The Observation Deck

The Taste of Lakewood was an OUTSTANDING event, however I find it outrageous that even after speaking with police on scene and calling the OIC at the station they chose to ignore ALL crosswalk violations.
I felt as if the only way to get any action was to call again act all crazy and threaten action of my own... ...which I did not.
They did send a car up but he just sat there watching it happen until he saw me taking picture of him.
Thank you for putting 'Public Safety' first. NOT!!!

Noticed that a new "Crosswalk" sign has been installed at Madison Park.
Judging by how it was handled during the Taste of Lakewood another useless sign, unless enforced.

The new crosswalk sign has been run over and obliterated.
Asked a city worker and he said it was hit not removed.

The one at city hall has been obliterated at least 10 times. They've kept the most recent one alive by placing two orange traffic cones on either side of it. While low tech, it has kept this version of the sign alive so far. When it stands alone it is in a weird sight zone so that when you turn left off Alameda it sits in a blind spot. You're literally on it before you know it. I actually grazed the first one once.

This entire area has not grown up with the crosswalk apart from the traffic light, and if we want drivers to take them seriously we need to reeducate them through enforcement, starting with warnings. There's no crosswalk culture here. If you have the will it can be done, i.e., the movement to get people to slow down in construction zones with doubled fines and tighter enforcement. I'd love to see it.

Here's an idea: The crosswalk at Manor Park has a signaling device, which when a pedestrian pushes a button on the pole, causes lights to flash yellow on the poles by the curb. Why not stretch cables across the street and suspend red lights over the street to flash when that button is pushed?

Paul Schrimpf wrote:This entire area has not grown up with the crosswalk apart from the traffic light, and if we want drivers to take them seriously we need to reeducate them through enforcement, starting with warnings. There's no crosswalk culture here. If you have the will it can be done, i.e., the movement to get people to slow down in construction zones with doubled fines and tighter enforcement. I'd love to see it.

Paul

EDUCATE, such a key word. The other night I was talking with another Observer who I had the pleasure of meeting for
the first time, and we were talking about sharrows. He is an avid biker and not a fan. To be honest EDUCATE is the key
again, and instead of painting this on roads that fade, we should be telling people, "YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HIT
ANYTHING IN A CAR, not a walker, a car, a bike, a building, or a dog."

All crosswalks, are treated the same in a court of law. Yellow, lights, red lights, signs or no signs. You hit a human in a cross
walk you are guilty. You also have to give them clear safe distance, with more lead if they are walking to you or away from you.

Bill, I believe this method was a cost savings. Funny how we have money for a lot of
things but not safety in front of the library, or "The Kill Zone" the intersection between
the Westerly, Bob Evans, and Giant Eagle!

.

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:Paul

EDUCATE, such a key word. The other night I was talking with another Observer who I had the pleasure of meeting for
the first time, and we were talking about sharrows. He is an avid biker and not a fan. To be honest EDUCATE is the key
again, and instead of painting this on roads that fade, we should be telling people, "YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO HIT
ANYTHING IN A CAR, not a walker, a car, a bike, a building, or a dog."

All crosswalks, are treated the same in a court of law. Yellow, lights, red lights, signs or no signs. You hit a human in a cross
walk you are guilty. You also have to give them clear safe distance, with more lead if they are walking to you or away from you.

Bill, I believe this method was a cost savings. Funny how we have money for a lot of
things but not safety in front of the library, or "The Kill Zone" the intersection between
the Westerly, Bob Evans, and Giant Eagle!

.

.

I wonder who that was

It is true, I'm not a fan of sharrows because they don't do enough, as infrastructure, to protect bicyclists and enable people of all ages to ride bikes around town (protected bike lanes). I feel the same way about the crosswalk in discussion here. Paint isn't enough, and while education is important I don't see it as a sustainable way to change behavior and make crossing the street actually safer.

There are a lot of options: Bump out the curbs to the parking lane - this decreases the width of roadway the pedestrian has to cross unprotected. Center island - creates a protected area where a pedestrian can wait to cross the other side of the roadway if needed. Raised crosswalk - this reinforces the pedestrian right-of-way by making the car slow down a little bit before crossing the crosswalk. Sure, it is a little more expensive, but this type of thing should be built in to our street projects anyway out of existing transportation funding. People, not just cars, should be considered in transportation planning and budgets.

All of those are really great options in my opinion, and in a 'walkable' city pedestrian safety should definitely be part of the transportation planning. If I'm out walking it is usually with my kids in a double stroller, and I really hate when we have to cross Detroit down near Bunts, even at night when there is little traffic it is always unpleasant. A center island there would be ideal.

Lots of good ideas here Ben ... thanks for sharing

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news ... lkers-cars

Red lights could be coming to Lakewood crosswalk, scene of many close calls between walkers & cars

I expect to see some more quotes like Will Brown's, about the new light once it is installed.

Will Brown wrote:
One man is not dictating policy. He is demanding that the policies that exist be enforced. From what has been written in this thread, it appears that there have been numerous incidences where the closing time has been ignored, and some of the posters here even threaten to hassle this resident for demanding that the rules be obeyed. So the major has acted to defuse the situation and I praise him for that.

I can hear it now... something like this "the mayor is fighting for the rights and safety of adults and children who find it dangerous to cross Detroit near Manor Park, I praise him for his efforts!!"

This mayor is the one who put these walkers at risk when he REMOVED a working stop light! This is the same mayor who is not instructing the police to TICKET drivers who speed through while the yellow lights are blinking.

This mayor seems to put good people at risk and protect the bad...

FWIW the Mayor was not the one who removed it the State of Ohio deemed it unnecessary and wouldn't pay for it when the rest of them were replaced. I seem to recall there were one or two others which the city decided to use our own money to keep the traffic signal at those intersections.

On a side note I have, on two separate occasions, used my car as a shield to block traffic on Detroit at Manor Park. One time it was a young woman with a baby stroller. The other time it was two young children whom I told to cross at a different intersection from now on. I was against the removal of that particular traffic signal from day one.

Bill Burnett wrote:FWIW the Mayor was not the one who removed it the State of Ohio deemed it unnecessary and wouldn't pay for it when the rest of them were replaced..

He was the one that could have fought to come up with the money to replace it and he make a decision that it was not needed. He also continually makes the decision not to enforce the crosswalk laws at any of the crosswalks we have in the city.

FWIW - Does anyone know if the city was forced to remove the old lights that were not being replaced or did we have the option to keep the old one and just not upgrade it?

Ryan Salo wrote:

Bill Burnett wrote:FWIW the Mayor was not the one who removed it the State of Ohio deemed it unnecessary and wouldn't pay for it when the rest of them were replaced..

He was the one that could have fought to come up with the money to replace it and he make a decision that it was not needed. He also continually makes the decision not to enforce the crosswalk laws at any of the crosswalks we have in the city.

+1