August 3, 2004

Lincoln Avenue blinking light crosswalk

Transportation Department follows up with surveys

By Carol Rosen
Editor

It’s been just about a month since the city hooked up a solar-powered blinking crosswalk sign on Lincoln Avenue. The new sign, purported to be the first of its kind in the United States or anywhere else for that matter, has generated a lot of discussion among the people who live near and shop and work on Lincoln. Now it’s time for the city’s Transportation Department to survey if the prototype sign with LED blinking lights is doing its job.

Transportation Depart-ment employees began taking surveys of pedestrians and traffic in earnest this week (Aug. 2) and will spend the next few weeks surveying foot traffic and motorists during the day and at dusk, said Jim Helmer, director of transportation for the city of San Jose. Some spot checking was done in the first 30 days, but the current surveys will provide more conclusions.

“At various times during the day and evening over the next few weeks, we’re hoping for a significant number of pedestrians [to use the crosswalk] so that we can find out if they see the buttons [to push to cross] and understand the message and the sign. At the same time, we won’t be stopping motorists, but we will compare how they react to the blinking sign [by their brake lights] as opposed to nearing a crosswalk without the sign being on,” Helmer said.

There will be at least two observers from transportation, he said, one at the crosswalk and one ahead of the cars approaching the sign. These people will communicate with each other as the pedestrian steps into the crosswalk. One will determine if the button was pushed and notify the other observer that someone has entered the crosswalk. The other will watch auto brake lights to see at what point the motorist sees the sign and begins to stop.

In an initial investigation, Helmer said, transportation observers noticed brake lights coming on earlier than at crosswalks without the blinking sign. In the latter cases,” the brake lights come on late, if at all.”

The final step in the crosswalk test will be a meeting with the business community. At that meeting the department will invite business owners to provide their input on the signs while sharing its observations about pedestrians and motorists at the crosswalk.

No sign to pedestrians that sign is working
Helmer has received a number of e-mails from pedestrians complaining there is no indication the sign is working. Pedestrians want to see a change in the signs alerting them that the sign is working. “They don’t see the sign, there’s no indication its working or that by pushing the button there’s been a change,” Helmer said.

“If the pedestrians could see something occurring it would increase their comfort level or their knowledge that the system works,” he added. The majority of the people who have sent e-mails or regular mail want a change, he said. Others prefer lights in the street like airplane runway lights.

But lights in the pavement are expensive. In addition, the pavement lights work for the first car in the line, but subsequent cars typically don’t see them. Such lights also are difficult to maintain being constantly bombarded by heavy car and truck wheels, he said.

“We are trying to maximize our investment. We have only a certain amount of funds. The embedded lights are more expensive, and we wouldn’t be able to cover as many crosswalks [if we used them],” Helmer said.

Prototype sign
The crosswalk sign was built by Synchronex for the city of San Jose. Similar signs exist in other cities, but the one on Lincoln Avenue was custom built for the city to resemble crosswalk signs already in place throughout the city.

“We chose to make it flash only when it’s activated by a pedestrian. We thought the lights would catch motorists’ attention. We have done some observations and it does show that motorists are braking in advance of the sign,” Helmer said.

One problem can be a large truck hiding the sign. Helmer says that problem was anticipated and instead of putting it at a standard height is actually taller at 7 feet, 2 inches. Truck deliveries must happen, but typically they are early and don’t affect foot traffic. If a truck is double-parked, it’s against the law.