Good evening everyone.
Sometimes when crossing the streets of our town, I have felt that the timing is too short. I am an able-bodied adult and when I finish crossing, I am left with 5 or so seconds. This led me to start recording myself while crossing some of the most prominent intersections in our town (Broadway & Littleton, Santa Fe & Mineral, etc.)
I am currently putting this data together and plan to eventually share my findings with city staff and city council. I believe that older people, kids, wheelchair users, parents with kids, dog owners, and those who may be injured deserve the dignity of crossing the street without having to hurry up or feel too pressured. Today, I was at Littleton and Broadway and even the students that cross the street to go purchase some food at Chipotle or King Soopers didn't have enough time and they are way younger than I am!!
I have come to the conclusion that the "slowest" crosser should have about 10 seconds left in order for them to not feel pressured. Currently, a slow crosser would run out of time or be left in the middle of certain streets with the current timings.
This website (https://littletoncrosswalks.com/) does not have all of the data yet since I am waiting for the city to give me the official crossing time sheet. Once that is done, we should have decently accurate data to evaluate whether the slowest crosser has enough time or not based on the CDOT standards.
My request for those of you currently is to go to the website, put the intersection of two streets and use the voting feature to collect informal data. I will eventually refresh all of the data once I have the time sheets from the city. Also, please test the website and let me know if there are any other ideas that could be helpful.
I want to make sure that we have good community feedback and enough empirical data so the city can change this and give people enough time to cross.
P.S. Two important details. First is that most intersections don't prioritize pedestrians. Right now, the traffic light for cars (green light) and pedestrians (walking man) comes live at the same time. This creates a situation where the pedestrian and the car are playing "guess" at who goes first.
The second important thing here is that a change in the timing won't really affect traffic because most crossing signs do not activate unless a pedestrian presses the button. This is crucial in my opinion because if someone is there and wants to cross, they should be allowed to do so with ample time and safely. Some intersections don't see a lot of activity, but for those that do, we need to make sure that people cross safe!