Crosswalk This Way
Similar signs are heading towards 41st & 43rd
One of the most common concens raised at monthly FHNA meetings is how difficult it is for pedestrians to cross Forest Hill Ave. Kathy Graziano has heard our concerns and has delivered a solution that could really help. The city plans to install solar powered Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) systems at 41st Street and also 43rd Street. Current timeline for installation is by the end of November.
The beacons will begin flashing when a pedestrian activates a push button to cross. Additional signage is also planned for both locations to the effect that it is VA State law to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk.
While this system will help re-train drivers to yield, we as pedestrians can also help by taking an active role in the process. If you’re trying to cross, you should make your presence known to oncoming vehicles (waving is good) and showing that you intend to enter the crosswalk. Keep in mind that it’s not an overnight fix. We’ll still have drivers who choose to ignore even these enhanced signals. But by taking a more active role in crossing Forest Hill we can really help this system work.
From the Federal Highway Safety Administration website: “Going from a no-beacon arrangement to a two-beacon system, mounted on the supplementary warning sign on the right side of the crossing, increased yielding from 18 percent to 81 percent. There was a further increase in yielding behavior, with a four-beacon system (with two beacons on both the right and left side of the crossing) to 88 percent.”
This is great news. I wonder if these types of beacons would be a good replacement for the inoperational signals in the Semmes/Forest Hill fork crosswalks?
I was thinking the same thing. It will be even more crucial to improve the safety in that area when Patrick Henry opens up this winter.
woo hoo! a step in the right direction! I agree with one at patrick henry crossing! Now, about those speed cushions for some of our forest hill streets….
Great news, this was one of our immediate regrets when moving to the neighborhood. Please be careful, some very selfish drivers populate that road.
RRFB are only used at unsignalized crossings, so they would not be applicable to the intersection of FH and Semmes. Other treatments could be used however.
I’ve used the signals almost daily since their installation. Irrespective of time of day, they’ve been effective in every instance.
Just curious if others have had similar success (?) Thanks again to Tom Flynn in the traffic division and Kathy Graziano for this improvement!
I live close to one, I will use it and am glad they are here. Although, today I heard a driver drop the F-bomb at a pedestrian using the RRFB.
Well, it looks like pedestrian law was too much for one driver. An RRFB at 43rd st is laying on the ground, with a piece of a vehicle’s splash guard and tire tracks as evidence. It still works, thanks to solar energy! Time to put MPACT to the test.
[...] on Forrest Hill Ave. swerved to miss a car taking a left on 43rd Street and wiped out one the brand new solar powered crosswalks. The car doing the damage to the crosswalk, stopped, checked the damage, jumped back in her car and [...]
Pretty interesting impressive technology, I actually shot a little rough video over there a week or so ago.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tvnewsbadge?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/9Q2D4RBlyNA
Sometimes folks stopped, some times they didn’t…note the school bus zooming past while that old fella was trying to
cross.
[...] posted this clip in the comments of the original post about the crosswalk lights that went up. I was afraid that not very many of you would check it out. [...]