Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM

Pedestrian Hit Central Avenue / Fairgrounds-Fleamarket Crossing

How can Central be made safe for pedestrians? About 10:30 AM ( Sunday October 25, 2009 ) I passed an accident only minutes after it happened at the crossing where pedestrians go into the State Fair Grounds on Central just West of Louisiana. A ladder truck had just arrived and there was a man probably in his 50's laying on the street with an obvious head injury and bloodied unconsciencous. I have not seen or heard any news about the incident.

Recently an ABQRIDE bus driver was fired for hitting a pedestrian. I find it almost impossible to cross Central safely from University to Louisiana from 9AM till 9PM. Drivers totally disregard crosswalks and crossing lights for the most part.

There needs to be stricter pedestrian / motor vehicle laws and more pedestrian activated crossings on that segment of Central, especially in the NobHill and East Nobhill area.

Tags: avenue, central, hit, pedestrian

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JeSais on October 25, 2009 at 9:12pm: its not much better any other parts of the city... I was almost hit by a truck when I was crossing Lead... the driver then yelled at me because I wasn't in a crosswalk. I guess he missed that part of the book on pedestrians and crosswalks-- marked and unmarked.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sarah on October 26, 2009 at 8:28am: How about not jay walking. I have never seen so much jay walking in my entire life.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Not A PC Kinda Guy on October 26, 2009 at 9:58am: This particular crossing area has a cross walk area. There is no pedestrian activated light. During the State Fair this area is used for the Central Avenue access during the fair and also during the weekend flea market.

Though jay walking should not happen, there is a contribution to jay walking on the part of the City, when there are insufficient safer crossing points along a street, in particular a major way such as Central. During flea market mornings there are hundreds of people crossing and no help from APD or traffic controls.

As JeSais mentioned before, drivers are clueless or worse dismissive of pedestrians or existing laws.

You will find worse jaywalking in other places, however you see very little where there are stiffer pedestrian law and enforcement that favors pedestrians over vehicular traffic.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Phil_0 on October 26, 2009 at 10:16am: Actually, there was a crosswalk there, but no stoplight. In response to a previous pedestrian/car collision about a month ago (due to the presence of a crosswalk, but no light), the city actually removed the crosswalk (!)...you can still see where the white reflective paint's been covered by asphalt.

However, since no other safe, signaled crosswalk has been provided, and since the relatively safer flea market entrance off a residential street to the east of San Pedro has been permanently closed, people (surprise surprise) continue to use the old crosswalk location, which is directly across from the only current pedestrian entrance to the flea market. My partner and I were there last weekend and we both remarked how unsafe the situation was and guessed that another accident would soon be coming...how sad to be proven right.

I have no inside knowledge, but I am guessing that the city's reluctance to provide and maintain a safe mid-block crosswalk and light at this location is related to the same cars-first philosophy at the traffic department that made it so difficult to get additional stoplights and crosswalks approved for Nob Hill despite the volume of pedestrian traffic there. If that's the case, this tragedy (and the previous one) can be laid squarely at the feet of that philosophy. The city has created an extremely dangerous situation at the flea market, and something needs to be done soon or this will happen again.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by once banned twice shy on October 26, 2009 at 10:44am: Well, the refusal to have a striped crosswalk is because studies have shown that this can give pedestrians a false sense of safety, therefore leading them to wander out in front of traffic when it is less-than safe. At least that's what the traffic engineers say--I learned this when discussing mid-block crossings for the bicycle path at Eubank and Wyoming. But the refusal to put in a pedestrian-activated light AND a crosswalk is definitely due to a cars-first philosophy at the traffic department. They resist at all costs any sort of extra stop lights for crossing pedestrians or bicycles because it will slow down traffic. This I got directly from a traffic engineer's mouth. Until the culture changes in the traffic engineering department, we can expect less safe conditions for pedestrians. You would think the city would want to change our bad record in that respect, but noooooo. It's all about protecting the cars for them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jeff on October 26, 2009 at 11:11am: "Well, the refusal to have a striped crosswalk is because studies have shown that this can give pedestrians a false sense of safety, therefore leading them to wander out in front of traffic when it is less-than safe. At least that's what the traffic engineers say"

brilliant huh? and not having a crosswalk gives motorists a false sense of superiority, so we're back where we started with outdated ideas of binary opposition. great.

you know, the term "traffic engineer" needs to be changed since 'traffic' implies 'cars' and is only a part of what they should be addressing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Not A PC Kinda Guy on October 26, 2009 at 11:01am: I should have been less obtuse in saying "cross walk area", the expectation of pedestrians after many years of this being an official crosswalk is hard to break.

Both you and once banned hit the nail on the head about the traffic engineering philosophy and resistance.

We should all be outraged at the City giving preference to vehicular traffic flow over preventing injury and death of persons known as pedestrians.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by AM on October 26, 2009 at 11:22am: I was behind a car the other day who slammed on their brakes to let a bunch of jaywalkers cross at that spot on Central. I honked. I guess I'm not very sympathetic to jaywalkers. I'm not saying that pedestrians shouldn't be protected...there should be more designated crosswalks, but that doesn't give people the right to just waltz right in front of a 3000 pound moving vehicle.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Grumpy on October 26, 2009 at 11:39am: I grew up in California where, at the time, the Pedestrian always had the right of way. One of my favorite things to do as a child was to turn mid-block, stick my foot out onto the gutter and watch all the cars magically stop so I could cross the street. What power!. It was ingrained in the consciousness of all drivers and walkers that no matter what or where, pedestrians always had the right of way. No ifs and or buts. I don't know if that culture still exists in California as I was a young girl long ago, but it was sure a shock to me when I moved here. "What do you do around here for fun?" I asked. The 2 main answers were (1) watch the sunsets, and (2) try and cross Central.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by JeSais on October 26, 2009 at 11:48am: mostly that culture still exists... however I would say, caveat crosser! or surfer as the case may be:; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brendan on October 26, 2009 at 11:49am: I'm just back from a trip to New England and the pedestrian situation in Vermont couldn't be more different. I swear drivers are looking ahead behind bushes and posts for any pedestrians that they might have an opportunity to slow down for. If you even look in the direction of a street, cars stop for you. It's incredible. The cross walks there are numerous and really mean something. I'm not sure how the different driving cultures have been shaped, but it would be great if we could move in that direction here.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jane on October 27, 2009 at 8:28am: We need to require people to learn how to look for pedestrians and bikes. I walk all over the place and people driving never even turn their heads to see if someone is coming down the sidewalk and they pull into intersections so that I either have to walk in to traffic to get around them or walk behind them, which is also dangerous.

Seriously, has anyone noticed how bad a lot of drivers are in this city (not that I don't love ABQ)?; ▶ Reply to This