Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Right Turn Warning Sign - Traffic Safety for Pedestrians

The City has had some recent crash experience with a few of the bicycle boxes that were installed on approaches to intersections that feature a downhill grade. The local news station picked up the story tonight.  One approach to mitigating crashes is to apply an active warning sign like the one at NE Couch at Grand Avenue described here.  In the Netherlands, I never saw anything quite that obvious. There were the "Let Op" signs that are used somewhat frequently and then I recalled this auxiliary signal head which I believe communicates that there is a pedestrian crossing that the right turning movement either can't see and there is interest in warning of activity in the crosswalk, I am not sure, my recall of this intersection is that there was a bit of an offset, so if the pedestrian was crossing in the marked area furthest from the main road there could have been some sight distance limitations where this additional queue would have been helpful.   

The reason to share this is to consider how minimal the design is, whether it is effective or not, and given the anecdotal evidence that many Dutch drive their cars with the experience as a cyclist, perhaps these sorts of devices do not have to be as obvious.
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