Local roads employ a new means of protecting those who need to cross the street.
By DeNae Thomas
Assistant Lifestyles Editor
The striking beaches, restaurants, stores and homes that line Pacific Coast Highway can make the famous road a dangerous drive. Few dare to take the challenge of crossing it on foot.
“Trying to cross PCH is like trying to run through a blizzard without getting hit by snow,” junior Hannah Farmos said.
She said she often visits her friends who live along the highway and has to cross the street because of limited parking space.
However, thanks to a unique “smart” crosswalk system that was recently constructed on PCH in Pacific Palisades just north of Temescal Canyon Road, pedestrian safety is beginning to increase, said Pat Reld, a representative of the seventh district of the California Department of Transportation.
The smart crosswalk is so named because of its underground sensors, which are “smart” enough to know when pedestrians are waiting to cross the street. The crosswalk is lined on each side with a series of directional flashing, amber warning signals. Once triggered, the flashing lights on the detection system turn on to notify approaching motorists of nearby pedestrians. The crosswalk lights in the pavement also enhance pedestrians’ visibility on dark nights.
The system also includes “decorated posts” to provide additional warning signs to motorists that pedestrians may be waiting to cross, as well as a speed striping system to slow traffic and raise drivers’ awareness of the crosswalk.
TDS Engineering of Westlake Village is the service provider for the $98,000 Caltrans contract.
The SMART crosswalk, also referred to as the “LightGuard” system or “Pedestrian Crosswalk System,” is the only product on the market that has been independently and extensively tested, according to Interprovincial Traffic Services, the provider of the structure.
The city of Santa Rosa initiated the assessment of the new concept in 1994 and the California Office of Traffic Safety and the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center sponsored studies of the system.
Since the successful evaluation several SMART crosswalk systems have been constructed throughout California and Washington state in an effort to reduce the amount of fatalities associated with pedestrians and crosswalks.
Forty-two percent of all fatal collisions in Los Angeles involve pedestrians, according to the California Highway Patrol Annual report of traffic collisions, and 40 percent of pedestrian victims are in a crosswalk.
A SMART crosswalk was installed at Adams and Severance streets in Los Angeles after a hit-and-run accident in 1999, when a mother and her two children were seriously injured while crossing the street. The planning for the crosswalk began when local residents came to the City Council to make the dangerous intersection safe because of the dozen schools and child care centers nearby.
In October, a new crosswalk was also opened at the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and Vendome Street in Los Angeles.
The intersection had a long history of accidents and near-accidents, punctuated by the death of a pedestrian in 1999, which sparked community activists, business people and families to petition the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for safer measures.
Children and their families from nearby Kedren Headstart Preschool were particularly eager to celebrate the new crosswalk.
“This intersection has been too dangerous for too long,” Councilman Eric Garcetti said at the opening of the crosswalk. “Crossing the street should be a simple activity, not a dangerous activity which parents, students and pedestrians fear.”
Reld said that because of resident concern over the safety of PCH, Caltrans is planning to install additional SMART crosswalks on PCH in the future if the first system reduces accidents and near-accidents.
January 23, 2003