Two pedestrian scrambles were installed outside the Taylor Place dorms on ASU’s downtown campus in October due to high foot traffic, but some advocates say it’s not enough to solve the crisis of pedestrian fatalities in Phoenix.
A pedestrian scramble is a diagonal crossing, where pedestrians can cross in any direction at the same time.
Ashley Patton, spokesperson for the City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department, said the city decided to invest in the new crosswalks because of the high volume of foot traffic in that specific area.
Patton said the two pedestrian scrambles will improve efficiency and safety for both pedestrians and vehicle traffic in the area.
While the city doesn’t have any official plans to install more pedestrian scrambles in downtown, they will be using the ones by ASU as test cases for future crosswalks, Patton said. She also said the department is trying to improve pedestrian safety in downtown in a state that has ranked high on the list in terms of pedestrian fatalities.
According to Patton, the Office of Pedestrian Safety, which was created two years ago, also has a full-time pedestrian safety coordinator who focuses on improving pedestrian safety throughout Phoenix.
Because of the high number of people crossing in that area, Patton said pedestrians should always be alert and aware of their surroundings to avoid a potential tragedy.
“Make sure to walk in those specifically marked crosswalks, it’s always safer and more visible if you’re crossing in a crosswalk,” Patton said.
Organizations downtown that promote pedestrian safety are excited about the new pedestrian scrambles.
The Urban Phoenix Project is an organization focused on making sure Phoenix is an easy and safe place for people to walk, bike and use public transportation efficiently.
Ryan Boyd, the organization’s director of communications, said that the Urban Phoenix Project fully supports the new pedestrian scrambles. Boyd said they’re a great way for the city to prioritize pedestrians and their safety, which he said is rare for Phoenix.
“The biggest thing about pedestrian safety is that if you do not provide a safe way to cross, people will cross anyways,” Boyd said, emphasizing that the city should go further and invest in protected bike lanes so pedestrians and bikers don’t need to compete for space.
“We can be the city that’s not in the newspapers for pedestrian deaths in the future, but we have to make the political choice to do so,” he said.
Stacey Champion, a long-time advocate for pedestrian safety and owner of Champion PR and Consulting, believes the pedestrian scrambles are a step in the right direction, but not enough to protect pedestrians downtown.
“There is not enough attention and focus on areas where people have died,” she said, adding that the city needs to consider structural changes, like lowering speed limits.
According to Champion, there needs to be real action done to reduce speed limits throughout downtown Phoenix. That should be one of the main priorities because people have either gotten injured or lost their lives due to cars traveling at fast speeds in downtown Phoenix, Champion said.
According to Champion, “no one is ever going the speed limit, ever.”
When walking or biking in downtown Phoenix, Champion said she doesn’t feel safe, and the only way she will feel safe while biking is if there are properly protected bike lanes installed.
“Putting the focus on places where there haven’t been deaths or injuries before places where there have been deaths or injuries is not just,” Champion said.
Contact the reporter at tplach@asu.edu.
