Diagonal Intersections

1 Pages 364 Words

State law
Indicates that drivers must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing the street in a marked or unmarked crosswalk at intersections or designated mid-block crossings (that are marked). However, a pedestrian must also take due care for his or her own safety. Pedestrians cannot suddenly enter the street and walk or run in the path of a moving vehicle, especially when entering the street will cause an immediate hazard. Also, while in the crosswalk, pedestrians cannot unnecessarily stop or delay traffic.
Problem
In our case, at the intersection of Etiwanda and Plummer, they have all way STOP signs. During school hours (as shown in the charts), traffic can be at its highest at certain times during the day. At the same time the amount of pedestrians crossing the intersection multiply. The problem is the pedestrians don’t have a cross walk to tell them when they should go, they automatically cross the intersection. At times they kitty cross the intersection, holding up traffic. Mainly 10 min before class the intersection get highly populated and many people cross the intersection, creating a line of cars down Etiwanda and Plummer. So what can we do?
High Budget Solution
For the people who have even been to Old Town Pasadena, instead of having just rgular traffic lights with cross walks, there are two intersections that allow pedestrians to cross diagonally thereby reducing the pedestrian wait when crossing more than one approach. When WALK is displayed at these traffic signals, only pedestrians are allowed to move through the intersection at that time. These intersections also provide benefits to drivers in that right and left turns are not hindered by pedestrian traffic flow. Therefore, pedestrians shall not enter the intersection when DON'T WALK is displayed even if the pedestrian is going in the same direction as the traffic flow (for example, westbound and not diagonally). It is beneficial to both d...