Pedestrian Deaths on the Rise in Houston; Katy Freeway To Add a Couple Lanes

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Photo of Richmond Ave.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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  • So they can’t figure out why more pedestrians are dying but not crossing the freeway, not staring down at your phone and crossing at marked walks are recommended. Sound like they know exactly why.

  • RE: Pedestrian Deaths – Darting across a highway or even jaywalking across a major thoroughfare is sheer stupidity. You can’t fix stupid! But, this is the first major city that I have noticed where traffic lights turn green at the same time as the pedestrians have signal to cross in same direction as traffic flow. It makes more sense to allow pedestrians to cross in a protected manner before giving traffic the green light. Too many times, especially downtown, I have seen drivers turn right on green without looking for pedestrians. If a driver is making a right on red, they are more apt to look to turn safely. This would also help to improve traffic flow as cars could turn right on green without the risk of dodging foot traffic. Of course pedestrians always have right of way within reason, as a pedestrian I never cross without first making eye contact even if I have right of way.

  • Re Restriping – they need to do something on 45 between Beltway and North Shepherd. They scraped the old striping and shifted lanes 4 feet or so. Now when this stretch of highway is wet and the light is reflecting off the road, the scraped marks are more prevalent than the new striping. I can’t tell you how many times I have experienced the situation where more than half the drivers are between the scrapped lanes versus the painted lanes. Now wonder 45 is such a hazard!

  • I’ve read about quite a few people dying because they were laying in the roadway lately. That’ll do it.

  • Also,ever wider intersections require longer pedestrian time…
    @ HouCynic, I don’t know if our drivers could HANDLE more wait time to afford pedestrian crossing-windows.
    I’ll say one thing, the root cause of auto-ped accidents is pedestrians. Everybody should be in a car. Like God intended.

  • My guess: With all the new dense development, a lot more people are walking to get around in inner loop neighborhoods, but the street design still sucks. Too many lanes, bad intersection design, bad light timing for pedestrians, shitty/sometimes nonexistent sidewalks, you name it. If there is something to do wrong regarding pedestrian comfort and safety, Houston probably does it.