Life in the streets. Documenting the culture of intersections.
Street narratives, public service announcements, ideologies, and other stories from the asphalt.
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Photo
via Streets Blog
Visibility and eye contact are essential to avoiding conflict at a crossing, but visual communication between different street users is greatly impaired when parked cars crowd an intersection (see diagrams above).
Daylighting clears away this visual obstacle and improves safety, especially for children, who have difficulty seeing and being seen at intersections. Daylighting also shortens the crossing distance at intersections, which reduces pedestrians’ exposure to traffic. For seniors and other street users with longer crossing times, this is particularly important.
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103rd Street Repaired - Parking Removed
I’m pleased to report that this “Dangerous Intersection” is a thing of the past, thanks to the responsiveness of the NYC Department of Transportation and Margaret Forgione, DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner. On May 4, Forgione emailed:
Our Borough Engineering Office completed an investigation of this location. As a result, a new order was issued to establish a “NO STANDING ANYTIME” zone south of the bus stop at West 104th Street to include the east-west crosswalks at West 103rd Street on the west curb of Riverside Drive. This is being implemented to improve the visibility of on coming traffic around the curve and improve the safety environment of pedestrians and cyclists crossing Riverside Drive. This order has been submitted to our sign maintenance unit for installation.
And here are the results after daylighting: a clear view of oncoming traffic, and a new, safe crossing:
Thank you DOT, “If you see something say something,” isn’t just a good thing to do if you see a suspicious package: with this kind of responsiveness from DOT, it can also help us eliminate dangerous intersections. — Peter Frishauf 5/31/09
Here’s how the same intersection looked before daylighting, just a few months ago, when I first wrote about this intersection on StreetsWiki:
via http://www.livablestreets.com/projects/dangerous-intersections/103rd-street-and-riverside-drive
Intersection 911 is a project of BOZZmedia
