While I often write about big picture ideas and how to reshape neighborhoods, many times the small details that affect our daily lives get overlooked. These details may not affect everyone, and many may not even notice them, but they are simple issues to fix and its time our cities work to get the small things right before moving on to big picture items. Although these issues will be specifically about Syracuse, NY, many of these issues can be found in cities across the country.
Pedestrians in all directions told not to walk at the corner of Park St. and Butternut St. on the Northside of Syracuse, NY
Sync Up Pedestrian Signals with Traffic Lights
As a pedestrian you’re at your most vulnerable as you cross the street. You must trust cars taking turns will see you and that drivers will obey the traffic signal above. The issue comes when you don’t know when it is safe to cross. You’re told to wait for the walking sign, so you hit the beg button and wait your turn that may or may not come. After a while you’re forced to risk crossing without the signal and run to the other side. I hate when I see people running across the street when they have the right-of-way, but they still feel as though they are the ones doing something wrong and so they run.
This is all too common of an occurrence and can be simply fixed by syncing the pedestrian signals with the lights. You should never have to push the beg button to get across the street, and you should never see the “Do Not Walk” sign while traffic moving in your same direction has a green light. Moving to a system that is timed properly, and where the solid “Do Not Walk” sign does not appear until the traffic light are at yellow, will reduce confusion for pedestrians and drastically increase their safety.
It will also make drivers feel safer. When you’re stopped at a traffic light and someone approaches the corner, with the current signal system you don’t know what decision they are going to make. They may decide to cross because they don’t know how much longer the green light will last. With properly timed signals they know if there’s enough time to cross or not, cutting down on those mad dashes across the street and making everyone feel safer in the process.
Bus stop along Grant Blvd. on the Northside of Syracuse, NY without any sidewalk nearby, yet still labeled as Handicap Accessible
Not All Bus Stops are Handicap Accessible
Every single bus stop sign in Syracuse has a Handicap Accessible logo on it. Perhaps this is because our buses kneel and can accommodate people with walking disabilities, but it’s also a lie. Yes, the bus can accommodate those with special needs, but where those riders must wait and how they get there cannot.
One perfect example is Grant Blvd. near Woodlawn Cemetery. There are no sidewalks along the cemetery and no concrete waiting spaces for people to stand. Centro has labeled these stops as Handicap Accessible even though no one in a wheelchair or has trouble walking can feasibly get there, especially not in the winter time where you must wait in snow mounds or in the road.
While Grant Blvd. is a prime example of poor planning for stops, other stops have smaller issues that reduce their accessibility to those with disabilities. Again, wheelchairs do best on hard surfaces, yet most of our stops require riders to walk on grass (or snow in winter) to get on the bus. Every bus stop, should it be labeled Handicap Accessible, should have an extended sidewalk that goes to the curbside, allowing for easier access for those in need.
No crosswalks at a busy intersection just a few blocks from Lemoyne Elementary School in Syracuse, NY
Crosswalks at Every Stop Light and Every School
Paint is the cheapest tool a department can use when reshaping streets, and it is all that is needed in order to make intersections safer for pedestrians. High visibility crosswalks should be present at every traffic signal in the city and at every corner directly connected to a school. These are the places that pedestrians, many of them children, must cross, and yet we do a poor job of visually providing them safe spaces to cross. Every corner that touches the block a school is located on should have crosswalks in order to signal to drivers that students have the priority in this space. Traffic signals should also require crosswalks as they are the only opportunities for pedestrians to cross safely without moving vehicles to dodge. Without the crosswalk markings pedestrians are treated as unwelcome nuisances to drivers. (A big picture idea is that we need to reshape our streets so that cars are unwelcome and pedestrians own the space).
A poorly kept sidewalk on the Westside of Syracuse, NY. Not an uncommon site throughout the city, often forcing people into the streets to walk.
Sidewalks Wide Enough for Three People
In all honesty I’d prefer even wider sidewalks, but I’ll say wide enough for three people should be the bare minimum. One of the things that makes walking downtown or in cities like New York and D.C. pleasurable is the fact that you can comfortably walk next to someone and not constantly rearrange to allow someone to pass. You can maintain a conversation and be fully engaged in the moment, instead of looking ahead and knowing you’re going to shift or be uncomfortably close to someone passing by.
Some will argue that those areas need the wider sidewalks due to commercial entities and higher traffic volumes, which are both correct. But there are plenty of people who walk around their neighborhoods, or would like to do so more often, but are eventually forced into the street due to poorly maintained, narrow sidewalks. If you want people to walk more, or you yourself want to walk more, providing comfortable sidewalks is the easiest way to achieve that.
Yes, we need to change our zoning laws and allow for mix-use development, but since this is a piece about pet peeves and more small scale fixes I’ll let you read more about that in my previous piece.