City Pedestrian Crossings Are Discriminatory by Design: The team found that senior citizens begin to show signs of distress and engage in dangerous crossing behavior — such as speeding up their walking pace, walking unsteadily, standing in the street before beginning to cross and crossing before the signal has changed — at wider crossings to compensate for the fact that they walk at slower speeds. Coupled with the fact that 95 percent of vehicles observed during the study period did not yield to pedestrians, the study concludes that wider streets present unacceptable risks to elderly pedestrians. These risks have an overwhelming impact on the well-being and quality of life of senior citizens. [What a mess…]
Source: StreetsBlog