Devin Way wants white lines to mark every crosswalk. The man who calls himself “the Crosswalk Avenger” has been protesting at intersections across the peninsula with a sign that reads: “Mark the crosswalks so there are no more fatalities or wrongdoings by anyone. We can make a difference.”
He’s gathered nearly 400 signatures in the past month, and he plans to present the petition to HRM.
In 2006, a motorist struck the Avenger in an unmarked crosswalk at Kempt Road and Stairs Street. The driver slowed down as she neared the stop sign. Way made eye contact with her and stuck out an arm to cross. As he stepped into the street, she hit him in the leg and he flew onto her hood, hitting the windshield with his wrists. “There’s no such thing as a rolling stop,” he says.
His injuries still cause him pain, making him unable to work, he says. Recently the Avenger has read similar stories in the news of cars striking pedestrians, so he decided to start protesting for better safety conditions.
But his petition probably won’t make a difference. An HRM official says the city won’t consider painting white lines on every crosswalk. Doing so can actually make crosswalks less safe, says manager of traffic and right away Taso Koutroulakis. Connectivity, traffic volumes and pedestrian frequency determine whether a crosswalk is marked, he says.
“We want to highlight the crossings where motorists should expect crossings, because otherwise, if you were to paint crosswalks in theory at every intersection, then the importance of a marked crosswalk would be diminished.”
That’s also true of signage. If placed everywhere, signs lose their emphasis to some degree. Cost also plays into the equation somewhat. It would likely be too costly to paint every crosswalk in HRM, Koutroulakis says.
If a residents want a crosswalk at a certain location, they can call 311 to request one. Staff will then consider painting lines on the pavement.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2013.
Just curious is there any way you can get the statistics for reported people hit in unmarked vs marked crosswalks. From just a personal small sample with my eyes size marking them doesn’t seem to make a huge difference.
The Avenger is waisting his time with this, the city is absolutely right.
The Avenger’s assertion that there is no such thing as a rolling stop is completely incorrect; I’d say about 90% of stops (not at red lights) are rolling stops. If you watch all motorists’ stops at stop signs, or right hands at red lights, you’ll see this to be true.
I have nothing against a rolling stop but there is risk associated with them and differing circumstances need to be addressed in each situation. Also, rolling at 1 km and rolling at 10 kms have very different dynamics.
I don’t know why pedestrians don’t get it. They have everything to loose. It’s so simple. They need to make EYE CONTACT with every driver they are considering to step in front of and they need to ensure said driver is making a COMPLETE STOP.
Do these two simple acts and you will not get hit, except in cases of attempted murder. It’s so simple.
Lines will not help…….exercising safe crossing practices will!
Be smart, be safe, and may you live long and prosper.
Smee:
In the case of the Avenger, he did all that, and more. Still got hit. Not sure what was going through the driver’s mind when she saw this man make eye contact with her and put his arm out to cross, but she evidently wasn’t smart enough to clue in that he was crossing.
I get tired of drivers blaming pedestrians and pedestrians blaming drivers. It’s the responsibility of both to be paying attention. Drivers need to be aware of their surroundings all the time, and pedestrians need to stop and look where they’re crossing. To me, that’s what is “simple”.
Smee, the Avenger is saying there is no such LEGAL thing as a rolling stop. Drivers in Halifax seem to view pedestrians as obstacles they need to just barely accommodate. It happens so very often that cars roll toward a crosswalk fully planning to accelerate just as soon as possible with no intention to come to a complete stop. Or they come around a corner on a red without stopping as required, with the corner of a bumper just centimeters from the path of the pedestrian. I’ve started wearing a few reflective bicycle straps on my knapsack and coat when walking home to try to stay alive. It really helps but it’s ridiculous to feel it’s needed.
We need zebra stripe painted crosswalks, and we need to eliminate the type of backward thinking that went into the city actually removing crosswalks, like at Grafton and Blowers. I still shake my head at that bit of lunacy. The intersections where the pedestrian must press a button in order to get a crossing signal are pretty offensive as well.
The danger with making eye contact or “being friendly” with drivers is that they will sometimes assume the pedestrian is giving them a ‘go ahead’ signal. Much better is to watch the tires to make sure they come to a complete dead stop, or look at the driver and what the car is doing and interpret the intentions. Never smile at a driver or make nicey-nice.