I’m Cross at the Crosswalk, Continued

In my last blog, I said that I would contact the City of West Hollywood to see if they have any plans to improve safety at the crosswalk in front of Starbucks at Westmount Drive and Santa Monica Blvd. 

I called the City of West Hollywood Transportation Department this morning, and asked the pleasant guy who answered the phone if the city had any plans to change the crosswalk at that location to make it safer. He replied that the city had no plans to improve safety there; that people would just have to be more careful when crossing the street. I asked if we had to wait until someone got killed there before the city acted, and he said that he guessed so, but that nobody had been killed there yet. He did comment that he frequented the Starbucks himself, and he is amazed at the number of people who cross at that crosswalk without waiting for traffic to stop, with no seeming regard for their own safety. Hmmm!

I’m Cross at the Crosswalk

At least three times a week I finish my workout at the fitness center and head for the Starbucks across Santa Monica Blvd. from the gym for my reward, a Big Ass Black Iced Tea, (so named because I just can’t force myself to say “Venti”).

I find myself a chair, and join the crowd at the tables on the sidewalk, (aptly nicknamed the “Starbucks’ Beach”) in front of the coffee house. As I settle in for a happy half-hour of socializing and people watching, sipping on my iced tea, the screech of tires announces yet one more near fatality on the crosswalk that spans Santa Monica Blvd. directly in front of me. This time the driver is a young man, haranguing his cell phone, steering his truck with one hand, skidding past an agile gym bunny wearing red spandex and a tank top.

About fifteen minutes later the scenario is repeated, this time when a pretty young lady, waving goodbye to a friend, steps off the curb backwards onto the crosswalk, oblivious to an oncoming Mustang, which squalls to a stop with just inches to spare. The driver, a middle-aged lady, sits in her car, rigid for a minute, mortified, and possibly waiting for her heart to start again. The young lady calls out “Asshole!” thumps the hood of the car, and struts across the street.

Similar scenarios occur almost every time that I visit the Starbucks. Street rumor has it that an SUV struck a girl on the crosswalk there several months ago. She supposedly flew thirty feet or more, landing a bloody wreck on the asphalt. Whether this story is true or not, there is more tragedy to come, folks.

This particular crosswalk is very busy, with almost a constant flow of people going to and from the gym, to and from Trader Joe’s, and patronizing the other businesses on both sides of the street. It is marked with signs, but there is so much activity on Santa Monica Boulevard in that area, with the u-turn/turning lane into the Ramada, the entrance to Trader Joe’s occasionally backing traffic up onto the boulevard, people wiggling their cars into parking spaces on the street, and bicycles zooming down the bike lane, that the existing signage is just one more thing in a blur of things. The amount of near misses every day shows that this crosswalk is extremely dangerous.

Every time that tires screech, conversation on “Starbucks’ Beach” turns to what to do to solve the problem. Suggestions run from Laguna-style crosswalks with flashing lights that define the crosswalk embedded in the roadway as well as wigwag lights hanging above the street, to simply installing a traditional traffic light at that corner with “walk” and “don’t walk” signs. The traffic light gets my vote. Because of the high volume of people already crossing there, traffic is usually jerky and slow on that stretch. A light would group and regulate the flow of people across the street, speeding things up for drivers and making the crossing safer for pedestrians.

I will check with the City of West Hollywood, and see what they intend to do about the problem. Stay Tuned.