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Comments
no pushpins for "places where they lept out into traffic..."
...at an intersection with traffic signals, against a green light, yakking on their cell phone and not looking?
How about push-pins for "lept into traffic from between two parked cars"?
I nearly plastered some leggings-as-pants, giant-sunglasses-cellphone-glued-to-ear college student at Brigham Circle this morning who charged out into the road while talking on her cell phone. She had the red hand signal, I had a green light, and she goes charging out...and was on a course to end up smack in my path. I had to yell "LOOK OUT!" twice before she stopped. I couldn't go around her, because I had a car right on my side, and I couldn't stop, because I had a car behind me, getting ready to bear right.
I've lost track of how many times I've nearly run into DudeBros who stride out into traffic from between parked cars and then call "faggot!" because I yelled "LOOK OUT!" in the name of self-preservation. They seem to be particularly prevalent in Allston, and particularly a problem around the first few weeks of September.
By any chance...
By any chance, were you riding a bicycle when this incident happened? You didn't say so in your comment, but it sure looks that way from the context!
Nope
I walk really, really fast.
We need infrastructure...
... that makes crossing legally at an intersection much more favorable to jaywalking. I think many pedestrians cross at unpredictable moments and locations because crossing at a faded cross-walk where cars turn without stopping is just as unsafe. An analogous situation is cyclists seemingly "dodging in and out" of traffic because they have no bike lane and must avoid unsafe car doors, potholes, and cars traveling up against the curb. A bike lane gives cyclists their own space just as a well constructed cross walk and signal gives pedestrians theirs. Without these forms of infrastructure, there is bound to be chaos.
Additionally, slower speeds are crucial to pedestrian safety. Anyone else in favor of Menino's proposed city wide 25 mph?
Can't have that!
Why, that would mean actual urban planning according to recognized international standards and practices! That would mean empowering trained and experienced professionals do what makes sense. We might actually get a 21st century city without tracing every decision to Duh Mayuh if we went down that slippery slope! The horrors!
(p.s. - has anybody counted the incidences of "mayor's office" and "Menino" on the city website front page lately? It would be funny if it were a prank.)
speed has nothing to do with safety
Anyone else in favor of Menino's proposed city wide 25 mph?
No, because that's just pandering to the ancient concepts that speeding is the universal measure of unsafe driving. You can be doing 20mph and if you're yakking on your cell phone while balancing a cup of coffee, you're not as safe as the guy doing nothing and driving 35mph.
It's also been my vast experience as a cyclist, driver, and pedestrian that in Boston, speeding is the very least of the safety problems with drivers.
Agreed
Yeah, it would make more sense if the city enacted laws against running red lights, passing on the right, blocking intersections, going 60 in a 30, turning left without yielding.
Oh wait.
Are you serious? Are you
Are you serious? Are you suggesting that speed has no effect on safety?
I rather be hit by someone at 20mpg than someone at 30mph, considering those extra 10mph raise my chance of dying from 5% to 45%.
The guy "doing nothing" at 35mph will kill me as soon as he makes a simple mistake. You dont need to be on the phone to fuck up.
http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2008...
Agreed in Brigham Circle, but
Brett: living in Mission Hill and biking/driving through many parts of Boston and Cambridge I agree that pedestrians jaywalking is an issue (maybe it has to do with the paltry fine for jaywalking). Boston has more pedestrian accidents than other comparable cities in the US (again--probably because of the minuscule jaywalking fine). But on Mass Ave only the truly deranged would attempt such a thing.
Mass Ave between Symphony and Albany street was transformed into a de facto highway in the 1950s. It acts as mass feeder road for 93 to get people to the Prudential Center and Back Bay. Residents, pedestrians, cyclists all suffer the consequences. Even at Mass Ave station, in a clearly marked crosswalk with a bold cross walk sign, you risk life and limb crossing. It is much worse from Washington Street to Boston Medical.
Enforcing safer crosswalks should we paired with enforcement/stiffer penalties for jaywalking. Hey, the city could use the money and less injuries would be a nice plus.
1) Car dominance continues
1) Car dominance continues because the first thing out of a bicyclist's mouth is instant pedestrian-bicyclist in-fighting.
2) Name should be League of Extraordinary Pedestrians. In fact, it already is in an informal effort around town.
Traffic sewer, not de facto highway
Robert Campbell, I believe, coined the epithet traffic sewer for the unhealed scar that is the block of Huntington Avenue between Dartmouth and Exeter streets. Massachusetts Avenue, from Symphony to Albany street—hell, from the river to Everett Square—is a traffic sewer, too.
Sigh. The fact that this simple element of urban planning has to be handled by legislation passed by the great and General Court of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts makes me want to gouge my eyes with knitting needles. (See the mayor's summary on page three of this pdf, this useless bit of html, and last year's bid, which actually has text attached to it.)
SwirlyGrrl is right, it would make too much sense for city traffic engineers to decide on a case-by-case basis what speed limits should be.
Seattle has a sensible arrangement. The city speed limit on designated (and clearly marked 'arterial streets') is 30 mph. Everywhere else the speed limit is 25 mph. Before the 1990s, drivers actually observed these limits; now, not so much.
Jonas Prang
Posted speed limits are already decided on a case by case basis.
It's just that final approval rests with the state. And ther's nothing wrong with that arrangement, because it insures that a uniform standard is used for all cities and towns. Given some of the stunts I've seem local cites and towns (most of which do NOT have traffic engineers, but leave such matters up to the DPW chief) pull such as unwarranted all-way stops, bizarre traffic signal phasings, and non-standard signs, I for one would be very loathe to give them the power to set speed limits as well.
I good term to know
I had not heard of "Traffic Sewer" before. It does fit that section of Mass Ave to a T.