West Hollywood has installed signs between traffic lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard warning drivers that they are approaching pedestrian crosswalks.
The yellow signs use symbols and words to say “state law, yield to pedestrians within crosswalks.” At several crosswalks, such as the one on Santa Monica Boulevard near Westmount, the city also has installed reflective raised markers meant to make the crosswalks more visible to drivers.
The signs between the traffic lanes are the latest step the city has taken to implement a series of temporary measures to improve pedestrian crosswalk safety. The West Hollywood City Council approved those measures at a meeting in October in response to an outcry from residents alarmed by a series of pedestrian accidents, including the death of Clinton Bounds, who was hit by a car while jaywalking across Santa Monica Boulevard in August. The most recent crosswalk accident occurred last Friday, when a young man was hit be a car while in a crosswalk on Santa Monica Boulevard at Ramage. The westbound driver said she had been blinded by the sun.
The city also has installed signs such as those currently used for special events and temporary lane closures to warn drivers to be aware of pedestrian crosswalks.
The pedestrian crosswalk signs in the road are at crosswalks along Santa Monica Boulevard at Palm Avenue, Hancock Avenue, Westmount Drive, West Knoll Drive, Orange Grove Avenue and Ogden Drive.
The raised pavement markers are at crosswalks along Santa Monica at Palm Avenue, Hancock Avenue, Westmount Drive, West Knoll Drive, Orange Grove Avenue and Ogden Drive, none of which currently have stoplights. The reflective raised markers would make the crosswalks more visible to drivers.
At its October meeting, the Council decided to delay implementation of other crosswalk safety measures, asking city staff members to assess their impact on local businesses and nearby neighborhoods and to get more input from residents on the city’s Eastside. Councilmember John Duran, for example, said he was concerned that installing more stoplights would further slow traffic on Santa Monica and lead drivers to take shortcuts through residential areas. Then-Councilmember Jeffrey Prang said he was especially concerned that a proposal to install a stoplight at Santa Monica and Hancock would lead to drivers turning left off Santa Monica onto Hancock to take a shortcut.
The short-term measures are part of a $1.4 million plan presented to the Council that would eventually include stop lights at crosswalks on Santa Monica Boulevard’s intersections with Westmount Drive and Hancock Avenue and pedestrian-activated crosswalk warning lights at Santa Monica’s intersections with West Knoll Drive and Palm Avenue. The plan recommends installing a lighted crosswalk mid-block between Orange Grove Avenue and Ogden Drive and replacing crosswalks now in existence at each of those intersections with Santa Monica Boulevard.
Overall, the plan proposed by the city staff would add four new traffic signals to Santa Monica Boulevard between La Cienega and San Vicente, each more than 400 feet apart. A report by the city staff members notes that such spacing is not unusual for central business districts and is similar to that on Santa Monica Boulevard between Sweetzer and La Cienega.
I don’t understand why weho has put crosswalks across state route 2 (Santa Monica Blvd is a state route) at places without stop lights. Stop lights at intersections control the flow of pedestrians and vehicles to provide safety for all. State law does call for vehicles to yield to pedestrians in “cross walks”, but I serious doubt lawmakers intended any city to put a cross walk, not at a controlled intersection, across a 4 lane road used by hundreds of cars an hour. Weho is really pushing the intent of the law out of some misplaced hope to force a… Read more »
The dumbest idea I ever saw. How many cars have been damaged, how much more time has been added to your morning/afternoon commute because of these signs. Traffic costs businesses money.
I’m all for crosswalk signals, but they must be linked/synchronized to the existing traffic signals at intersections. Someone with half an I.Q. point would of seen that the signs, in the middle of traffic, was a terrible terrible idea. Wait until someone with clout scratches their new Bentley.
Besides, how many of these accidents are from drunk pedestrian darting into traffic without a care in the world.
SN- fully agree. The middle-of-the-street signs are already bent/broken and look terrible. I’m all for the crosswalks, blinking lights, etc, but the signs are a hazard and need to go. Trying to change lanes to get around a bus or an idiot driver (lots of both on SMB) is a game of russian roulette as you can’t see these signs until they are practically under your car.
Am I the only person who thinks that these in-the-middle-of-the-street signs are more a hazard than anything else? Because of their short height, they are are not visible until you are right on them, and they are placed VERY unexpectedly between lanes with dotted lines (where you may be passing). I’ve almost hit them myself on a few occasions now, and it is not at all surprising to me that most of them have CLEARLY been hit by unsuspecting drivers. Whoever thought it was a good idea to add a road hazard to avoid accidents clearly hadn’t gotten enough sleep… Read more »
Larry’s comment, again, makes no sense. You make the city walkable how? At what cost? How do you deal with the unintended consequence? Slogans aren’t laws or ordinances.
Crosswalks are for the convenience of pedestrians. Not every pedestrian has the luxury of endless amount of time to be walking around finding and/or waiting for a signaled intersection. Not every pedestrian is on vacation. Believe it or not, some people actually have limited time to run errands or handle business. Isn’t it nice that in this city a person can choose to not use their car for just a little bit? There’s a lot of “end of story!”….comments on this thread. Those commentators should show more consideration to the needs and expectations of other residents of this city. It’s… Read more »
These new signs are just another distraction in my opinion that just might cause my pedestrian accidents. As far as I know most of the accidents have occurred where there is an island or long medium in the middle of the street. Said islands or mediums should provide protection but instead are cluttered with various distractions that make it difficult to distinguish pedestrians from the trees, plants, signs, poles and art exhibits. Clearing a three foot area does little when operating a motor vehicle at 35 mph, the speed limit. Clear the mediums of everything except grass so as drivers… Read more »
I don’t think the goal is to make driving an obstacle course on our streets either. There is a viewpoint that too much signage detracts focus just as much. That is what I believe is a major issue with the zig/zag crosswalk design, the barriers and the center median plants, etc. A good solution, in my opinion, is to only have one freestanding crosswalk between the existing traffic lights. One between San Vicente and Westbourne. And another between Westbourne and La Cienega. Eliminate the other ones. Add pedestrian traffic lights so all cars must stop at these two freestanding ones.
The signs are already being run over. Besides, by the time a driver sees these signs, it’s too late, they’ve already hit the pedestrian.
And in less than 24 hours, the first one is down–someone ran over the one on SM & Orange Grove. They do seem to be making drivers more aware of the crosswalks, to a fault, I’m seeing far to many drivers treat them as stop signs. And I think it’s time for jaywalkers to start getting cited & fined–I saw 3 people within 20 feet of crosswalks, dashing between cars to get across SM Blvd. So, the blame can’t all be placed on drivers, right?
Let’s roll em out citywide. West Hollywood can be America’s most walkable city and the safest city to take a walk in.
@BlueEyedBoy, there is exactly one traffic light between La Cienega and San Vicente. That is a pretty long stretch, if you are requiring pedestrians to only cross at traffic light intersections. Its good for business and “quality of life” to have these crosswalks for pedestrians. I agree that they should be controlled by red lights, however. Like the crosswalk near Canter’s. Pedestrian hits the button, waits for a walk signal and a red light. Everyone gets a turn. That’s what I’m hoping they implement (along with better lighting), after these short term fixes.