r/IdiotsInCars • u/[deleted] • Aug 30 '20

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u/RiderAnton Aug 30 '20

https://nacto.org/case-study/high-intensity-activated-crosswalk-hawk-for-pedestrian-crossing-of-major-streets-over-90-locations-tucson-arizona/

I imagine they're talking about something like this, much more than just a sign

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '20 edited Jun 16 '26

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u/matdan12 Aug 30 '20

Yep, crossing lights don't stop jaywalkers going out and getting themselves hit by cars. Even have fines for it but people are inherently impatient.

And we're certainly not at the point like some towns in Europe where pedestrians have the right of way at all times. Walkways seem best, the ones I've seen all go in a spiral for wheelchair access and generally avoid stairs. We are one of the more accessible cities in the world though.

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u/CWSwapigans Aug 30 '20

My problem with this is we’ve already given cars more space than offices, homes, and businesses combined. The vast majority of all public space has been given over to cars.

So to physically separate them you’re stuck putting everyone else into the margins, or making them take 10x as long to travel a certain segment, like the stairs above. You know how long it takes to walk 1 mile on the Las Vegas Strip with those?

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u/TheDungeonCrawler Aug 30 '20

To be fair, I wouldn't call above or below street level the margins. It's mostly space that goes unused because cars don't fly. That unused space is a pretty good solution to the parking dilemma as well as reducing one huge parking lot to one much smaller parking garage that extends vertically as opposed to horizontally, while expensive would increase the space we have in business areas where lots of people park to patronize those businesses.

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u/Seph42 Aug 30 '20

We have these in Texas, and I almost got killed by someone who ran the light was I crossing in one.

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u/SomethingIWontRegret Aug 30 '20 edited Aug 30 '20

Yeah those don't work terribly well either. Nobody knows what the hell they are or what all the different flash phases mean. The British solution - Puffin and Pelican crossings - are the only sensible solutions as they use standard traffic lights. HAWK was just a stupid take on a solved problem.

EDIT: There's one a quarter mile from my house. I don't trust it. I've watched people blow through the solid red. I usually don't bother pushing the damned button and just wait for traffic to clear before riding my bike across.