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Comment on Families took safety into their own hands by painting yellow cross walks. Now, the city of Los Angeles is removing them.

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ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I’ll go ahead and do the devil’s advocate thing because I get tired of this algorithmic bubble that feeds us sensational headlines that rile up our emotions. This is a scourge that needs to end.

As weird as all this seems, there is some level of planning and engineering that goes into designating crosswalks otherwise the city is liable for whatever accidents and mistakes drivers and pedestrians may make. Privately made crossings also need to be studied to ensure they’re not making more danger than less, because there’s a LOT to consider before you can just say “lets make THIS a crossing!” (Road speeds, turns, signals nearby, the locations of existing businesses or parking areas, etc.)

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spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You are both technically correct and also describing a system where the average person can make a request and get the results of a study to find out whether a crosswalk can exist where people are already crossing the street. Many of thses kinds of requests are ‘lost’ or actively ignored because the city doesn’t have the budget to even look into the feasibility. That also results in statements about never receiving requests because people don’t know how to get them to the right place to count as a request.

In my experience cities aren’t liable for very much at all. Sure aren’t liable for potholes destroying tires, why would they be liable for crosswalk injuries?

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- ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Yes, a lot of the time cities will push back lower-priority requests or expenditures because they’re understaffed, underfunded or in some cases corrupt in some way, but lets not start looking at city planning like some kind of Machiavellian monolith, for the most part they do everything they can to avoid pedestrian problems and liability because most cities do in fact pay a GODDAMN FORTUNE in court costs and settlements and lawsuits from people injured.
  
  I am not sure what kind of liability you’re referencing, but suing cities for pedestrian injuries is a thriving industry.
  
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Seaguy05@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ll also add that Seattle had some renegade sidewalks put in by residents as well. The city replied with a statement about paint being the main reason. Anti slip, reflection, ADA requirements to get to the crosswalk, and bicycles/motorcycle considerations being the main reasons to remove them. Seattle did come back through and put in a crosswalk but it took resident action to get the city to do something about it.

Riding both motorcycles and bicycles I don’t want my tire washing out taking a turn or stopping only to find out the city never put that in.

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- ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I firmly believe in community action to get a city focused on the right goals, sadly not many places have active participation from residents, so I’m not at all surprised when a city gets lazy or distracted or doesn’t serve their population. Places where neighborhoods have regular meetings for whatever reasons tend to be squeakier wheels and get the oil faster.
  
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MotoAsh@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yes except this has happened several times where residents have made it exactly to specifications in areas where crossing is already fully legal.

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