The Equality Street is First and Foremost a Safe Pedestrian Street--Signals Unsafe for Peds

[TONY Redington]

Good Day All:

My tweet this morning expresses the recognition that the enemy of urban transportation is none other than the traffic signal--one cannot reach walkable streets with traffic signals.  And, the problem has long been the pedestrian mode faces bias from the traffic engineering community.  What we learned from the Environmental Justice process on the Parkway as it related to the King Maple neighborhood where there is blatant transportation racial and low-income injustice by degrading Pine Street with signals increasing speeds, creating delay where there is none now with the all-way stops (same safety as a roundabout for peds) not to mention 22-37% increase of traffic. 

What we need to think of now is adopting the "equality" street for our major streets which first and foremost provides for safe pedestrian movement (aka a sidewalk and either all-way-stop or roundabout intersections).  Then add cycle track and/or a safe, separate bikeway. 

My tweet this morning:

“IT’S THE TRAFFIC LIGHT STUPID,” I finally said to myself yesterday after decades as transport policy wonk/walk safety advocate/roundabout guru. Signal is the urban criminal--kills, delays, heats climate, racist, blights all, ugly, etc. Roundabout, swat team answer #btv #vtpoli

Attached is the Equality Street monograph and photo which went with the tweet. 

      Yours truly, 

      Tony Redington 

      Walk Safety and Signals-to-Roundabouts Advocate

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What can you do?

Sign the Stop the Champlain Parkway Project and Choose the Champlain RIGHTway Petition: http://chng.it/tS9Ts5FjDx   SafeStreetsBurlington.com