Pedestrian Infrastructure

Police and city planners in Sacramento have come under scrutiny in the weeks since police were caught on tape assaulting Nandi Cain, Jr., a black man, during a jaywalking stop. Cain, who was legally using an unmarked crosswalk, has since filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city. Now, reporters are looking into why there are so few marked crosswalks in one of Sacramento's poorest areas.

A petition in Seattle is calling on the city to do away with "beg buttons" and automatically give pedestrians a walk signal at every traffic light in its "urban villages" -- areas that are walkable and transit-oriented.

The dangerous five-legged intersection of Northern Boulevard, 34th Avenue, and 48th Street has a new pedestrian island, sidewalk extension, and crosswalks. Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg joined Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer on Friday to unveil the improvements.

In 2015, a temporary sidewalk expansion relieved crowding on a block of 32nd Street with heavy foot traffic between Penn Station and Herald Square, but the project was scrapped after a trial run. Now advocates are pushing to bring it back, and they recently won the support of Manhattan Community Board 5.

While the city has built raised crosswalks elsewhere as part of large capital projects, this is the first time they've been installed as a standalone safety improvement.

A DOT safety project in Sheepshead Bay is in effect after a rocky path to implementation.

Bronx Community Board 4 has endorsed a proposal to make the Grand Concourse a complete street with protected bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes, and pedestrian islands.

DOT has installed "removable rubber pedestrian islands" at two intersections on Eastern Parkway, two months after Mayor de Blasio authorized the removal of concrete pedestrian islands to ostensibly make room for the West Indian Day Parade.

Yesterday morning, a driver struck and killed 13-year-old Jazmine Marin as she walked across Cross Bay Boulevard at 149th Avenue on her way to school. The location is deadly -- one other person has been struck and killed there since 2012, and Cross Bay is one of the most dangerous streets in the city. From 2009 to 2013, 17 pedestrians lost their lives on Cross Bay and Woodhaven Boulevard (the name of the same street north of Liberty Avenue) [PDF].