Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Pedestrian Safety

From Transportation Alternatives in New York: City Pedestrian Crossings Are Discriminatory by Design

12:53 PM PST on December 18, 2007

A story on Streetsblog yesterday covered a report by the reform group Transportation Alternatives showing what many have already guessed. Because of the size of many "urban boulevards" and the short cross time granted, most urban roads are discriminatory to elderly pedestrians.

I'll let T.A.'s Deputy Director of Planning, Carla Quintero, take it from here. Remember, she's talking about New York's street design, but is there any doubt that there findings would apply LA as well?

There are currently over one million senior citizens living in New York City. While they represent only about 13 percent of the population, they account for 33 percent of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Discriminatory by Design (pdf), a report released today by Transportation Alternatives, finds that street design, and in particular the width of a street, is a major contributing factor in negatively influencing pedestrian and driver behavior.

The study focused on the Upper East Side, an area with a high concentration of elderly residents as well as wide cross-town streets that are crossed by thousands of pedestrians and vehicles each day. Within this neighborhood, Transportation Alternatives and Rachel Krug, a doctoral student at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, observed vehicles and pedestrians at 18 locations, 6 wide crossings and 12 narrow crossings (30 feet).

The team found that senior citizens begin to show signs of distress and engage in dangerous crossing behavior -- such as speeding up their walking pace, walking unsteadily, standing in the street before beginning to cross and crossing before the signal has changed -- at wider crossings to compensate for the fact that they walk at slower speeds. Coupled with the fact that 95 percent of vehicles observed during the study period did not yield to pedestrians, the study concludes that wider streets present unacceptable risks to elderly pedestrians. These risks have an overwhelming impact on the well-being and quality of life of senior citizens.

To reduce these risks, Transportation Alternatives recommends that the city re-time pedestrian signals to accommodate senior average walking speeds of 3 feet per second (currently the signals are timed for speeds of 4 feet per second) and implement measures such as leading pedestrian intervals and curb extensions that would protect senior citizens from turning vehicles. The study also calls for a public awareness campaign to educate drivers and the public as to what it is like to be a senior pedestrian.

Photo: Photographer on Flickr. 

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Bus Rapid Transit Plans in SGV Get Clearer, and More Complicated

New concepts for rapid bus service across the 626 have ironed out the questions of where an East-West route would run and where demonstrations could begin.

December 1, 2023

Metro Board Approves $207 Million for 91 and 605 Freeway Expansion Projects

Metro and Caltrans eastbound 91 Freeway widening is especially alarming as it will increase tailpipe pollution in an already diesel-pollution-burdened community that is 69 percent Latino, and 28 percent Black

November 30, 2023
See all posts