New safety improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists using the crosswalk at George Washington Way and McMurray Street will be installed “before Richland School District’s fall schedule starts,” according to Richland City Manager Jon Amundson in an email to pedestrian and bicycle safety advocate Francesca Maier.
Pedestrians and bicyclists using the crosswalks will soon be able to push a button for the traffic signals to stop left turns.
Since October 2022 left-turning cars have struck three Richland students in the crosswalks as they biked to and from Chief Joseph Middle School.
Maier, former Richland Planning Commission chair and wife of City Councilmember Kurt Maier, had promoted the installation of “hardened center lines” to prevent the diagonal left turns that had occurred when the three students were struck.
According to Amundson, the hardened lines would have introduced a new hazard because cars turning simultaneously from both directions could run into each other.
The left turn lanes were added to previously two-lane McMurray at GWay in 2021. The worn center lines demonstrate the difficulty in turning left while avoiding left-turners from the opposite direction.
In the email provided to the Observer by Maier, Amundson wrote, “The preferred solution proposed by the Public Works Traffic Engineering staff is to modify the signal control equipment so that a protected pedestrian movement may be implemented. With this solution, a pedestrian walk signal could be activated by a push button while the traffic signals indicate stop for left turns. This would eliminate pedestrian and vehicle conflicts, except in the case of a right turn after a stop.”
Asked for her reaction to the proposed changes, Maier wrote the Observer, “…in terms of quick, cheap fixes, I think this is great. They are trying to balance limited safety funding and multiple locations throughout town.” She added that she wished the Washington State Legislature would provide more funding for safety projects.
Maier will teach a “Bike to School Bootcamp” at the Richland Public Library from August 6-8.
Richland turned that intersection and many others from two lanes across to three and some from three to four lanes like at Wellsian Way and Lee recently. Most all these intersections are from 1970’s original width. This all after a noticeable increase of 17% in car width since just from 2013, 5.8 ft to 6.8 ft. this from Finn.com. They decrease lane size knowing car width are increasing, that’s called, Crazy! Richland is avoiding the cost of new intersections clearly by skirting some basic road use rules and it’s not working. Even with proper signals you can’t help but feel squeezed in by all these new city intersections. Just in the last week Richland did it to the Wellsian Way and Lee intersection and changed several center lanes to be bigger reducing the size in the primary lanes. It’s clear they also used data collected from this last Memorial Day week when most residents were on holiday. A trick I seen done in this town before, they put all them traffic counters out during holiday weekends to make these traffic decisions. This reduces car count so they can justify to themselves the data they wanted.
Although it may be legal to reduce lane sizes by that much it doesn’t seem like something a sleepy town by the river named Richland should be doing to residents and our insurance cost. More wrecks at narrow intersections mean more money for insurance for all of us. It almost seems like city managers take shortcuts in spending tax dollars for them to get higher wages, which their wages surpass all the other cities in most every level of management. It is really insane to reduce lane sizes in our sleepily community making it feel more populated than it is.
Hi Mike, I appreciate your comment. The Observer misses your great reporting on the Benton County Commission meetings. You are welcome back any time. Thanks for reading the Observer. Randy
They are reducing lane width to increase safety. https://narrowlanes.americanhealth.jhu.edu/