Saturday, March 22, 2008

Dangerous Intersection Needs Proper Controls

My heart goes out to the harvard Grad student who was killed in the crosswalk in Central Square in cambridge Monday morning. This was an accident that was forseeable and preventable. here are some photos that I took almost 3 years ago to documant the problems at this intersection, where go on green cars cross the Mass Ave crosswalk while pedestrians enter the crosswalk on a save to walk light.

This is a tragedy and a travesty. It needs to be changed...

Photo above shows a blind man using a white cane waiting for the walk light. In the photo below he is walking across Mass Ave in the Cross walk. He is at a bit of an angle, and confused, because he hears traffic in front of him, so he veres away from aproaching car.

The cars have the green light and are turning across the crosswalk at the same time the walk light is on. We have all complained about this, but it is the City of Cambridge's pollicy to "keep the traffic moving."



The photo below shows the blind man has run into the car that is blocking the crosswalk and the accessible route to the curb ramp. The blind man cannot see it, and cannot hear any sound signals.

A full compliment of sound signals is needed so folks who are blind can hear them in both directions. theis photo was taken June 30, 2005.


Here the police sit, but show no concern, nor do they come to the aid of pedestrians caught in the crosswalk with crossing vehicular traffic. They do not even come to the aid of the blind man.

We need a full complement of sound signals at all busy intersections in Cambridge, and we need to end the police of having a green light at the same time as a walk light here in Central Square.


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