The Citizens Environmental Academy led an interactive meeting to learn how people move along and across Bryan Avenue and how they want the street to look.
The Citizens Environmental Academy took the lead on engaging their peers in the community, which allowed them to move beyond the conventional engagement strategies the city uses and think outside the box on how to connect with the community. They canvassed door-to-door to businesses and residences and hosted two interactive listening sessions—one during an already scheduled neighborhood association meeting, the other at a local church. They brought maps of the site to the first listening session so people could point out barriers to getting around, opportunities for improvement, and the routes they use to navigate the area on foot, on bike, and by car. The team also conducted visual preference surveys, where attendees placed stickers to vote for how they want crosswalks, intersections, and other design features of the street to look.
Before Lexington’s demonstration project, there were no marked crosswalks at Bryan and East Loudon Avenues. The intersection had only three stop signs instead of four, requiring traffic from all directions to stop except for drivers moving east on East Loudon Avenue (from right to left in the above image) who could make left turns onto Bryan Avenue without slowing down or yielding to opposing traffic.
Bryan Avenue intersects East Loudon Avenue at a confusing, unusually angled intersection. Although four directions of traffic meet at this site, only three legs at the intersection had stop signs, so cars traveling east on East Loudon Avenue could speed through without stopping. Based on community input, the team knew a lot of people walk along and across these streets, but there were no marked crosswalks at this intersection. To make it safer and easier to navigate for people walking and driving alike, the Lexington team extended the landscaped median to create a new pedestrian refuge for people crossing. They used reflective posts that the city had in storage to protect this pedestrian island and to create bump outs that narrowed the road, encouraging people to drive more slowly. They also used these bump outs to reshape the atypical angle of the intersection into a more conventional right-angled corner, so people driving south on Bryan Avenue would have to come to a more complete stop before turning.
Proven safety countermeasures
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) promotes specific road treatments, proven through research to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities on our streets. Lexington’s demonstration project used the following proven safety countermeasures recommended by the FHWA:
Pedestrian crossing island
56 percent fewer pedestrian crashes [FHWA]
Lexington’s demonstration project introduced a new crosswalk at the intersections of Bryan and East Loudon Avenues with a protected refuge to make it safer and easier for people to cross the street.
By temporarily closing a leg of Bryan Avenue at Maple Avenue, the Lexington team redirected cars to a stop sign and created more space for people to walk along and across the street.
One advantage of using a temporary demonstration project meant the team could make small adjustments and changes as needed. For example, the project interfered with stormwater drainage at the intersection of Bryan and East Loudon Avenues. After a heavy rain, the team discovered some “ponding” up against their installation, but because their demonstration project used flexible materials, they were able to quickly resolve this problem by making a strategic saw cut to allow water to pass through. Troubleshooting minor challenges like this one through a demonstration project will help the team make informed decisions—and justify them—if they convert these temporary improvements into permanent changes to make their intersections safer.