Update: May 3, A comment from Councilmember Kurt Maier has been added.
Two children riding bicycles to school yesterday were hit by a left turn driver at McMurray and George Washington Way.
When another child was hit at the same location by a driver that didn’t stop in October 2022, residents asked for hardened center lines.
In Washington bicyclist can use the sidewalk, following the same rules applied to pedestrians who have the right-of-way.
Research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that hardened center lines, bollards and rubber curbs, make roads safer for pedestrians. The bollards and rubber curbs block a diagonal path through the intersection, slow down that traffic and reduce the number of serious injuries.
Francesca Maier asked the Richland City Council during public comments to “install hard center lines on arterial streets within the walk zones to schools in the City of Richland,” according to November 1, 2022, council meeting minutes.
Since then, there have been no changes.
Fortunately, none of the children received serious physical injuries
The Observer reached out to City Manager Jon Amundson and members of the Richland City Council and asked why nothing has been done to make that intersection safer. Councilmember Kurt Maier, who lives in the neighborhood, responded:
“I know the children involved in both of the incidents you mention. As you know, I’m also a resident of north Richland, so I’m definitely aware of the issues associated with that intersection. I hope to bring a sense of urgency about this to city staff, in hopes of getting some concrete action in place. I’ll also note that we don’t really have a clear picture of how bad the situation is just from the current data — I know the incident in 2022 doesn’t show up in crash data, despite having an associated police report.”
According to an IIHS report, left-turn crashes accounted for nearly a third of all pedestrian-involved crashes at intersections in 2018.
In 2023 Seattle reported about 35% of pedestrian crashes were caused by cars turning at intersections. Seattle has hardened lines and is now considering imposing no right turns on red at some intersections.
The hardened center lines are probably the easiest and cheapest measures to install. No one has explained why Richland hasn’t constructed these relatively simple measures to make pedestrians safer?