Robin Urban Smith's "Daylighting" Streetfilm is on the fast track to blockbuster status, with more than 2,500 views since Monday. She follows up with a StreetsWiki entry about this simple, effective safety measure:
Visibility and eye contact are essential to avoiding conflict at a crossing, but visual communication between different street users is greatly impaired when parked cars crowd an intersection (see diagrams above).
Daylighting clears away this visual obstacle and improves safety, especially for children, who have difficulty seeing and being seen at intersections. Daylighting also shortens the crossing distance at intersections, which reduces pedestrians' exposure to traffic. For seniors and other street users with longer crossing times, this is particularly important.
This strikes me as a good opportunity to put StreetsWiki's collaborative power to use. When Robin posted the film, we heard from readers about variations on daylighting -- in the UK and in Queens. It would be great to work that information into this entry and start building a portfolio showing how different cities have implemented the technique.
In related news, on top of Clarence's preferred term, "Pedestrian Peek-a-Boo," we now have a bunch of alternate names for daylighting, including: pedestrian 20/20, exposed crosswalk, curb-sighting, wide-angling, and ped surprise. Got a favorite yet?
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.
By the end of this year, 800 more streets in front of public school buildings will get 15-mile-per-hour speed limits, bringing the citywide total to 1,300. It's a start.
