UC Santa Cruz 2008-09 salary database

Santa Cruz County is dangerous for walkers, according to a new study of transportation statistics compiled nationwide.

[Jeremy]

This is hardly surprising. As a culture we're deeply wedded & overly invested in the automobile & it's accompanying infrastructure.

I imagine, even taking higher density populations into consideration, safer places for pedestrians would be the cities of San Francisco (not the bay area), Chicago, or Boston & New York City. It's a perfectly reasonable proposition to live in those places w/out depending on a car. If you're a pedestrian in those places you get respect. In other places I get this gnawing feeling you're looked down upon as a third class citizen.

Bakersfield, Stockton, Redding, Fresno, Riverside are all examples of urban sprawl precipitated by post WWII cheap oil & gas which allowed places to be built out in the middle of nowhere. Alternatives to the automobile simply doesn't exist in practical terms in those places. No car is like having no legs.

As an avid walker, we need more pedestrian crossings, more sidewalks that are well maintained & don't dead end after sixty feet & other meaningless empty, token gestures, & much much harsher laws for drivers text messaging or yacking away on cell phones instead of focusing on the job of driving.

[Skeptical]

"Lack of funding often forces the police department to focus resources on other matters such as gang violence and sexual assaults -- not pedestrians, Friend said."

You want funding? Put a motorcycle officer at each of the new fancy crosswalks that were set up on Soquel by the Ford dealership and down by Wallgreens, get someone to walk back and forth across these crossings and start writing tickets. People blow through these every single day without a clue. I don't know how much was spent for those big flashing yellow signs that show that someone is trying to cross but it was a huge waste of money.

[the mountainboy]

paying attention is most important.
...and walkers, when crossing a street, please look up from your (insert appropriate electrical gadget here) occasionally and "LOOK BOTH WAYS" remember that one? I think it's from first grade.

[Xanthippe]

The biggest problem we have is that cars don't stop for pedestrians unless they have to. If one lane of traffic stops, it's not unusual to see some jerk change lanes in order to blast through the crosswalk - despite the pedestrian trying to cross.

I cheer every time I see the motorcycle cops out on Mission watching the crosswalks.

I don't even try to cross unless I'm at a signal on Mission. Way too dangerous. It's worth walking an extra block or two to cross at a light.

Pedestrians deserve some criticism as well. Some step out into traffic without even looking, as though they're completely invulnerable.

[cathyd]

The article says that no pedestrians have been killed in Santa Cruz this year. That is wrong. Luis Ernesto Morales was hit and killed by a car in August of this year as he was walking down Ocean Street, on the sidewalk.

[Santa Cruz]

I have noticed that pedestrians don't even look to see if a car is coming before they step off the curb. They want a clean environment and take their sweet time to cross the street with car engines running waiting for them. They walk the sidewalk the same way. Five abreast at times as they own the world and you can step in the gutter to continue down the street. Such rude people here. No one is home to teach the youth.

[Slighted]

I really think we need to consider the realities of some areas when it comes to walking. Take Mission Street for example. It is very narrow, a state highway with traffic just passing through Santa Cruz and a major thoroughfare for citizens on the Westside. In my opinion pedestrian bridges should have been put up instead of cross walks. If you walk out into one of these on Mission you are taking a calculated risk. Poor urban planning by the city and Cal-Trans; now and historically. I suppose just like the rest of the area. The fish hook, highway one being two lanes, very few streets in grids to lessen the bottle neck affect. I need a helicopter!

[richie rich]

blinking crosswalks would help on Mission and Soquel. the big overhead signs are not enough

[romania]

It takes two to tango!!!!!!!!!!
pedestrians and cars are the long time dance partners.
I would say many car drivers are aggressive when it came to driving in streets that are supposed to be driven at low velocity. I 've seen it.
pedestrians act many times unaware of what's going on around them.
many times they just cross the street without even giving a look to whats' coming their way.
I have seen big huge trucks driving too fast, usually in mission st.
it isn't a surprise why many times trucks have being involved in fatal accidents with biker and pedestrian.
Mission st need a makeover when it came to making new cross ways for pedestrian.
also the speed has to be lowered, I guess people traveling from Highway 1 north or south are still in the ""freeway speed""" frame on mind when they enter the city and it may take a while before they realize it.
for me as a driver I am pro laws to protect the pedestrian...for me they go first.

[Not So]

"Pedestrian crossings" do little good when peds are too lazy to walk to the corner and cross. They even jaywalk 20 ft. before a signalized intersection. If you walk, like I do, paying attention and crossing where you're supposed to will go a long way in keeping you alive.
Yes, "look both ways" but remember to look behind you for that right-on-red vehicle and look past the stopped vehicle for the one who decides to pass on the left.

Jeremy wrote:

This is hardly surprising. As a culture we're deeply wedded & overly invested in the automobile & it's accompanying infrastructure.
I imagine, even taking higher density populations into consideration, safer places for pedestrians would be the cities of San Francisco (not the bay area), Chicago, or Boston & New York City. It's a perfectly reasonable proposition to live in those places w/out depending on a car. If you're a pedestrian in those places you get respect. In other places I get this gnawing feeling you're looked down upon as a third class citizen.
Bakersfield, Stockton, Redding, Fresno, Riverside are all examples of urban sprawl precipitated by post WWII cheap oil & gas which allowed places to be built out in the middle of nowhere. Alternatives to the automobile simply doesn't exist in practical terms in those places. No car is like having no legs.
As an avid walker, we need more pedestrian crossings, more sidewalks that are well maintained & don't dead end after sixty feet & other meaningless empty, token gestures, & much much harsher laws for drivers text messaging or yacking away on cell phones instead of focusing on the job of driving.

[what]

Yes, there are a lot of poor intersections and crossings that can lead to vehicle and ped conflicts. Still, many of the collisions have been related to disoriented people (transients?) crossing streets (esp. Hwy 1) without adequate caution or consideration of traffic control devices or oncoming vehicles. No amount of traffic safety devices or markings will prevent these kinds of conflicts (due to the lack of consideration for others that some individuals have here in SC).

My larger complaint is due to the ped/bike conflicts that I have encountered as a pedestrian. It appears that some bicyclists feel that every sidewalk and/or pathway is their entitled right of way. Yielding to pedestrians on the sidewalk seems to be an afterthought for cyclists in this town (and many don't yield at all). Watch cyclists using the "pedestrian" bridge across the San Lorenzo for an example of this behavior. Enforcement of bicycle laws, and provision of improved bicycle facilities (both on and off the major roadways) could go a long way towards creating a safer pedestrian experience in SC.

[Sum Dim]

No walk in the park?

I guess you haven't walked in the park lately!

[Reality Check]

I'm curious as to their methodology. Did the incident with the guy running across Hwy1 against the lights contribute to the 'dangerous' classification? Nothing dangerous about crossing at that intersection - if you do it with the lights.

[Sylvia Caras]

I walk often in the downtown area. Bicyclists don't stop at the four-way stops and don't signal. Drivers at those intersections don't look for walkers, don't even see me at the corner waiting to cross. I'm careful though I seem invisible.

One specific - I sometimes walk from downtown north on Mission and turn left on Fair St. Because of the Safeway construction there's no sidewalk on the east side of the street and there's also no way to cross from the west side at Fair St. A temporary cross walk across Mission at Fair would be helpful. Instead of walking beyond to the light and back, I generally walk on the street, not at all a safe option.

[Creekan]

I wish there was a safe place to walk along Highway 9 in the SLV. Every time I see schoolkids on their way to school or the bus walking on the edge of the road with the cars whipping that close to them by I can barely watch.

[Lesson]

The rule in first grade for pedestrians is and was: STOP, LOOK & LISTEN.

Today, pedestrians everywhere seem to believe it is their right to step directly off the curb and into a crosswalk without breaking stride, cars or no cars. Perhaps it is the lower intelligence of pedestrians that creates the problem?

Also, note that the article states that bicyclists do not stop for pedestrians. There should be a few more posts like "what" blasting their 'road-sharing' practices. Bicyclists don't stop for anything, pedestrians, red lights or stop signs.

[jimi doss]

Xanthippe wrote:

The biggest problem we have is that cars don't stop for pedestrians unless they have to. If one lane of traffic stops, it's not unusual to see some jerk change lanes in order to blast through the crosswalk - despite the pedestrian trying to cross.
I cheer every time I see the motorcycle cops out on Mission watching the crosswalks.
I don't even try to cross unless I'm at a signal on Mission. Way too dangerous. It's worth walking an extra block or two to cross at a light.
Pedestrians deserve some criticism as well. Some step out into traffic without even looking, as though they're completely invulnerable.

__________

Geez up until now I had always been under the idealogy that Santa Cruz was a bike friendly kinda town . Guess I stand corrected on that, I have to accept that fact for sure !!
Also I gotta agree with ya on the whole cars not stopping for pedestrians thing . Its like there is this "No eye contact" thing that goes on with alot of drivers . If they dont make "eye contact" than everything ok . Ironic since as drivers we are supposed to be looking all around as we drive Huh ??
But one thing for I was re tuaght at traffic school a couple months ago is this . Calif law says that when a pedestrian is crossing the street no matter where that pedestrian is, as long as they are anywhere in the street, drivers in all lanes and both directions of traffic are required to stop and allow that pedestrian to cross.
Like alot of people I thought it we only had to stop if that pedestrian was crossing the lanes of traffic going in the direction i was driving ! I take a whole different perspective on pedestrians now and will stop when I see one crossing at all times , no matter where they are in the street ! Its only right , its only safe and its the law ,

[Justin Hale]

So now we have objective information supporting what many of us have been saying for a long time: Santa Cruz County, contrary to its self-image, is a very dangerous place for pedestrians and bicyclists, and the danger is from motor vehicle drivers.

Drivers in this county resent pedestrians and bicyclists on the average, much more so than in Los Angeles. Only Orange County drivers respect the other users of the road less than Santa Cruz drivers. It's really a disgrace, one which deepens every time drivers make comments blaming cyclists and pedestrians.

[StopLook Listen]

I am a crossing guard at Bayview school. I have had
some very close calls by cars who, when I am in the middle of the cross walk, wearing a bright orange vest and holding a large stop sign, blow through without blinking an eye. I have had close calls from bicyclist ripping through the cross walk when I am trying to get to the curb again. I have seen parents park across from the school,cross the street, not at a cross walk, with their kids trailing behind them, taking it for granted that the cars will stop. Hopefully their luck will hold. When you see some one at the curb waiting to cross in the cross walk it is required by law that you stop. When you are in the school zone SLOW DOWN!!! You are not going to feel too great if you hit and kill a child. I know you are all in a great hurry and the world does revolves around you, so if you can't think of other peoples needs think of it this way, if you hit someone it will make you even later and cost you a lot.

[Elderly Pedestrian]

I walk all over town and I patiently wait at the crosswalk for the signals to allow me to walk. Only then do I feel safe. However safety is a relative thing. Invariably a driver anxious to make a right turn blasts through and I have to jump back to avoid being hit. Several times I've had to wait all over again for the next signal allowing me to cross. Many times young men who have shared the sidewalk with me ignore the signals and walk whenever they want to. I come from a generation of rules followers and believe I need to take the responsibility of going with the signals and being alert to drivers who are basically too involved in their own trip to care about mine. Please, if you're driving be observant and allow the pedestrian to cross when it is their turn.

Also, the city and county need to trim the trees and plants that hang out over the sidewalks and prohibit foot traffic. I almost took my pruning shears to a couple of branches but then became concerned that I would be arrested for violating some local ordinance against vigilante pruning.