Last year as part of a larger effort to improve pedestrian safety, the City developed an evaluation and prioritization process to score and rank uncontrolled pedestrian crossings. An uncontrolled pedestrian crossing is where the sidewalks or designated walkways intersect a roadway at a location where there is no traffic control (i.e. traffic signal, STOP sign). The evaluation and ranking will help develop recommendations for improvements to the City based on industry-standard practices. Each crossing is different but in general the type of improvements could include crosswalk visibility enhancements, street lighting, pavement markings, warning signage, curb extensions, raised crosswalks, pedestrian refuge islands, LED enhanced signage, in-pavement flashing light system, and/or signalization. Currently the City’s funding for these types of improvements is limited such that the ranking system will help Public Works prioritize the locations to make improvements.
Earlier this year the City hired Kimley-Horn to assist the City in gathering the necessary data to use the previously created evaluation and ranking system. While the data is currently being gathered in the field, the City requests and encourages residents to provide comments and suggestions on uncontrolled crosswalks. The feedback will not only assist the City in identifying which crosswalks are of importance to the community but will be used as one of the criteria that will affect the overall ranking. The public is encouraged to visit the City’s website or give us a call at (415) 485-3355.