John, the encounter at Hannaford in Westbrook was Friday afternoon.
With both West and East bound WCD traffic in ALL 4 Lanes stopped, , the
Pedestrian no doubt probably thinks everyone is stopped, but that is not
true for the Exiting Hannaford Turning traffic, LEFT Turning. It's
difficult to say in this case, on Who saw or did not see. Very dangerous at
Night. This was in day time and Sunilght. The Motorist seemed to be in a
hurry more then the man crossing in the Crosswalk.
Dennis
On Oct 28, 2017 5:14 PM, "John Brooking" <johnbrooking4@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I suggest we add this intersection to our list of those to do a walk audit
on at some point. I'm pretty sure that the pedestrian walk signal there
goes on at the same time as the green light out of the Hannaford parking
lot, which can cause exactly the problem you describe, Dennis. The
pedestrian crossing from Hannaford gets a sense of safety crossing the
stopped traffic in the near lane, while the exiting left turning motorists
from Hannaford have several seconds to get well out into their left turn,
very possibly without noticing the crossing pedestrian. Last fall I saw a
bicyclist using the crosswalk almost get hit in exactly the same
circumstance. (Of course, we try to teach bicyclists not to ride in
crosswalks, for just that kind of reason, but we know that many will
anyway.)
On Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 12:10 PM, Dennis Marrotte <
dennis.marrotte1111@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
