Staunton News Leader - 05/19/2016 Page : A01

Copyright © 2016 Staunton News Leader 05/19/2016May 19, 2016 9:26 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

STAUNTON — There’s a problem indowntown Staunton. The streets arebeautiful, the shops are cute, but it’s un-safe to walk or bike there.

On certain streets, depend-ing on which side you are on,there are no crossing lights.Mix that in with streets be-ing one-way, pedestri-ans can’t even tellwhen the lights havechanged in somecases.

According to thecity of Staunton’sFacebook page,

there have been 40 motor vehicle acci-dents involving pedestrians and eightmotor vehicle accidents involving cy-clists since 2013 across the entire city.

“Foot and bike traffic in the citypicks up with the onset of warmerweather,” the post said. “We urge pe-destrians and cyclists to walk and bikesafely, and drivers to pay attention tothose on foot and on bicycles. Remem-ber, state law requires the driver toyield to pedestrians — always.”

Those accidents also include someon private property and businesses,

said Staunton spokeswomanRuth Jones.

“As for the number of mo-tor vehicle accidents involv-

ing pedestrians and cyclists inthe city, they run the gamut, from

accidental to intentional and often re-sulted from inattentiveness on the

part of the driver, pedestrian or

cyclist,” Jones said. “In many cases, thedriver involved in the accident report-ed that they didn’t see the pedestrian orcyclist.”

One of the city’s biggest intersec-tions at Augusta and Johnson streetsdoesn’t even have pedestrian signals,as pointed out in a Tumblr page calledToPointB.

“You’ll just need to get across this in-tersection on your own two feet foryour court call,” the Tumblr page said.“Pedestrian signal? Nope. No signal foryou! The green light to cross Johnson,on east side where both courthousesare? That is clearly not for you, justlook at all the left-turning cars con-vinced that it’s for them.”

The other major intersection at Au-gusta and West Beverley streets hasone pedestrian signal — heading west

Crossing paths with vehiclesDowntown Staunton canbe pedestrian’s nightmareLAURA PETERSLPETERS@NEWSLEADER.COM

See Downtown, Page 8A

Staunton News Leader - 05/19/2016 Page : A08

Copyright © 2016 Staunton News Leader 05/19/2016May 19, 2016 9:28 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

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on Beverley. For those who are trying tocross Beverley heading toward the Au-gusta County Courthouse, you’re out ofluck especially if drivers on AugustaStreet want to turn onto Beverley.

You’ve all seen them before, the tour-ists Staunton prides itself on attractingare practically gawking into the sky won-dering when or if they should cross. I stilldo that, and I’ve lived here more thanthree years. I spend most of my walkingtime looking at the traffic lights and as-suming it’s safe to cross.

Many residents work and live in closeproximity, so walking to and from work iswhat they do everyday.

“My family lives downtown, and wewalk around the area every day,” saidCouncilman Erik Curren. “We’ve all near-ly been hit by cars speeding downhill onWest Beverley Street or making rightturns on red while crossing downtown in-tersections.”

Laura Pyle lives and works downtownand walks to and from work. She’s no-ticed drivers aren’t aware of Virginiastate law that they should yield to pedes-trians.

“I constantly see elderly people, andprobably tourists, and I see them pause atintersections, and when they’re on a cor-ner where they can’t see the signals, theylook both ways and hesitate,” said Pyle. “Isee them start across and then they losethe light they cannot see. That stuff isreally frustrating.”

She’s noticed that during the farmersmarket downtown or other events, non-permanent signs are put up telling driv-ers to yield. Pyle suggested having signsfor drivers telling them to yield.

“I think those are clearly needed, thedrivers are getting really angry, but theyalso don’t know the law,” she said.

It’s also difficult for pedestrians to fig-ure out when to walk or not.

“We should have more pedestrian sig-nals at high traffic areas,” she said.

At Central Avenue and BeverleyStreet, there are three pedestrian sig-nals. That intersection is where two one-way streets meet and isn’t as high of atraffic area as others in downtown.

Staunton recently announced it’s ini-tiative to become a more bike-friendlyplace. The Staunton Bicycle and Pedes-trian Advisory Committee presented its2016 annual work plan to council inMarch to get the city recognized as abike- and walk-friendly community with-in the next five years.

The plan is expected to set forth a pol-icy that will require all transportationprojects to provide complete facilitiesfor pedestrians and cyclists, as well asvehicles. This will set the standard for fu-ture transportation projects, includingnew construction, reconstruction andretrofits, the plan said.

“Staunton needs to make it safer forwalkers and bicyclists, especially forkids and older folks, but also for tourists,who come here to walk around our histor-ic streets,” Curren said. “I hope the citywill consider common sense ideas liketraffic calming but also innovative solu-tions that have worked well in other his-toric Virginia cities like Williamsburg orAlexandria.”

The city said they are aware of theneed to enhance walkability and bicyclepaths for residents, which is why theStaunton Bicycle and Pedestrian Adviso-ry Committee was formed, accordingJones.

“We live in an old and historic city, andwe are striving to evolve with the chang-ing times and the needs of our residents,”Jones said. “These changes will requiretime and funding, and therefore won’thappen overnight. However, we’re com-mitted to making progress and view thecreation of the Bicycle and PedestrianCommittee as a critical first step.”

It could take a few years for the publicto see changes.

“We expect to see some transforma-tive developments as a result of the com-mittee’s efforts over the next few years,”Jones said. “In the meanwhile, we remaincommitted to taking the appropriatemeasures to keep our community as safeand friendly as possible for pedestriansand cyclists.”

So the city is trying to educate the pub-lic, like with its Facebook post earlier thisweek.

“The city’s public education campaignis intended to better educate the publicand boost their consciousness of the issueto help reduce, and ideally, eliminate pre-ventable incidents,” Jones said.

MIKE TRIPP/THE NEWS LEADERGhiyasuden Sadr of Staunton uses the crosswalk as he crosses Augusta Street while walkingthe sidewalk along Beverley Street in downtown Staunton on Wednesday.

DowntownContinued from Page 1A