City makes changes to Fells Point walking signals
The Baltimore Department of Transportation has made changes to the signals controlling pedestrian traffic in Fells Point after hearing complaints from local residents, a city official said Tuesday.
The city's actions comes a week after this blog reported that some Fells Pointers thought a previous round of changes made it more difficult to walk safely through the historic community.
Jamie Kendrick, the city's deputy transportation director, said Fells Point residents complained to the city last week that pedestrians were not getting walk signals unless they pushed buttons installed for that purpose. Kendrick said that in response to that perception, the city has reprogrammed signals so that they automatically flash periodic walk signals at several busy Fells Point intersections. He said the changes were made Monday after transportation officials and neighborhood residents visited some of the intersections last week to observe pedestrian movements.
"For us, that was lightning speed," Kendrick said. "We appreciate their concerns and we are doing our best to accommodate their desires."
Kendrick also said the city hopes to install signals that give a countdown of the remaining seconds to cross within the next 90 days. But he said the buttons, which some residents had wanted removed, will remain.
"We are going to meet them more than halfway," he said.
Kendrick said that in some cases, the buttons will allow a pedestrian to get a walk signal more quickly than if they wait for an automatic signal.
Comments
The automatic walk signals have NOT been restored nor have the push buttons been removed. We continue to work on this, our main request with the DoT.
Posted by: Claudia | May 5, 2011 7:46 PM
Automatic walk signals have NOT been restored. The push buttons have not been removed. We continue to work with DoT on this issue.
Posted by: Claudia | May 6, 2011 8:47 AM
The Signals have Not been Re-programmed
I've given the city the benefit of the doubt and waited a few days before posting. However, these changes have NOT been made at all as of this morning, no less on Monday, despite the comments from Jamie Kendrick posted by Michael Dresser above.
I appreciate Jaime Kendrick (DoT Deputy Director) and Randell Scott (DoT Chief Traffic Division) meeting with the community last week -- I attended the meeting. However, the timing on these signals has not changed. I am puzzled why Mr. Kendrick would claim – via Michael Dresser’s comment above –that the signals had been reprogrammed on Monday when they have clearly not been reprogrammed. If the city has decided against a response to the community's concerns, they can at least provide a condescending, "we studied the issue and decided to not change the timing" response as opposed to -- I'm sorry to be so blunt -- a lie. Michael, I hope for Mr. Kendrick's sake you misquoted him. Because the statement you included in your blog suggests the changes were made in the field as of this past Monday. In fact, that is simply not true. I suspect it is not a misquote becauase of the comments where Mr. Kendrick seems to pat himself on his back for the DoT's speed and responsiveness. Also, the community’s concerns are not a "perception" as Mr. Kendrick appears to have characterized them above, but an actual and verifiable fact that is quantifiable with a stopwatch.
Let me cast this issue in a different light. Imagine the city installed a traffic light for automobiles that did not display a green signal. It stuck on red for 90% to 95% of the time and only went to yellow -- never green. What would be the "perception" of the vast majority of motorists in the city?
Finally, I look forward to Jaime Kendrick and Randell Scott addressing the gap between what the department is saying to the media and what a 4 year old girl crossing a busy Fells Point intersection -- holding her father’s hand of course – knows is NOT true.
Posted by: Fells Point Dad | May 6, 2011 3:55 PM