This weekend DCist began noticing a handful of the city’s “walk” signs knocked completely off-kilter. The storms and fierce winds appear to have moved several crossing lights out of alignment with crosswalks, in some cases leaving pedestrians clueless as to who has the right of way. We saw tourists, as well as long-time residents, hesitatingly searching for the proper signal at the intersection of Florida Ave./22nd St. and Q St. in Northwest. The walk signal is currently pointed 90 degrees in the wrong direction, substantially out of their line of sight. Eventually, several jaywalked diagonally across the intersection or just waited for a lull in traffic.

In a city already facing serious pedestrian safety issues, it seems essential that walkers are given proper signals at each intersection. Of course, the city can’t be everywhere with repair crews, but when we called the Mayor’s call center (202-727-1000) to report the misaligned lights, a helpful woman said trucks would be dispatched “within two hours” to take a look a the problem signs. Twenty-four hours later none of the effected lights have been repositioned.

Maybe we’ll bring a list of broken walk signs to the Department of Transportation’s Citywide Pedestrian Master Plan Public Meeting on May 3.

UPDATE

A quick survey this morning finds seven formerly misaligned lights fixed! Please call 202-727-1000 with your own list of similarly broken walk signs.
Photo by the author.