Here in the Bay area we are happy life in or close to cities, which are known for their ability to walk. Lists the site walk score, for example, recently on place in the most walkable cities in the country, and San Francisco in the second place and Oakland in tenth. This is certainly could lead that for celebration, not security to take into account, when you consider that it was a terrible year for the safety of pedestrians in San Francisco and that more than 550 pedestrian alone kills a year in California. A new account by local blog Oakland North one reason explains why the East Bay City not up to the hype on foot life: dangerous pedestrian crossing signals.

In contrast to most of the cities, the Oaklands crosswalks say not automatically to pedestrians "go", when the light turns green. Rather, pedestrians must press the button on the crosswalk to obtain permissions to the cross. Lauren McFall notes that this creates an inherent conflict between the California vehicle code rule, that "the driver of a vehicle right of way to a pedestrian crossing of the road in all marked crosswalk or all unmarked crosswalk at an intersection yield" and others saying that "no pedestrians will start to cross the road in the direction of the signal" when it says "don't walk" or "wait." By requiring pedestrians to push a button to the road cross, streets are not Oakland pedestrians that grant automatic way, such as those of the California vehicle code.

Fortunately, a simple solution to this problem is dangerous. Oakland could a¼Blicher of the display automatically a "walk" signal, when cars go just or right turn in a transform specific crosswalk adopt. In this way pedestrians must must not care about, whether they cross the road may based on regardless of whether they pressed the. This is an example of a simple solution to a dangerous problem for California streets.

If you agree to the need for this change, McFall invites someone to her in Oakland City Hall on 18 August the bicycle & pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting join.

Photo credit: Dylan Passmore

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