Descrizione
many many cars are failing to stop at the stop signs just before the round about at michigan ave and washington square in downtown lansing.. i have almost been hit many times, and even asked a lansing police officer what could be done and he replied snottly,, "you need to take it up with the city"... can someone please do something to get them to all stop before someone gets hurt or killed here??
12 Commentos
TAWASCAT (Utente registrato)
Lansing I am (Ospite)
Round abouts do not work, especially the two lane ones. They cause more problems. Need to either put in a stop light or 4 way stop.
Pedestrians will be let through if cars stop anyway.
dhb1ibo (Utente registrato)
Everett Drive (Utente registrato)
tawascat (Ospite)
Florian (Utente registrato)
There are several problems here:
1) Nobody ever stops at stop signs anymore unless there are other cars in or at the intersection. Just watch a random intersection for about 5min and count how many people fail to come to a legal stop when the intersection is clear otherwise. You will probably see that most people just slow down but roll through the stop. Why is this? Because stop signs I stupid! We all know it. If the intersection is clear, why would anybody want to come to a complete stop? I'll mark my calendar if I see somebody coming to a legal stop in the scenario described above! Are you surprised that nobody comes to a legal stop in front of a pedestrian crossing? I'm not. It's just pedestrians.
2) The chronic overuse of stop signs. There are stop signs EVERYWHERE! Many of them could be replaced with a yield sign because at most intersections you can clearly see if there is traffic approaching. There is just no logical reason to come to a complete stop there. I've seen some random yield signs here and there and I've always asked myself what in the world makes those intersections different from the stop sign intersections. A good example is the Harrison&Forest T-intersection. The is a yield sign there for southbound Harrison traffic. As you are approaching this intersection your view to the west is completely blocked by trees and you have limited view to the east. In my opinion this would be an appropriate place for a stop sign. But, there is a yield.
A few hundred yards west from this intersection (the Forest&Collins T-intersection) has a stop sign for the east bound forest rd traffic. There is absolutely no reason for that! As you approach the stop sign you can see miles down the road in both directions.
I guess you see my point. Nobody ever stops at stop signs if there is no car traffic, EVER. The overuse of stop signs is just desensitizing everybody.
3) Drivers are only required to yield for pedestrians when they are already in the crosswalk. So that basically means that you, as a pedestrian, have to wait until there are no cars approaching anymore, unless you have a deathwish. If you do have a deathwish you can just walk into the crosswalk, then the driver has to yield but you will end up in the hospital.
In order to make it possible for pedestrians to cross the street, they put the stop signs before the crosswalk. After the crosswalk, there is a yield sign for the traffic circle. See the attached picture. Again there are several problems here:
Unfortunately, no driver wants to come to a unnecessary stop in the first place (see my elaborate description of the situation above). Stopping for a pedestrian is certainly in the eyes of many a very unnecessary stop. So most people just don't do it. Needless to say if there is no pedestrians the majority of drivers will just roll through.
Another problem is that cars exiting the traffic circle don't have a stop sign. So none of them will realistically ever stop for a pedestrian.
And finally, to conclude this long list of problems:
The law for pedestrian crosswalks doesn't make any sense if you think about it logically:
The pedestrian has only the right of way, as soon as he/she is IN the crosswalk. But a car needs a certain distance to stop. This results in a situation that has a bad outcome for the pedestrian and the driver if he/she can't stop in time. The pedestrian gets hit and injured, the driver is legally responsible for what happened. Clearly the situation for the pedestrian is worse...
comment (Ospite)
Everett Drive (Utente registrato)
Jan (Utente registrato)
There's a lot of interest and well thought out ideas posted on this issue. Personally I appreciate people taking the time to be involved and share solid ideas. This site can be a great tool to bring people together for worthy discussions.
I've noticed over the years here in Lansing and other areas of our country that drivers struggle with the intended use of round-abouts, that is merging on and off. I understand that it can be confusing...not sure people will ever be comfortable using them. (I have no preference one way or the other on their usefulness.) Have observed circles/round-abouts come and go as a trend but don't seem to be practical for the average driver to utilize as designed.
East Side Andy (Utente registrato)
I like the downtown roundabout (or traffic circle, whatever you want to call it).
Drivers who can't grasp three simple concepts deserve a ticket: (1) Stop at a stop sign, (2) Yield to pedestrians, (3) Yield to traffic on your left in a roundabout.
I walk through this location often and have few problems. Your experience may differ, and I encourage people who witness violations to document and report them.
AJ (Utente registrato)
i agree that, as built, there are too many violations of the stop sign. however, i also agree that the stop signs are completely unnecessary and should be removed. The traffic circle is designed to replace a 4 way stop, not augment it.
Some may say that the stop signs are for the pedestrian crossings, but these are the only pedestrian crossings in lansing that have stop signs; all the others say 'yield to peds'.
The single yield sign is sufficient for the circle.
Chiusa TAWASCAT (Utente registrato)