Pedestrian rights activism

I've been contacted on behalf of a relatively new effort aimed at fighting for pedestrian rights. Will post more about that when I know more, but I thought I'd put out some feelers and get a sense of who here, if anyone, cares enough about pedestrian access and safety issues to devote volunteer time to them.  Historically I've noticed it's tough to build sustained grass-roots volunteer interest in pedestrian activism, as people tend to not 'identify' as pedestrians the way they do as cyclists or railfans.

Also-- study question- if there were a pedestrian safety awareness effort along the lines of Ghost Bikes, what form would it take?

[waiting to see if thread just sinks slowly to the bottom . . .]

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Permalink Reply by Lizzy M. on February 14, 2012 at 4:10am

I would be really interested to see what shape this takes. I've been finding ways to "casually" drop into conversation the fact that Chicago has twice the national average of hit and run incidents where pedestrians are killed because it's really appalling and also because I'm curious whether other people in the city feel that the city is not as pedestrian-oriented as it should be.

Personally, I drive fewer than six times a year and am a passenger (cabs, mostly) only a couple times a month. It's hard not to feel that drivers are the enemy and I'm sure that's not a useful way of looking at it.

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on February 14, 2012 at 5:19am

CDOT recently placed 32 "ghost mannequins" around the city, each one representing a pedestrian fatality, similar to a ghost bike. I think pedestrian safety campaigns are good ideas, the more the better.

 

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 14, 2012 at 5:45am

There have been many times over the last few years when I've had to wait a long long time to cross neighborhood streets at legal crosswalks, even when wearing reflective materials (such as wristbands) and waving to get drivers' attention.  When there's been a break in traffic and another driver is approaching, I use those reflective materials to get their attention, but they rarely slow down.  Sometimes they even speed up.

How about developing a small reflective sign with a message along the lines of "stop for peds - IL state law"?  A stop sign symbol should be part of the message.  My thought is to have something we could carry and use when walking.  Then the campaign goes wherever we go, wherever we need to cross and currently have difficulty. Your $0.02?

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on February 14, 2012 at 6:50am

Pedestrian crossing flags are a step in the right direction. (See what I did there?  I'll be here all week, remember to tip your waitress...)

Permalink Reply by Melanie K on February 14, 2012 at 9:25am

This is what I think all ped markings should look like (spotted while going south on Clark street toward downtown):

Just noticed it today as I rarely go down Clark. Still, the driver's didn't slow down all that much, but I did see pedestrians were able to cross more easily, as there is no stop sign at this intersection .  The bright yellow ped crossing signs also seemed to help.  Here is an interesting article that highlights that particular crossing and its challenges: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=181391

Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on February 14, 2012 at 11:22am
Crosswalks,signs,signals,sidewalks all in place. Getting noses out of smart phones, I-pods will do more for safety.
Permalink Reply by Michelle S on February 14, 2012 at 12:33pm

I'm all for pedestrian rights and would certainly support someone's organized citywide effort. I'm busy with many projects right now but could step in a little down the road if the group coalesced.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 15, 2012 at 2:39am

I've heard that ALL of the flags have been stolen from the places where they have been introduced.

Thunder Snow said:

Pedestrian crossing flags are a step in the right direction. (See what I did there?  I'll be here all week, remember to tip your waitress...)

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 15, 2012 at 2:46am

Nope, not everyone.  Good one. 

h' said:

Thanks to those who keyed in on the central question posed above.

Random thought- I think there's potential for "improv-everywhere" style awareness-raising actions.

Guessing everyone's seen this a bunch of times?

Permalink Reply by David on February 15, 2012 at 5:34am

I haven't seen that before either.   But it reminds me a little bit of this.

(edit: apparently I have no idea how to embed a video on chainlink.  I've tried a bunch of different ways and just get the link.  What's the secret?  Should I paste the whole iframe?).

http://youtu.be/_b3XxWYBxGo


h' said:

Thanks to those who keyed in on the central question posed above.

Random thought- I think there's potential for "improv-everywhere" style awareness-raising actions.

Guessing everyone's seen this a bunch of times?

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 15, 2012 at 6:56am

To embed a video, go to the Youtube page, click the Share button, then the Embed button.  Copy the code that's highlighted in the box.  Come back to Chainlink, type your intro text, click the HTML button, then paste that copied code at the bottom of the window.  And you should get this:

Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on February 15, 2012 at 7:21am

I thought the red flags were a good idea. I figured that they'd "go missing" - I didn't think that they'd go missing in less than a week.

-

One way to start would be to get the CTA operators to obey the "pedestrian crossing at a corner" law and stop the bus so people could cross the street. The CTA buses are big and noticeable. - I understand that they can't be slamming on the brakes all the time, but I don't think I've seen more than 5 buses stop for pedestrians since the law was clarified more than a year ago.

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