June 2014 Updates - Why is the City of Tucson Sending Pedestrians to Their Doom? - Part III

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In the first two parts of this series, Southern Arizona Public Works exposed the City of Tucson's casual approach to pedestrian safety by highlighting poor construction and installation of marked-but-unsignalized-pedestrian crosswalks. Unfortunately, even when the City does install signalized-pedestrian crosswalks, it locates them improperly, thereby diluting their benefit to pedestrian safety. 

The best illustration of the City's ineptitude in placing signalized-pedestrian crosswalks comes with a tragic backstory. In 2011, a car struck and killed 13-year-old Nicholas Celaya while the child was crossing East 22nd Street from Reid Park to a McDonald's restaurant on the south side of the street. The death prompted the City to create a new task force to make the streets safer for pedestrians. The City promptly installed a High Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK) at East 22nd Street and South Randolph Parkway placed directly over the previously marked-but-unsignalized-painted crosswalk seen here or below:

The City of Tucson installed a HAWK at this intersection using the previously-marked crosswalk.

Sigh. Even in attempting to correct its mistake, the City of Tucson built the new HAWK in the wrong location, further exposing pedestrians to danger. HAWKs should not be a substitute for street lights, and therefore the City should never place them directly adjacent to an intersection like the one at East 22nd Street and South Randolph Parkway. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) makes this clear:

“When an engineering study finds that installation of a pedestrian hybrid beacon is justified, then:

The pedestrian hybrid beacon should be installed at least 100 feet from side streets or driveways that are controlled by STOP or YIELD signs.”
— MUTCD, Section 4F.02(04)

Where should the City have placed the HAWK? Traffic coming north on South Randolph Way has a stop sign at East 22nd Street, therefore the HAWK at the location is placed improperly. This illustration demonstrates:

Proper vs. Improper HAWK placement

The City of Tucson can, and should, do better. The decision to place HAWKs at previously-established-pedestrian crosswalks rather than to install the HAWKs properly under the MUTCD is most likely a financial decision. New crosswalks 100 feet before intersections would be expensive to install. Are the savings worth the safety risk? This is an issue the City always gets wrong. Click through the gallery below for many examples of HAWKs the City of Tucson has improperly placed.

Why is the City of Tucson Sending Pedestrians to Their Doom? - Part II

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In Part One of this series, Southern Arizona Public Works examined a marked-but-unsignalized crosswalk crossing Speedway Boulevard at Beverly Avenue. The speed limit at that location is 35 mph, giving pedestrians a fighting chance of scurrying across all 90 feet of roadway -- seven lanes of traffic -- without disaster. 

Crosswalk to Golf N' Stuff on East Tanque Verde Road

PAG Traffic Counts for East Tanque Verde Road - Click to Enlarge

This Golf n' Stuff crosswalk (at right) is not so forgiving. Like the Speedway crosswalk, this crossing of East Tanque Verde Road is marked, but unsignalized. Traffic averages about 3,000 vehicles at peak hours (see chart at left.) Unlike the Speedway crosswalk, this hazard crosses a roadway where the posted speed limit is 40 mph. It is below a sloped, curving hill that inhibits lines-of-sight. East Tanque Verde Road is a nine-lane, 115-foot thoroughfare in this location. Most egregiously, this crosswalk is a conduit to a children's attraction.

In Part One of this series, I examined the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices to see what that text said about Tucson's choice to leave the Speedway and Beverly crosswalk unsignalized, using some assumptions about daily pedestrian traffic from local studies.* How does the MUTCD feel about the Tanque Verde Road crosswalk?

VALUES LOCATED IN THE GREEN DICTATE INSTALLATION OF A HAWK OR OTHER SIGNALIZED CROSSWALK

Not good. Note that the results for this crosswalk are again off the chart. The chart does not even have a line indicating the decision point for a 115-foot road. The folks writing the MUTCD perhaps did not contemplate planners who would be so reckless as to slap down a striped crosswalk across such an expanse. There is some evidence to suggest that unsignalized-mid-block crosswalks like these actually are more dangerous than no marked crossing at all because such markings provide an illusion of safety.

Crosswalks like these raise safety concerns that aren't obvious at first blush. Looking even deeper at the local transportation context, one can see the social justice issue: crosswalks cater to the non-driving public, which in most cases is synonymous with the lower-income public. At whose expense is Tucson ignoring the need to take crosstown traffic off surface streets and put it onto a workable system of controlled-access expressways? And who is benefitting from the decision to ignore a solution that would involve creating such a roadway system across the northern and eastern boundaries of the city?

This is an example of the tyranny of small decisions. Each road widening makes it a bit easier to postpone the day when Tucson will have to reckon with its lack of crosstown mobility. In the meantime, crosswalks like this one are increasingly dangerous to the many people who must cross our substitute superhighways through the middle of town.

*Note that my prior discussion about pedestrian counts was not very detailed. The pedestrian counts in the study are the four-hour totals observed during morning and afternoon peak traffic periods. The MUTCD chart is expressed in pedestrians per hour (pph.) Therefore, one would need to divide the average pedestrian volume (238) by four (= about 60) to get the best estimate possible of pph at East Tanque Verde Road. I wish more detailed information were available, but the Pima Association of Governments (PAG) has not devoted the necessary resources to create such data.

February/March 2014 Updates - Why is the City of Tucson Sending Pedestrians to Their Doom?

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While this blog awaits the decision of the Arizona Supreme Court in City of Phoenix v. Garretson, there seems like no better time to point out a public safety issue with which the City of Tucson sometimes struggles: pedestrian safety.

For instance, this mid-block South Craycroft Road crosswalk, which is just south of the intersection of Craycroft and Broadway, has been installed backwards, which turns pedestrians away from the traffic they should be facing as they cross the street:

Improper sidewalk construction turns pedestrians away from oncoming traffic as they cross

Proper sidewalk construction would turn pedestrians to enable perception of oncoming traffic

The figure on the right comes from a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) publication; the FHWA publishes the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is the "national standard for all traffic control devices installed on any street." One wonders how many more examples of this improper installation appear in the City of Tucson. 

3,000 vehicles pass through the intersection travelling on Speedway during peak hours - click to enlarge

Speedway Boulevard crosswalk at Beverly Avenue

Another mid-block crosswalk problem occurs when crosswalks are not properly signalized for the existing pedestrian and vehicle traffic. On Speedway Boulevard at Beverly Avenue, a striped and posted crosswalk exists without a signalized, high-intensity activated crosswalk (HAWK), even though the traffic count, pedestrian count, and length of the crosswalk strongly suggest the City should install a HAWK according to the MUTCD.

At both morning and evening peak one-hour periods, the combined Speedway Boulevard traffic in both directions at Beverly Avenue is over 3,000 vehicles; pedestrian numbers are not available but can be assumed to be greater than 20, given that the regional average pedestrian count per crosswalk is 238 pedestrians. The posted speed limit is 35 mph, and the length of the crosswalk is 90 feet across seven lanes of traffic. That puts this intersection off the chart used in the MUTCD for recommending a signalized crosswalk, where values in the green area of the chart recommend a HAWK:

Values located in the green dictate installation of a HAWK or other signalized crosswalk

As shown above, the pedestrian and vehicular traffic on Speedway could be halved and the recommendation to construct greater pedestrian-friendly facilities would still exist for this intersection. 

Tucson is, to a certain extent, to be commended for its efforts to make its streets pedestrian-friendly. Tucson invented the HAWK, which has advanced pedestrian safety in this town and others. Credit for that invention, however, merely gives Tucson recognition for creating a solution to a dangerous problem that should be avoided in the first place with better planning. The problem of large amounts of pedestrians crossing arterial thoroughfares could be avoided altogether by building a better overall City of Tucson transportation system.