Columbia's ABC17 looks at new College Ave road design & crosswalks: Are they working? | Local News - Home

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

It's been less than a year since the University of Missouri installed two crosswalks on College Avenue on the east side of campus. They were a combined effort between the school, the City of Columbia, and MoDOT. The total cost was more than $800,000.

But there have been complaints the pedestrians as well as drivers do not know how to properly use the crosswalks.

Our ABC 17 News crews spent an afternoon on College Avenue and saw many students not properly using the crosswalk. Students often would hit the button but not wait for the walk signal while others did not hit the button at all.

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Columbia's ABC17 looks at new College Ave road design & crosswalks: Are they working? | Local News - Home

MoBikeFed comment: Honestly this seems like a bit of lazy reporting. The question isn't whether drivers and/or pedestrians are using the new facility "properly" but whether it is improving safety and providing the access needed.

Just for example, addition of a pedestrian refuge area in the middle of the road has likely made it far easier, safer, and more convenient for pedestrians to cross the road--because they can cross two lanes at a time and wait in the center for a safe opportunity to cross the other two lanes. This is a major improvement over the previous configuration, where they were forced to dash across all four lanes with no safe place to wait in the middle.

With the pedestrian refuge, there are certainly for more opportunities for pedestrians to safely cross than before. And, it is true, those opportunities may not always line up with the occasions when the pedestrian signal gives a "walk" indication. This is a problem with all crosswalk signals everywhere and not unique to these new crosswalks.

The fact that motorists will drive through a crosswalk with a large right light above it is of more concern. This is not a difficult signal to understand--both "red light" and "occupied crosswalk" are clear signals to drivers to stop. But a small, dangerous minority of Missouri drivers do fail to stop.

Altogether, is the new road and crosswalk design improving safety and pedestrian access in a key pedestrian-heavy area of the city? It is extremely odd that this investigative news story doesn't even bother to explore those key questions at all.