City of Phoenix officials are rethinking crosswalks to try to make downtown streets safer for pedestrians in a city that has been among the deadliest in the U.S. for pedestrians.
Phoenix is …
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City of Phoenix officials are rethinking crosswalks to try to make downtown streets safer for pedestrians in a city that has been among the deadliest in the U.S. for pedestrians.
Phoenix is rolling out two different types of crosswalks. A pedestrian scramble stops traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians a period to cross in all directions, including diagonally. Leading pedestrian interval crosswalks give pedestrians a head start before vehicles get the green light, mainly to make it more visible that pedestrians are in the crossing.
“I’m excited to see us be putting in more opportunities to make our streets safer for both pedestrians, cyclists and drivers,” Phoenix Councilmember Ann O’Brien said during last week’s Economic Development and Equity Subcommittee meeting.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found between 2017 and 2019, Phoenix had an average of about 225 traffic deaths, trailing only Los Angeles and Houston.
A Phoenix traffic study from 2015 to 2019 found more than 150,000 vehicle crashes during the five years and nearly 5,000 crashes that resulted in a death or serious injury.
Despite pedestrian-involved crashes accounting for just 2.5% of all crashes, they accounted for 46% of the city’s traffic fatalities. Crashes at signalized intersections made up for 43% of crashes were someone was killed or seriously injured.
Last year, council adopted a Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan, which sets a goal of zero traffic fatalities or serious injuries by 2050. Becoming a Vision Zero City also helped Phoenix secure more federal funding for road design aimed at increasing safety.
Street Transportation staff presented to the subcommittee about these two methods of prioritizing pedestrian safety, with a focus on downtown, which has the highest foot traffic in the city.
There are only two pedestrian scrambles in downtown, both by Arizona State University’s downtown campus, but staff has plans to install four more. There are 10 leading pedestrian intervals, or LPI, intersections in Phoenix, with four in the downtown area.
Staff did not mention plans to add more LPIs at this time, but staff is partnering with Northern Arizona University to study where scrambles or LPIs might be necessary in the city and how to implement them.
LPIs give pedestrians a three- to seven-second head start to begin crossing before vehicles get the green light. Staff included example photos showing pedestrians nearly halfway across the crosswalk with the LPI, far more visible to drivers than if they were standing on the street corner when the light turned green.
The four downtown LPIs are at Adams Street and Seventh Avenue and along Washington Street at Seventh, Third and First avenues.
Pedestrian scrambles
The pedestrian scrambles are at Taylor Street near First and Third streets. The city has earmarked four more intersections close to Footprint Center — where Central and First avenues intersect with both Washington and Jefferson streets.
The concept is to make it safer for pedestrians by avoiding all instances where turning vehicles might have a green light at the same time as pedestrians.
Staff is studying the feasibility of the change at these four intersections, but Assistant Street Transportation Director Briiana Velez said if they are found to be feasible, installation will begin after completion of the South Central Light Rail Extension, which is scheduled for 2024.
Councilmember Laura Pastor said she didn’t like how at the two existing pilot pedestrian scrambles, the painted crosswalks going diagonally do not go all the way through the intersection, but rather jut out and stop. She said it makes it unclear for pedestrians if diagonal crossing is allowed.
Street Transportation Director Kini Knudson noted there are additional electronic walk lights positioned diagonally as well as signs at street corners that indicates diagonal crossing is allowed.
Pastor still believed it was unclear.
“I appreciate that. I just don’t think the general public knows that,” she said.
Velez said they would take council’s direction and could have the diagonal crosswalks extending all the way through at future scrambles and could also redesign the two pilot scrambles. She said staff is still working out design elements of these new features.
O’Brien encouraged staff to go with what’s worked elsewhere.
“I also just want to voice my support for looking at what other cities do so that we’re not reinventing the wheel,” she said. “…People who do travel a lot, if they can see it one place, they’ll recognize it here. And it will save us hopefully some time and money.”
Staff didn’t provide any study on pedestrian scrambles’ impact on traffic flow, but Councilmember Debra Stark theorized it could help smooth traffic in some places.
At First Avenue and Jefferson Street, Stark said she’s noticed many vehicles will have a hard time turning onto Jefferson because of constant pedestrian activity in the crosswalk.
“This really will give an opportunity for cars, too, to move through the downtown area. So I think it really serves a dual purpose, but I’m very happy to see it,” Stark said. “I know they’ve been a success in our other locations.”
Velez said the intersections that make the best candidates for scrambles have high vehicle and pedestrian traffic, high amounts of turning vehicles and a short distance diagonally across the intersection.
“I definitely think it’s something that could move beyond downtown. Obviously, our downtown has the highest number of pedestrians and so it makes sense to start here,” Velez said.
We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@iniusa.org.
Mark Carlisle Associate Editor | Daily Independent @mwcarlisle
Mark is passionate about accurately informing his readers to what is happening in their community. He also loves reading and writing about sports.
Mark has worked for Independent Newsmedia for five years. He married his high school sweetheart, adopted a boxer mix, and awaits his first child.
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