Delmar Crosswalk Missing ADA Ramps
Twice now in the last few weeks I’ve crossed Delmar at the crossing shown below:
Both times I drove to the Loop area in my car and parked in the disabled parking next to the Pageant. Note to Secretary Salazar, I have a state permit to allow me to park there.
Both times crossing Delmar I had to deal with the curbs on each side of the street. A person that requires a wheelchair would be completely out of luck. Many people use wheelchairs. I use mine downtown all the time. I’ve taken MetroLink to the Loop in my chair too. Some folks, say just after surgery, use a chair temporarily. But while walking I still find the ramps very helpful. Parents pushing baby strollers also find ramps helpful.
When the roadbed was narrowed and sidewalks widened a few years ago the idea of crossing the street was overlooked.
The distance between Rosedale Ave on the East and Skinker on the West is nearly 1,000 feet – roughly the distance of three blocks downtown – with no place to cross in between. This distance needs two, not one, crosswalk with curb cuts.
– Steve Patterson
I worked next door for four years. You’re basically taking your life in your own hands crossing here regardless. It’s one of the problems with the Loop, especially the east side.
It’s funny you should post this, because as a regular reader of this blog, I noticed the lack of cut outs in this location and thought of you. And that’s certainly not the type of thing I would have noticed previously. You’re definitely raising awareness of ADA compliance for those of us that are fortunate enough not to notice these problems out of necessity.
I agree with Bryan. Since most Americans don’t know that this type of crossing demands that vehicles stop for crossing pedestrians, I wouldn’t cross here to save my life. People have sped up when I have tried to cross here. As if I am some sort of road kill waiting to be born.
Really for this to be a good crossing it should have a elevated path connecting both sidewalks and so as to create a speed bump like structure. Additionally, it should have an overhead flashing light that can be activated by push button on both sides.
But the Loop is very poorly administered in terms of crosswalks and signals. I have sent letters to U. City asking them to review the crossing signals at Delmar and Leland, because the walk sign only appears when someone has pushed the walk button. This causes people to get frustrated and cross regardless of the signal which seems to me a pretty ignorant policy for the city to have. For such a busy pedestrian intersection, the policy should be automatic, corresponding walk signals when the lights turn to green. Instead of fixing it, they said it had been checked and it was safe. I don’t think they understood what I meant or maybe it was just too hard for them to understand. Later I found out that Delmar is a county road and so that light isn’t even controlled by U. City and so the officials lied to me, since they didn’t even have control over the situation. Needless to say, this is a problem for Delmar throughout because it extends across the city limits and is governed by two or three jurisdictions. But keep on keep’n on. Someday things might get fixed!
“This distance needs two, not one, crosswalk with curb cuts.”
Is there a code or a specification on this or is this your own idea?
I think the answer here is the yellow flashing light activated by the pedestrian pushing a button. If a yellow light flashes constantly, people won’t pay much attention to it, but if you’re driving along and it suddenly starts to flash, that would certainly grab my attention. I say try that first. Speed bumps later if necessary but only as a last resort. Even if you drive slow enough those things are hard on cars. If the yellow flashing light doesn’t work add a crossing gate like at a railroad crossing.
Ya know, if you closed Delmar, in the Loop, to traffic and made it into a pedestrian mall, the distance between crosswalks and the lack of ADA ramps would disappear as problems! 😉
But seriously, mid-block crosswalks, even on really loooong blocks, especially anyplace except California, are a recipe for close calls, raised middle fingers and potential accidents. Drivers don’t expect pedestrians to cross anyplace other than at corners with signals or four-way stops (poor education and a lack of enforcement), and pedestrians will lose if any driver isn’t paying attention. California, for whatever reason, is very aggressive in having vehicles yield to pedestrians (better education? more enforcement?).
A few years back, some political entity (MoDOT?) made somebody (U. City?) remove the crosswalk because cars were allowed to park “too close” to it and U. City didn’t want to give any parking – I was surprised to see it back in operation, but I don’t know what changed.
I have worked in the loop for fifteen years and all of the cross walks are difficult.
Most of the problems are that drivers don’t pay attention or know how to drive. Then there are a few clueless pedestrians that forget that even though they have the right of way, it isn’t right to cross late in a light cycle.
The crosswalk mentioned gets overlooked partly because of the right turn only lane to the east at the Metrolink station and the proximity to the busy intersection of Skinker to the west.
Yes, this crosswalk needs curb cuts, but you wouldn’t be wise to roll across there without bodyguards.