الوصف
I proceeded to watch three separate cars run a red light and nearly clip a group of pedestrians attempting to cross the street at the Exchange/Commercial intersection during the morning commute.
Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence. While the construction project is disruptive for both drivers and pedestrians, many of us pedestrians are forced to jaywalk in order to traverse both crossings to reach Exchange St/Malden Center T Station within the allotted crossing signal time (~10 seconds). With drivers becoming irate and impatient waiting in traffic, and subsequently running the red light, pedestrian crossing time can nearly be halved, resulting in even more jaywalking.
Has there been any thought given to assigning a crossing guard during the AM/PM rush hour to provide some additional visibility to pedestrians crossing this busy intersection during the on-going construction?
15 تعليقs
City of Malden (تم التحقق رسميا)
Fred (مستخدم مسجل)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (مستخدم مسجل)
It's definitely a difficult compromise for DPW, with multiple factors to consider (e.g. traffic spilling over into the Commercial/Rt. 60 intersection, left hand turns from Commercial into the drop off/pick up lane that back up traffic, the taxi stand on Commercial).
Hopefully the insight provided in the issue might bring a voice on behalf of many pedestrians who use this intersection daily, yet don't necessarily think to reach out via SeeClickFix. Hopefully once the new City Hall complex is constructed, this pedestrian issue will be a thing of the past.
D.C.C.S. (مستخدم مسجل)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (مستخدم مسجل)
DCCS, unfortunately the pedestrian crosswalk has a timer of about 10 seconds. Even as a younger, more able-bodied person, I barely reach the sidewalk on Exchange before the crosswalk light turns solid orange. To reach it, I have to cross in a diagonal pattern across the intersection. If every person followed the route of crossing both crosswalks (Malden T to corner of construction, corner of construction to Exchange/BoA corner), they'd never make it. Hence all of the jaywalkers.
The same could be said for the drivers blowing through a red light, preventing pedestrians from crossing. How hard is it to wait at the red light?
Alas, this will be an issue of entitled pedestrians vs. entitled drivers, something that has always (and will always) be a difficult topic to broach with the general public.
D.C.C.S. (مستخدم مسجل)
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (مستخدم مسجل)
It is an "all stop/all walk," as all traffic is stopped (flowing N/S on Commercial, E on Exchange). The thing is, before the construction, you didn't need to cross two streets to continue walking down Exchange. Now you do.
The original suggestion is to give pedestrians a few extra seconds (15 - 20 seconds) or even a crossing guard during rush hour so that they can reach Exchange/Malden Center T without having to wait two light cycles (totaling over 1-3 minutes, depending on time of day). The pedestrian signal is still timed for being able to cross to/from pre-construction Exchange when there was a sidewalk on both sides of Exchange.
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (مستخدم مسجل)
Disregarding the near-fist fight that occurred between an Uber parked within the pedestrian crosswalk and a pedestrian this evening, to clarify an earlier point, the duration of the pedestrian crossing time is approximately 18 seconds.
Distance from T curb to Exchange curb (near the Jersey barriers): 60 ft
Distance from Jersey barrier curb to Exchange/BoA curb: 84 ft
Diagonal from T curb to Exchange/BoA curb: 120 ft
MassDOT intersection design guide suggests assuming a 3.5-4 feet per second walking speed (or 3 seconds per ADA guidelines).
The max distance suggested for crossing at an 18 second signal would be 63 - 72 ft for MassDOT, 54 ft for ADA.
Hopefully this provides a perspective that supports potentially extending the crosswalk signal time for pedestrians, or additional public safety measures. Thanks!
D.C.C.S. (مستخدم مسجل)
Malden 311 (Constituent Services Representative) (تم التحقق رسميا)
Malden 311 (Constituent Services Representative) (تم التحقق رسميا)
تم إقراره Lt. Ryan Fortier (Malden Police) (مستخدم مسجل)
FixitPlease! (مستخدم مسجل)
مغلق TraffSGT (تم التحقق رسميا)
We will continue to monitor this area as the need arises.
An anonymous SeeClickFix user (مستخدم مسجل)