Hello,
Dennis Marrotte. I just returned home after Midnight last night, from a
whirlwind week in Archangel, Russia, Greater Portland's Russian Sister City.
This was my first visit there since 2011. Archangel is a busy City and the
Capital of the Archangel
" Oblast " or Province. The population is just under 400,000.
Prior to 2007 - 2006, a dual Electric Trolley System provided public
transportation for its citizens year round. Archangel was supposedly the
only City with a parallel track, one in each direction, along with motor
vehicle traffic. Today, that electric over head public Trolley
transportation system is gone. The maintenance costs were like a bottomless
black hole.
Now, there are private buses and vans, public buses and dozens of taxis
along with hundreds of privately owned cars, SUVs.
But, in my mind, Pedestrians in Downtown Archangel are safer than
Pedestrians here in Westbrook.
I was stopped a short time ago, at the Hannaford Entrance Lights westbound
on WCD, and watched a man, cross WCD, on the Crosswalk from Hannaford
towards the opposite side of WCD, with traffic stopped on WCD east and
west. The Pedestrian stopped on the elevated median for a moment then ran
across to the far side when the exiting Hannaford Traffic came out, with
one car never really slowing down while turning Left on WCD, the Pedestrian
had to run across the two westbound lanes to avoid being hit. I did not get
any license plate # or car model. Then, waiting to turn Left from WCD to
Stroudwater with a green Left Turn Arrow, a P/ U Truck ran the Westbound
WCD Red Light.
Marked Crosswalks in Archangel have a similar audible tone system countdown
but the Walking Pedestrian figure is GREEN instead of WHITE. The Raised
Hand is ORANGE like here. Archangel is 125 Miles below the Arctic Circle,
about the same Latitude as Fairbanks, Alaska.
Dennis Marrotte
