At last night's City Council meeting, a new stop sign at Raffel Road and Hayden Street was approved. This will become a four-way stop.
"High" pedestrian volume was cited in determining the "need" for a stop sign, but no numbers were available. Was that because no study was done?
Students, joggers and park users cross Raffel Road, and drivers don't slow down or yield at the crosswalk. So now everyone gets to stop. Every time. Every day. No matter what the time of day (or night), whether weekday, school day or week-end or holiday.
OK. So all drivers now must stop. Let's see if the police will now ticket jaywalkers and drivers who don't stop.
I suggested that the City first try additional signing to alert drivers that they were approaching a crosswalk. Or place one of those markers like the ones in use on Throop Street and South Street.
I dunno. Seemed like a reasonable suggestion to try the least intrusive, least restrictive measures first. What does a center-of-street marker cost? $100?
Better stop, folks. And Stop means a full stop. All four wheels stopped. By the way, the vehicle, too. It doesn't count if you slam on the brakes, lock the wheels to stop them from turning (all four wheels "stopped", eh?) and then roll through it.
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2 comments:
If the city claimed adding the stop sign was in anticipation of increased pedestrian use from the new high school, I would have believed that. I drive through that intersection a few times a week and I have never seen anyone cross there before. I rarely even see cars pulling out off of Hayden. Maybe I just drive by at all the wrong times??
The standard that had to be met was "high" pedestrian/vehicle conflicts. I don't know that the City ever did a "count."
Traffic volume on Raffel Road is not so heavy that the few pedestrians couldn't wait ten seconds for cars to pass. If a pedestrian is at a crosswalk and the approaching car doesn't stop, then he can request WPD to enforce crossing laws.
Putting in stop signs on Raffel and requiring EVERYONE to stop 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just doesn't make any sense to me.
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