?) pedestrian scrambles in Los Angeles.” Was the stretch along Fig near Olympic mentioned among the places mentioned (if any places were mentioned)?

Another issue: the intersection is a possible future Gold and Blue light rail station for Metro’s Regional Connector.

This will change the nature of the streets and no longer will 5th simply be an on ramp to the 110. No longer will these streets be cut-through opportunities. Anyone bringing a car downtown will begin to think twice about the impact. Kinda like lot’s of other world-class large cities!

When I am waking in the city, I really don’t care if the cars can get through an intersection. It’s funny, because you can always spot the drivers who happen to be walking, they cower in fear and defer to cars when crossing the street.

Unfortunately in Downtown LA the emphasis on enforcement is against the pedestrian, and not the motorists who break every law at every intersection all day long. Try this some time: stand on any street corner and count how many motorists run the lights, block the crosswalks, make illegal turns on red, etc.

“If people start across the intersection after the walk ends, but while the don’t walk is flashing, they will keep the crosswalk active for the entire light cycle leaving no time for vehicles to turn.”

Pardon me for sounding off on this, but what the heck does it matter whether or not cars turn faster at a very, very, busy pedestrian intersection?

More people will be served, at busy intersections like this, with a focus on pedestrian comfort, safety, and convenience.

Further, if one is a small child, older adult, or disabled in some way – don’t they deserve a fair chance at making it across an intersection without the worry of being run over?

I know that the default in this country is to say, “Well, no, pedestrians don’t matter. We time the lights to aid cars.”

I’m asking, “Why this is the default? Are we really such a bunch of lousy bastards that we want to design our cities to be unfriendly and dangerous to humanity’s oldest form of locomotion?”

At least at westwood/LeConte, in addition to the “everybody walk in all directions” time, there are still times for people to cross at the same time that vehicles have a green light in the same direction. But having the “everybody walk” times means that fewer pedestrians build up waiting for the direction-specific walk times, leaving more time for vehicles to turn during those periods since fewer pedestrians means a shorter line of people crossing the street.

If pedestrians on both sides of the street start with the 4 second white phase and continue in both directions across ~70 feet of street, the crosswalk will be full of pedestrians finishing their journey, all the way to the end of the cycle.

Hence the competitive nature of the intersection. It only works for motor vehicles if there are no peds and it only works for peds at the expense of vehicular turning movements and if cars talr advantage of a break in ped traffic, the peds can’t get control of the crosswalk back.

In other words, it is engineered to that motorists and peds compete for space and that is never a good scenario.

If people start across the intersection after the walk ends, but while the don’t walk is flashing, they will keep the crosswalk active for the entire light cycle leaving no time for vehicles to turn.

While peds have the right of way in the crosswalk, they commit an infraction if they start after the don’t walk flasher starts. (This does not, however, excuse mowing them down.)

I note that even at the Westwood/Gayley scramble intersection, impatient peds still cross on the vehicle green against the don’t walk, and that right-turning vehicles still compete to make turns on red during the scramble. The main issue in all of this is people, both peds and drivers, ignoring the rules.

Personally, I am less interested in what specific measures are taken, so long as walking is made immensely safer at this, and just about every other, downtown intersection.

I grew up in Venice, and I remember when I was in elementary school trying to sprint across Venice Blvd. once the green “Walk” sign lit up. My brother and I tried for years (even when we were in high school), and never got across the whole street before it started flashing a red hand. Maybe we were slow runners, but that also says a lot about how poorly our streets are designed for pedestrians in most parts of town.