KCRag Forum

flyingember wrote:No, four-ways DO NOT make them more dangerous for peds.

Peds have 100% right of way at a stop sign. You can walk out at any time and a car must wait for you no matter what with or without a marked crosswalk.

You're complaining about bad drivers, not the intersection design.

Have you been downtown when there any kind of event? It's 97% bad drivers.

scooterj wrote:

flyingember wrote:No, four-ways DO NOT make them more dangerous for peds.

Peds have 100% right of way at a stop sign. You can walk out at any time and a car must wait for you no matter what with or without a marked crosswalk.

You're complaining about bad drivers, not the intersection design.

Have you been downtown when there any kind of event? It's 97% bad drivers.

This is 100% true, but don't we need to start designing for this? Like you have lanes poorly closed/marked for construction, one way streets, bus only lanes, 2 way stops, 4 way stops, very poor sight lines, etc.

I'm not making excuses for bad driving, but I can sympathize a little with people not used to coming downtown. I think the city could do a better job of having a comprehensive plan of how to move traffic around. I live down there and half the time I get confused on what I'm supposed to on what street. This goes for the pedestrian experience as well.

There needs to be more uniformity. Parking needs to be consistently on the outside lane of all roads over a certain size. No half the block here, not there for no real reason. Parking could end at a concrete bumpout and make it really clear where parking ends.

Painting bike boxes and lanes green goes a long way. They tell the driver that green is not for them.
We should start painting no parking curbs again. It takes time and money but it's really easy to tell a no parking zone if it's painted red.

We need delivery/pickup parking on most blocks. Something with 5 minute parking so people can pull in and pickup someone or make a delivery.

We need truck routes that have a minimum of obstacles for big trucks to get into the core of downtown

There needs to be parking signs to help people find it, much better go this way for key destinations. I would love a KC Scout style system for downtown traffic on freeways and major surface streets like "congestion on street, Sprint Center traffic take X to X"

As a pedestrian I want all 4 way stops.

I agree with all 4 way stops. I also agree with pretty much everything flyingember said.

I've had a lot of problems with site lines blocked at intersections lately. It's hard to get too pissed at drivers because eventually they have to move up enough to make sure they're not heading straight on to incoming traffic. But then you block the crosswalk. And there are plenty of drives that just plow right by the stops signs and then stop, completely ignoring pedestrians because they know they won't be able to see.

We also need to start enforcing parking downtown. A week or so back someone came down my street for the only time I can ever remember and I think every car I walked by had a ticket.

Also, automatic walk signs and no beg buttons.

automatic walk signs along the "smart" corridor are all but dead. There have been some improvements made but auto walk at the cycle change ain't happening.

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pash wrote:

KCPowercat wrote:automatic walk signs along the "smart" corridor are all but dead. There have been some improvements made but auto walk at the cycle change ain't happening.

Why? Despite millions of dollars invested in sensors and control systems they can't manage to figure out when people want to cross the streets and change the signals accordingly? Or is it merely that smart infrastructure + idiots in charge = stupid city?

If the idiots in charge can't make this happen, I will suggest an alternative: get rid of the walk/don't walk signals at all intersections that don't have left turn arrows, so that pedestrians at least have the right to cross on a green light. If the idiots in charge can't do even that, I have a hammer and will make it happen myself.

You are, hands down, my favorite person on this board.

The detection is actually working pretty well now in my experience and ped signals will turn on if there is enough time even in mid-cycle after detection. A few of us met with the city and described the problem, the feedback was to turn on walk signals automatically at the beginning of a cycle w/o a pedestrian detected would cause the cycle time (due to ADA and pedestrian standards) to be longer than desired to be able to quickly/smartly switch back to the other phase to allow the streetcar / cars / peds the other direction go through quicker.

If you watch the cross traffic cycles especially across main, you can definitely see they are making that cycle short to get back to N/S cycle...which is making the streetcar faster....I'm not really that pleased with the answer but I feel like the argument has been exhausted.

The detection has gotten better, but the signs are often ignored. Pedestrians get to a signal with a green light but a red pedestrian and have just trained themselves to ignore. Which confuses the hell out of people that are just visiting, and can't be good for anyone. But neither is having to stand at an empty intersection with a green light and a no walk sign.

I'm happy that you've been able to talk to them and they're trying at least though.

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I would like to see ped signals be a really simple standard. It puts more responsibility for safety onto the individual and less onto technology or timing.

ped signals always turn on with a logical time. Detection makes them turn on longer if they detect someone, basically what was described above.
-and-
If it says don't walk you can walk if there's no cars coming at your own risk. With a don't walk you WILL wait for a car when there is one.

Let's say I'm crossing at W to E at 13th/Main. I can clearly see the train is stuck at the 12th St stop with a lot of people so there's no cars coming from that direction. I don't see any cars coming from the south, maybe there's a red at 14th. I get to cross at my own risk.

I was a huge complainer about how the ped detection and lights were working in the smart corridor which is still very much running and honestly seems to be working well overall. After discussions I'm still not satisfied but I understand the "why" better even though I'm not probably explaining it well. I've moved on from it now... Even on dumb signals there is a green vehicular light and the ped phase has run out.

One improvement we did get changed was if a ped is detected on one side of the street, the signal on the parallel side gets a walk too even if no ped was detected. Small improvement but it has made a noticeable difference

Is the sushi place still happening in the old bar Louie?

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:14 am Is the sushi place still happening in the old bar Louie?

Was under construction when I walked past a month ago. I think I’ve seen permits in june

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:14 am Is the sushi place still happening in the old bar Louie?

Yes, October opening.

Nice. Thanks for the info. I wanted sushi at lunch!

DColeKC wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:03 pm

KCPowercat wrote: ↑Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:14 am Is the sushi place still happening in the old bar Louie?

Yes, October opening.

Great Happy Hour. Glad to have it downtown