Memo to County Commissioners
I see you gave preliminary passage to Lewis Cheek's holy crusade to ban panhandling on Durham's highways, citing "safety issues" as your reason.
Here's the deal.
If you want to see our surface streets made safer for pedestrians, how about directing your law enforcement agencies to enforce existing law:
I'll be the number of tickets written by the Sheriff's department for violating this provision of state law approaches zero, regardless of the time period you choose. The city could do its part by building a few bus shelters with benches and funding the pedestrian plan you all spent $315,000 on a few years ago.
Criminalizing this behavior is one thing. If that's what you want to do, go ahead and do it. But don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining by hiding behind pedestrian safety issues.
UPDATE: Here's a photo of the bus stop nearest my house on Avondale Drive. Pedestrian safety my ass.
Here's the deal.
If you want to see our surface streets made safer for pedestrians, how about directing your law enforcement agencies to enforce existing law:
20-173. Pedestrians’ Right-of-Way at Crosswalks
(a) Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at or near an intersection, except as otherwise provided in Part 11 of this Article.
(b) Vehicle operators of any vehicle approaching another vehicle from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle when it is stopped at a marked crosswalk, or at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway.
(c) The driver of a vehicle emerging from or entering an alley, building entrance, private road, or driveway shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian, or person riding a bicycle, approaching on any sidewalk or walkway extending across such alley, building entrance, road, or driveway.
I'll be the number of tickets written by the Sheriff's department for violating this provision of state law approaches zero, regardless of the time period you choose. The city could do its part by building a few bus shelters with benches and funding the pedestrian plan you all spent $315,000 on a few years ago.
Criminalizing this behavior is one thing. If that's what you want to do, go ahead and do it. But don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining by hiding behind pedestrian safety issues.
UPDATE: Here's a photo of the bus stop nearest my house on Avondale Drive. Pedestrian safety my ass.
Labels: county commissioners, Durham, Pedestrian safety
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5 Comments:
Another pedestrian safety issue is Five Points since the streets were changed to two-way. Chapel Hill St. and Main St. form an "X" there, with Morris St. as the 5th point. If I'm crossing Chapel Hill St., the Chapel Hill St. traffic is stopped but not Main St. and vice versa...and since the angles of the streets are such that drivers feel like they are going almost-straight rather than turning, they aren't looking for pedestrians. Even with the WALK sign in your favor, you have a steady stream of traffic crossing the intersection.
The solution would be to have a pedestrian-only portion of the cycle, but that might be way too radical an idea for people to handle.
By
Anonymous, at 6:06 PM
I guess I'm more for a ban on hobos?
Got any pictures of those?
I don't see the point of encouraging or wanting hobos to roam our streets in search of $3 so they can buy cheep wine or beer. I'm scratchin' my noggin here trying to see what's "good" about that?
I'm also not interested in either ideological "explanation" for this sad situation. I hear from right-wingers who say the hobos are reaping the ill-results of their own poor decisions (not necessarily true in a "market" economy, I hate to tell you). And so-called liberals tell me we should respect the hobos' freedom to go anywhere they want and do whatever they want. Because they're individuals. True, they are. They are individually irritating me for a hand-out. So begging is both the height of a free market economy AND a liberal democracy?
Please, please, please, take it somewhere else.
Just sayin'.
By
Tony, at 9:24 AM
Why not ban automobiles in Durham. Then people can stumble into each other rather than into traffic.
I can't disagree that there are an amazingly low number of safe walking areas in Durham. I don't know this as fact, I just look around and see it. But this is what I also see = Pedestrians walking and running into traffic lanes without looking; walking and running through red lights; standing in the middle of road between traffic lanes. This is not the same as being forced to walk along a street walk because there is no sidewalk or crossing an intersection without pedestrian crossing lanes; this is breaking the law and creating an unsafe environment for the pedestrian and the driver.
I'm not much into driver bashing, unless that driver is driving recklessly or against driving laws. But I guarantee that even with a sidewalk down every street and a crosswalk at every intersection, pedestrians will break the law and the common sense of safety. I see it all the time, everyday, everywhere.
As much as vehicle laws must be enforced, even more so the pedestrian laws must be enforced even more. It's a lot easy for a human to control their physical body alone on the street than it is a 3000 pound vehicle. Both easier to stop and manuever.
I recognize there are a LOT of unsafe areas for walking and riding in Durham. But a lot of pedestrians have and will put themeselves in harms way because of either stupidity or entitlement when those situations can easily be avoided. Spend a day at the Southpoint mall and see what I mean. That place is horrible for that. They are defensive drivers going in and entitled pedestrians going about. I say entitlement too because of the theory that pedestrians always have the right of way. As a pedestrian, I like the idea, but it doesn't give me the right of way to break the law or act like a stupid or unsafe or uncontrolled pedestrian.
By
Anonymous, at 12:54 PM
The bus stop in your photo would rate as 'above average' in Durham. Why? Because it has (tree) cover.
If Durham was willing to give just a little on appearance, we could have bus shelters provided and maintained for free.
__________________________________
http://www.signaloutdoor.com/2005/news/news.htm
Signal Outdoor Advertising LLC was awarded a contract to design, build, install and maintain bus passenger shelters within the city limits of Linden, New Jersey. The addition of the new Linden shelters will provide a much needed public amenity for the citizens of Linden at no expense to taxpayers.
_____________________________
Although advertising on the shelters may look tacky in residential areas, it would not be out of place in commercial areas. We do already allow ads on the buses themselves. Why won't Durham do this?
By
Anonymous, at 12:09 AM
This site has pictures of the bus shelters they provide for free, in return for the ad revenue:
http://www.signaloutdoor.com/2005/gallery/gallery_shelters.htm
They look pretty nice, don't they? And they are FREE.
By
Anonymous, at 12:15 AM
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