CITYWIDE — A crosswalk is not the equivalent of a protective barrier against cars.
Especially not in Santa Monica. Just a few feet from where an 80-year-old Santa Monica man was struck and killed while making his way through a crosswalk last week at the intersection of Euclid Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, a warning sign affixed to a pole reads: “Flashers out of Service... Sorry.”
But that crosswalk isn’t the exception — it’s one of 13 flashing crosswalks of the city’s 15 that have gone dark.
Only two lighted crosswalks, where pedestrians can activate flashing lights embedded in the street as a warning to drivers, are currently functioning in Santa Monica, according to Lucy Dyke, the city’s Transportation Planning Manager.
While the city has already gone through two to three different flashing crosswalk products, with all performing poorly in the past, city officials aren’t quite ready to give up on the flashing crosswalk concept.
“We’ve ordered parts to fix the ones we have and we’re going to replace all of them,”Dyke said on Wednesday.“We are going to try one more time to replace all of them with something else that’s sturdier.”
Dyke estimates that it will cost the city approximately $900,000 to replace the entire system. City staff has been working with a vendor to develop a design that would create a more robust and sturdier product. Once that product is developed, the vendor will install them at the intersection of Montana Avenue and 21st Street for a test phase.
“It’s a lot of money to replace,” Dyke said.“We really need to make a decision on whether this can work or can’t.
“It’s a last effort to try everything we can to see if there is a way to keep them running more reliably.”
The first series of flashing crosswalks were installed along Pico Boulevard around 1998. Over the years, such crosswalks were installed along parts of Ocean Park Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard and Montana Avenue.
The only two functioning crosswalks are located at the intersections of Ocean Park Boulevard and 16th Street and Pico Boulevard and 22nd Street.
Not all of the crosswalks were provided by the same vendor, since they were installed over a period of nine years. Some of the flashing crosswalks have been replaced as many as three times, Dyke said.
Many of the current crosswalks were developed by Econolite, a company supplying traffic and transportation improvement equipment. The company no longer offers parts for the flashing crosswalks that are installed in Santa Monica, Dyke said.
A representative from Econolite did not return a request for comment.
When a flashing crosswalk is not functioning properly, it gives pedestrians a false sense of security, since they might cross the street assuming a driver will slow down,”said Dan Neuman, who was walking on Pico Boulevard near Third Street on Wednesday afternoon.
But when the flashers are working properly, it definitely gets the driver’s attention, he said.
“I’m uncomfortable using the crosswalks without the lights because people are preoccupied with those devices and don’t see you.” Neuman said.
The flashing crosswalk is less of a problem than the “maniac” drivers who are on their cell phones and speeding through crosswalks, said another pedestrian, who asked not to be identified.
“Look at this guy. He’s going so fast,” the pedestrian remarked as a car sped past on Pico Boulevard.
While the pedestrian commented on how the flashers in the crosswalks are a good safety feature, several others began walking out into the street, afraid to cross all the way until drivers slowed down. One car, driving west on Pico Boulevard, stopped a few feet short of the crosswalk as a pedestrian jogged to the sidewalk.
Just then, a bus sped past. “The buses I don’t play with, even if those lights were flashing,” the pedestrian said.
In 2006, there were a handful of incidents downtown involving pedestrians and drivers, three of which occurred at Fourth Street and Wilshire Boulevard, while two more took place two blocks away, at the intersection of Fourth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard.
None of the accidents involved fatalities.
“I wouldn’t consider it dangerous,” SMPD Lt. Clinton Muir said of the downtown intersections. “There’s large vehicle flow.”
In fact, many of the accidents involving pedestrians and vehicles occur at signalized intersections, Dyke said.
Last year, there were five pedestrian-related crashes along the entire city length of Ocean Park Boulevard. One involved a fatality.
On Sept. 21, 2006, a Santa Monica man struck and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk at the 25th Street intersection. Last month, the City Attorney filed charges against the driver, Frank Kalman, 58 of Santa Monica, for vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, unsafe speed and failure to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
Residents in the Sunset Park area have been outraged over the near-miss incidents that occur nearly every day along Ocean Park Boulevard. The city is just about to wrap up a $75,000 traffic study on identifying improvements for the corridor and city staff is expected to report back to the community this month on its findings.
In the meantime, the city’s Transportation Management Division is working with the SMPD to install signs that flash the speed at which drivers are traveling. The signs will be installed on Ocean Park Boulevard in the next few months.
The police department is trying to address traffic safety, including teaching senior pedestrian classes at the YMCA. The class instructs senior citizens on being aware when crossing streets and to be sure drivers can see them.
In addition, every week, a plain-clothes officer monitors a specific crosswalk, walking into the painted lines to see if drivers will stop. Another officer will then cite unsafe drivers.
“Pedestrians and vehicles should always be aware, regardless of the intersection,” Muir said.
Kristin Mayer contributed to the reporting of this article.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 1, 2007. Read the original PDF.