Conversation around Raised Crosswalk Highlights need to De-Stroadify

Over at our Strong Towns group they've got a good conversation going about an apparent refusal by the City to consider a raised crosswalk right at a middle school. This illustrates our problem with unsafe lawful speed, and our problem with looking at system/corridor speeds vs spot speed.

via FB

A raised crosswalk at the school would be a terrific and valuable thing!

You might recall back in July the City's application for funding from the State's Safe Routes to School Infrastructure program:

Pringle Road SE School Zone Improvements: Install pedestrian median island on south leg of intersection with Tiburon Court SE and Leslie Middle School driveway, construct ADA ramps, install additional overhead school zone beacon, install two variable speed zone signs. Estimated project cost is $690,000. Serves Leslie Middle School. This project ranked 37 out of 89 statewide based on [an earlier] review.

So it's not like the City's refusing to do anything here, but the further upgrade to a raised crosswalk would offer additional traffic calming. This whole stretch of Pringle Road/Battle Creek Road desperately needs to be reconceived as a neighborhood street, even if it remains a minor arterial. You will remember its place in the debate over the Meyer Farm project. Pringle/Battle Creek is no longer some semi-rural sub-urban quasi-highway. It needs to be destroadified!

Commitment to speed in Meyer Farm debate

In words we signal our intent to slow things. The seed is in the draft Metropolitan transportation Safety Action Plan, and will surely reappear in the City's Vision Zero process.

"Reduce vehicle travel speeds"
and "encourage slower speeds"
(draft MTSAP)

But in deed, we shy away still from what we know we need to do. We still make spot safety improvements even as we try to retain what are in fact inappropriate urban corridor speeds.

The current approach tries to have it both ways: "safety" with "congestion relief." It's time to recognize the tension, sometimes outright contradiction, and to prioritize safety.