There are many businesses and neighborhoods that should remain as safe as possible. This includes areas with hospitals, daycares, schools, and anything else with high amounts of pedestrian foot traffic. If you are the manager or facilitator of such an area, you are likely always worrying about how you can keep the neighborhoods as safe as possible. An accident that involves the injury or death of a pedestrian or student is devastating and complicated. Thankfully, there are many steps you can take to avoid these accidents and lessen the likelihood of a devastating accident in an area for which you are responsible.
First and foremost, you need to regulate the speed of motorists. Vehicles that are allowed to fly unwarranted through an intersection with a lot of foot traffic are much more likely to be involved in an accident. There are many ways to regulate vehicle speed, from making them slow down, to bringing them to a stop altogether.
You can slow down a motorist through the use of speed bumps made out of concrete. These speed humps force drivers to slow down significantly or else face damage to their vehicles. Installing many speed bumps on the streets next to intersections that pedestrians cross at will keep vehicles from flying through.
You can also slow down drivers through yield signs or flashing yellow stoplights. These precautions alert drivers to the possiblility that there will be distractions or cross traffic in the road, such as pedestrians. You can also speak to local law enforcement about installing a motion detecting speed monitor, that displays a vehicle’s speed back to them in bright LED numbers. All of these are simply precautions, however, and do not actually force a driver to stop.
You can force drivers to stop by using a stop sign, stop light, crossing guard, or, in severe cases, a policeman. Installing fear in drivers that they will be legally penalized for speeding through an intersection is more likely to convince them to slow down.
You may want to consider clearly marking the expectations of drivers by striping your pavement. Striping your pavement can include outlining the bright white lines of the crosswalk, having the silhouette of pedestrians painted on the road, or striping your pavement by painting a bright red stop sign just before the intersection. Even a distracted driver that is not looking at the road head on will notice the splash of fresh, bright paint on the concrete telling them to do something.
Unfortunately, there are always drivers to which there can be little down to install more caution in them. If this is a prominent problem in your area, you may want to talk to your local police force to enlist the help of an officer waiting in his car to pull over people who blow through the intersection. All of these behaviors, combined with teaching people and students safe pedestrian behaviors, such as looking both ways before crossing a street and not being on their phones while walking, will keep both your drivers and your walkers safe.
