Hunt, Medrano present plan to Merchants Association; will include new crosswalk lights, red lights
GETTING THE SIGNAL | A pedestrian runs to avoid traffic as he crosses Cedar Springs Road at Knight Street on Thursday, Jan. 12. The intersection will get a traffic signal under a pedestrian safety plan unveiled by the city this week. (John Wright/Dallas Voice)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL CEDAR SPRINGS PEDESTRIAN SAFETY PLAN
JOHN WRIGHT | Senior Political Writer
wright@dallasvoice.com
In the wake of two pedestrian fatalities on the Cedar Springs strip in November, Dallas officials have unveiled a host of planned safety improvements ranging from crosswalk lights to a new traffic signal to, eventually, the possibility of narrowing the street to two lanes.
Dallas City Council members Angela Hunt and Pauline Medrano, along with city staff, unveiled the changes during a closed-door meeting at the Round-Up Saloon on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 12, with representatives from the Cedar Springs Merchants Association, the Dallas Tavern Guild and other community groups.
The city’s Cedar Springs pedestrian safety plan calls for new flashing lights at crosswalks on Cedar Springs by the end of this month. A new traffic signal at Knight Street — where one of the pedestrians was killed — is scheduled to be installed by June.
“They did come with concrete solutions and things that they’re starting immediately, which is pretty exciting,” Merchants Association Executive Director Scott Whittall said after the meeting. “This is a big deal, and we’re excited about it. It’s a situation where we’re taking something unfortunate and we’re going to get as much out of it as we can to improve the street.”
Hunt said prior to Thursday’s meeting that the improvements have already begun with the recent addition of three streetlights on Cedar Springs.
“I think it’s pretty aggressive,” Hunt said of the plan, “which it needs to be, given the fatalities and accidents we’ve had there.”
In addition to the two fatalities in November, two pedestrians were seriously injured when they were struck on Cedar Springs in December.
Michael Doughman, executive director of the Dallas Tavern Guild, said the pedestrian safety plan represents “some great work from the city and those in attendance were most impressed with the ideas.”
“We had a great turn-out,” Doughman said. “Some ideas may need some tweaking but generally speaking, it was very well received. We will be doing an education campaign soon that we will ask the Dallas Voice to participate in. This will include pedestrian safety rules as well as driver safety issues.”
Scott Whittall
According to a copy of the plan provided by Doughman, yellow warning flashers will be installed in both directions at four crosswalks on Cedar Springs, near Knight Street and Reagan Street. The two Reagan street crosswalks will remain in their current locations. The existing crosswalk at Knight Street will be moved to the south in front of Bank of America, while a crosswalk will be added between ilume and the city library.
Whittall said the flashing crosswalk lights will be at motorists’ eye level — and will be similar to the ones in place where Knox Street crosses the Katy Trail a few miles away. For the first 30 days, the crosswalk lights will flash around the clock, but after that pedestrians will have to activate them.
The city will also install a traffic signal at Cedar Springs and Knight Street by June, and begin an engineering study Feb. 1 to determine whether a traffic signal is warranted at Reagan Street. Also by June, the city will remove the right turn lane and island on the southeast corner of Cedar Springs and Douglas Avenue.
Other possible additions to the plan include banning left turns onto Cedar Springs from Reagan Street eastbound.
According to the plan, police have already increased traffic enforcement in the area, and Whittall said the Merchants Association has signed off on issuing jaywalking citations once the crosswalk improvements are in place.
“If we’re going to provide you with multiple safe crosswalk areas, they need to be utilized,” Whittall said. “You put your life at risk in an entertainment district if you try to cross somewhere that is not marked.”
Long term, the pedestrian safety plan calls for a “complete street” assessment of Cedar Springs, which could include revising the width of the street and reconfiguring lanes over the next three to five years.
“We’ve been harping and harping and harping on going to two lanes for a long time,” Whittall said. “Anything that would increase foot traffic on Cedar Springs and decrease traffic speed on Cedar Springs, we’re all for.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 13, 2012.
Your link above to view the full Cedar Springs Pedestrian Safety Plan opens a PDF of the issue.
@Scott: Correct. Can you not open or download it?
The link to the Cedar springs Pedestrian plan opens as the pdf of this weeks Voice. It is not attached (Linked) to the proper pdf.
@Scott @Ray: This is now fixed.
I think a lot of the traffic issues, not just on cedar springs, but in oak lawn generally- Douglas, Wycliff, etc could be helped tremendously by four-way stop signs.
Was attempting to cross at a stop light yesterday when I saw a SUV kinda stopped. I saw her but she was too busy trying to find something in her car for her to notice that her car was still moving and about to hit a pedestrian. You can put all the stop lights and safety precautions you want but if you’ve got idiot drivers not paying attention, it will not prevent an accident.
You are right Tisha. Sometimes people act like the crosswalk means that you can jump out in front of traffic without looking. It isn’t just drivers but pedestrians looking at their I-phones or whatever, and just walking out into an intersection without even looking.
Narrowing Cedar Springs to two lanes in that area is just going to cause congestion and more headaches with people trying to merge. Instead of putting in more crosswalks, put some new stop lights and enforce jaywalking laws.
Narrowing Cedar Springs to 2 lanes will drive traffic to side streets to get past the strip. Lets have the signals but for heaven sakes have them green at the same time to help traffic flow. Police should check for public intoxication too. That causes the pedestrian accidents.
I agree with Zelda. Narrowing Cedar Springs will NOT help matters but create more bottlenecks for traffic. What does the city of Dallas think of the plan to narrow it? What about the fire truck and ambulance trying to get through the traffic, especially on a week-end night when the streets are crowded. I vote NO to narrowing the street.