Results tagged “pedestrians>”

Greater Greater Washington reports that DDOT has at last installed "quick curbs" at one corner of the intersection of 15th and W Streets NW, where a pedestrian was killed in May. The intersection is famously dangerous and confusing for pedestrians and drivers alike, as it also meets Florida Ave. in a jumble of diverging one-way traffic patterns. The "quick curbs" are plastic markers designed to steer traffic farther away from pedestrians. Other work that's been completed at the intersection includes a "Turn on Green Arrow Only" sign to prevent drivers from turning right on red onto W Street. GGW also says DDOT tells them that more quick curbs for the remainder of the intersection are scheduled to be installed, as are signal improvements for pedestrians.

The Examiner's Michael Neibauer came up with an interesting story by talking to MPD officer David Baker. Baker posted a frustrated screed earlier this month on the 2nd District police email list, after yet another person was struck by a car at the intersection of Nebraska and Connecticut Avenues NW. Baker believes that the increase in pedestrian accidents in the area is not only due to drivers not paying attention—the pedestrians themselves are largely to blame, thanks to them being distracted by iPods and cell phones.

All our sympathies go to the SWDCBlogger's roommate who was intentionally struck by a driver while riding late last Friday night on 14th Street SW near Constitution Avenue. Witnesses to the incident picked up the driver's tags, so the hope is that justice will catch up with that automomaniac. Anyone else who was hanging around the Mall after 1 a.m. and saw the incident should get in contact with the blog's author.

The District Department of Transportation is hosting a city-wide public meeting tonight on the final draft of the District Draft Pedestrian Master Plan. If you still haven't had a gander at the plan itself, you can read it here.

The Post digs in to the D.C. Department of Transportation's plans to unveil a new pedestrian strategy today that aims to reduce accidents and injuries in the city's most dangerous intersections and crosswalks.

Last fall we reported that builders in the District would be required to construct covered pedestrian walkways beginning in October. Since then, we've definitely seen a few of the new, safer passages around town, but we've also run into more than a handful of others, such as the one pictured above at 11th and K Streets NW, that still force pedestrians to cross the street to use a proper sidewalk (or, as is often the case, simply put them in harms way when they end up walking alongside a construction fence in a lane of traffic, as is the case in this photo).

The Post's Clarence Williams alerts us to the new ad campaign from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments's Street Smart program, which aims to scare the bejeezus out of drivers and pedestrians in the hopes that we'll all be a lot more careful out on the road. A new study shows that on average more than 80 people die and 2,000 people are injured a year in pedestrian accidents in the Washington region.

The Cleveland Park listserv is teeming with arguments in favor of and against eliminating the reversible traffic lanes on Connecticut Avenue, which many people claim to be unsafe for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists alike; of course, others (read: commuters) are crying bloody murder at the potential increase in traffic jams during the morning and evening rush hour on one of the cities main arterial roadways.