cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/6168675
RRFBs. HAWK signals. Do any of these devices actually do what they’re supposed to do, and how do traffic engineers decide when and where to install them?
As a European, much of this was mind-boggling to me. While I believe all of this is real, I still found myself wondering throughout the video: Is this actually the norm in the US, or are these some cherry-picked bad examples? It felt for me like a whole other level of systemic hostility.
Oh, it’s normal alright. It’s not like every street is like that, but every city has streets like that, some have a ton and some have less. My city is considered pretty decent for walking/biking/transit, though not amazing, and even here, in the city proper, not even out in the suburbs, there’s a lot of 4 lane stroads that are impossible to cross, and even streets that should be pretty quiet can be dangerous when they refuse to even paint on a sidewalk on (the “liability avoidance” thing this vid mentions seems to be the reason/excuse, along with the “well nobody crosses at this incredibly dangerous unmarked crosswalk therefore there is no demand and we don’t need to make it safer” BS)
I bet a dozen drivers max in the whole state know they have to stop for pedestrians even if the paint isn’t there. if you start to step out into the road and glare intently you can get people to stop if they’re paying attention, but you’re more likely to get honked at than other traffic actually stopping. with these types of roads it’s really a “take your life in your own hands getting their attention and still piss off a few drivers” thing, or walk to the nearest signalized intersection.
Even marked crosswalks are very hit and miss if people will stop, but once you’re out in it they usually will if they are paying attention. There are a number of bike/ped crossings with HAWK or similar flashing light systems, and honestly the adherence rate on those after at least a few years of them being installed is much better than a paint-only treatment, I usually don’t have to wait long after hitting the button, but it’s still far from good (I’d consider it good if I could press the button and step out into the street with confidence within a short period, like 5 seconds, now its longer, and I have to look pretty carefully at incoming traffic to guess if they’re actually stopping). And some people try to run past it before you get out into the road, so if you wait for traffic to actually stop before entering the road then you’re just encouraging far-side traffic to keep running through the light before you get to them.