You’re invited to the unveling of new flashing pedestrians signs this Thursday, Sept. 8 at 12:15 p.m. at the corner of Hamilton Street and Desmet Avenue. Join Spokane Mayor Mary Verner and Dr. Thayne McCulloh, President of Gonzaga University, Gonzaga students, and others at the unveiling ceremony. Members of the public are encouraged to attend.
The signs are a joint project to increase driver awareness and pedestrian safety near the Gonzaga campus. A pedestrian enhancement island was recently installed in the crosswalk at Hamilton Street and Desmet Avenue and the lights go in tomorrow. Pedestrians will push a button to activate flashing rectangular lights that notify drivers on Hamilton Street of their intentions to cross the street. The project was funded by Gonzaga University and the City of Spokane.
I still think it would have been a lot cheaper to teach the GU students to walk a couple of blocks to the traffic light!!
Yep, but young people will be young people and if you have kids or young adults, you may have noticed they're not open to suggestions like that sometimes. Why go out of your way to be safe when you can blaze across five lanes of heavy traffic? Ahhh.. I remember those days.
Yeah, but cars are supposed to, and should, stop at marked and unmarked crosswalks. If the cars don't want to take 30 seconds to stop and let people cross the street, why do you think the pedestrians want to go 5 minutes out of their way, especially if they are late for class?
The whole world is not all about cars. In fact, cars have a pretty easy time getting around. Give vulnerable pedestrians a few seconds of courtesy (and legal right of way) and make the world a safer and happier place.
I hope the new facilities help.
You've got a good point @Rachel. Legally the cars are supposed to stop. As we've witnessed in recent years though, we have some issues with that actually happening every time around here. In an ideal world, GU students would be able to cross wherever they want and be safe but considering the traffic on Hamilton, I personally would go with better safe than sorry and walk a couple blocks to the traffic light. It will be interesting to go back and take a look at the new flashing lights in a couple months or a year and see how, or if, things have improved.