Pedestrian Crossing Signal on Brighton at Taft Ave

[Maya Lena]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently been walking to the Pine Tree Plaza and using the crosswalk on Brighton Ave at Taft Ave. In 2023, a man died after being struck in a hit-and-run at this intersection.

I have attached an image with 2 arrows. The green arrow indicates a pedestrian crossing at the crosswalk which has a button-activated pedestrian signal. The red arrow indicates the most common pattern for a vehicle exiting Taft Ave that would wait for a green light. (Very few cars will travel straight into the plaza, and any making a right-hand turn could turn right on a red light)

My experience has been that it takes about 20-30 seconds from hitting the signal button to receiving a Pedestrian Crossing signal. The vehicle lights remain red for about 7 seconds, and then they turn green to allow cars to start moving from Taft or from the Plaza. What this does is it alerts drives to start driving while the pedestrian is in the Eastbound Lane. Because this is a pedestrian-hostile location, the pedestrian is completely exposed to the oncoming turning vehicle. 

If you are a pedestrian traveling in the opposite direction --out of the plaza and into the neighborhood), you are essentially in the clear from turning vehicles.

I posted about this on SeeClickFix, but I wanted to put this out to the listserv. It seems like an easy fix.

1. Create an instant red light on Brighton when the crosswalk button is pressed
2. Keep the entire intersection on Red Lights until the pedestrian timer runs out.

Can someone help me understand if this is an unreasonable ask, and if it is something that can be easily fixed?

[Christian MilNeil]

This is a good example of how wider roads in cities frequently cause more delay, because the crosswalk "walk" signal is required to be long enough for a pedestrian who's walking at a speed of 3.5 feet per second, per the MUTCD (I learned this from a high school traffic signal savant). So wider roads = longer wait times at traffic lights. 

Brighton Avenue is massively wide here – about 76 feet from curb to curb – so the walk sign has to stop traffic for a minimum of 21 seconds. Giving everyone a red light through the entire walk interval, then keeping Brighton Avenue stopped for a few more seconds to give Taft Avenue a green light in a separate phase, would almost certainly be safer – but it would also add more delay on Brighton Avenue, which is probably why MaineDOT didn't want to do it. 

If Brighton Avenue were 3 lanes wide here, and the crossing were only ~32 or 34 feet long, then the signal would only require 11 seconds on the walk cycle, and drivers on Brighton would get a lot more green time instead of waiting in line at red lights!

Christian MilNeil
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[Lucy Climer-Kennedy]

Has anyone noticed if the new signal is preventing vehicle queues extending across congress? 

Often with the ped crossing as is, State has a green but peds at Pine prevent flow and the queue extends. This results in the next green cycle on congress further getting backed up. Is this a problem to anyone but vehicles? I don’t think so, and the crossing before prioritized ped flow(!) 

Do we think this could be Portland demonstrating its modal hierarchy? 

Lucy Climer-Kennedy ENV SP (she/her)

Northeastern University | 2025

Business Administration – Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

climerk...@northeastern.edu

(206) 313-1958

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From: pb...@googlegroups.com <pb...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Christian MilNeil <c.neal....@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 2:28:38 PM
To: PB...@googlegroups.com <PB...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [PBPAC] Pedestrian Crossing Signal on Brighton at Taft Ave

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/PBPAC/CAFPp_UwASP%3Djs9pCy3aj1yq7hKNx2psho%3DY2Cib%2BUk6SPi8pfQ%40mail.gmail.com.