Email re: Draft Pedestrian Facility Plan

The report, Draft Pedestrian Facility Plan, ignored three pedestrian safety issues, and it is requested that three sentences be appended. Also, that three phrases be deleted. Reasons for the requests follow the request:

Additions
1) Append to Montague Expressway section:

Where pedestrians must walk in the traffic lane (including acceleration lanes and right-turn lanes), shrubbery shall be trimmed and a path created (on either side of the shrubbery or hedge), as a precursor to sidewalk construction.

For descriptive photos and details, see

http://moderntransit.org/expy/m-gallery.html

2) Append to 'Pedestrians facilities along the expressways' section:
At expressway intersection areas, where pedestrians walking along the expressway are not removed from the traffic flow of right-turning motor vehicles, shrubbery shall be trimmed to enable pedestrians to walk on the high side of the curb (on either side of the shrubbery or hedge), between the arterial sidewalk and the expressway shoulder (at a point beyond the intersection area and where the shoulder is not tapered and where the curb is parallel to the road). At the Central Expressway underpasses at Rt. 85 and Rt. 237, a sidewalk or path will be created, if need be, by using the double width traffic lane.

For an example photo and drawings, see

http://moderntransit.org/expy/repeal.html#extremely

3) Also append to same section:
Where both lane additions and sidewalks are planned for the same portion of roadway, the sidewalks shall be constructed not later than the lane additions.

Reason: In the past, constructing the lanes first resulted in forcing pedestrians to walk in the traffic lane for years. Details are in:

http://moderntransit.org/expy/policies.html

Deletions
We request that these phrases (the last multiple times) be deleted, for reasons stated, as follows:

Page 1, bottom point: Delete the word "emergency" in "shoulders can serve as emergency walkways."

Reason: The ratio of pedestrians that walk there for lack of alternatives versus for "emergency" is probably well over 100 to 1. The vast majority are not "emergency," which has this definition (from American Heritage Dictionary): 1. A serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate action. 2. A condition of urgent need for action or assistance.

Page 2, first non-indented paragraph: Delete the phrase "to be legally enforceable" from the sentence "... revising [city ordinances] to be legally enforceable, to reflect existing conditions ..."

Reason: The ordinances should be repealed, instead.

Many places: Delete: "The remaining xx% currently has no obvious pedestrian use or demand."

Reason: This statement cannot be true, because some sidewalks terminate in mid-block where pedestrians continue walking on the "remaining," meaning shoulder (or traffic lane, in some cases on Montague). If there is a demand for sidewalks use as implied by the prior sentences, than there is a demand for shoulder use as well. The xx% figures can be determined from arithmetic.

Map Legends

Many people do not think that a shoulder means 'including a path'. I have suggestions for the map legends to prevent this misunderstanding:

For the gray (wide shoulder) legend, put
"wide shoulder or dirt/gravel/asphalt pedestrian path in the ROW"
or
"wide shoulder or unimproved path in the ROW"

For the blue (pedestrian path) legend, put
"pedestrian path or alternative route not in the ROW"
or just
"pedestrian route not in the ROW"

Probably append "(Right of Way)" to ROW somewhere for those who don't know the abbreviation.