Dependable Erection

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Pedestrian fatality

Missed this while i was away:
A vehicle turning into a convenience store struck and killed a man in the parking lot Saturday evening.

The death occurred at the Family Food Mart at 1204 Worth St., and the vehicle fled south on Alston Avenue. Durham Police have not identified the driver.

When i served on the city's pedestrian plan oversight committee, we learned that that part of town has the highest rate of pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Remember a couple of years back when someone got hit by a car crossing Broad Street by the Whole Foods market from Duke East Campus? Remember how the city and state worked together in record time to get a new traffic signal, crosswalks, and enforcement policies in place to prevent any future occurrences?

Don't hold your breath waiting for a response like that in East Durham.

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4 Comments:

  • I know this isn't exactly what you're talking about, but.... I think one problem with the Perry/Broad intersection isn't the intersection.

    Used to be that the East Campus wall ran all the way around East Campus (except for car and pedestrian entrances, of course). Then, sometime in the 80s IIRC, a big chunk of the wall along Broad St. fell over. Duke replaced the chunk of wall with those evergreen trees, which are now horribly overgrown. It makes it difficult to see pedestrians coming from the east. In my opinion, Duke should at a minimum cut those trees way the hell back to maybe a 3 foot tall hedge (or perhaps pursue some other solution like restoring the wall). I think that whole stretch of Broad Street would then look better and be safer.

    By Blogger Joseph H. Vilas, at 2:51 PM  

  • Actually there was a break in the wall where it ends now in the early 60's and we walked to the laundromat that was where the bicycle shop is now.

    By Blogger MK, at 3:27 PM  

  • This comment has been removed by the author.

    By Blogger MK, at 3:29 PM  

  • Makes sense to me, although that would only help a little with traffic coming from the north, and pedestrians crossing from the east.

    But two years ago, when those accidents happened in a brief period of time, getting Broad & Perry fixed was like the most important thing evah.

    By Blogger Barry, at 3:59 PM  

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