So to get from the complex to our cars in the parking lots that blanket our shabby, sorry-ass downtown area, we workers have to cross 2-5 lanes of traffic depending on which lot we're using. These are main arteries feeding the commuters, so whether its traffic coming in in the morning or traffic going out in the afternoon, these cars are blazing at circa 45-50mph so they can get through before it becomes bumper-to-bumper.
Ironically, the more dangerous street is the one just outside the gate, despite only being two lanes, one going each direction, compared to the wider boulevard a block away, which is three lanes going one direction. This also despite having actual traffic lights and yielding crosswalks, which the three-lane doesn't. Last summer a 22-year-old female worker was killed in the morning because some shitbird was piling down the mostly-empty street going 50-60mph (its a 30mph zone). Yesterday my boss got hit in the afternoon leaving, because at shift change that street is filled with busses, vans, and cars all milling around trying to pick people up and then edge out before the congestion picks up. The three-lane is a typical stroad nightmare with dozens of entrances and exits lining the sides, so while pedestrians are dodging oncoming traffic they also have to be alert for cars turning without signaling, or entering while the driver is staring at the oncoming traffic for their opening (i very nearly got my shit wrecked by this once); meanwhile congestion becomes nightmarish because its a constant start-stop.
After the woman was killed the union actually circulated a petition for the city to install better enforcement measures. I wonder if anything will actually get done. Its a nightmare living in a sprawl city hellscape like this one.
mood: :yea:
Love it when places are designed completely around vehicular transport to the exclusion of sidewalks or other pedestrian accommodations, except they become so confusing to navigate by car that I'll just tell my mom I'll walk a mile over to where she is rather than have her try to figure out what combination of u-turns and yields she needs to take in order to stop for 15 seconds near me so I can get in her car
Edit: if you design a space for people shittily, they'll bump into each other and say sorry. When you design a space for cars shittily, they'll bump into each other and incur thousands of dollars worth of damage, or bump into people and kill them
The way this is delt with locally is to just have unmarked intersections everywhere. It's so confusing and chaotic everyone has to stop to figure out what is going on every ten seconds.
