Observations by an interaction designer

There is a fundamental problem with the average American inner city crosswalk, which is that there are two parties simultaneously trying to pass through the intersection, one traveling by foot and the other on rubberized motor driven wheels. In the past 14 years I have lived in Denver, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle and this artifact is a reflection on the interaction design challenge of the inner city crosswalk.

A typical scenario

All directions of the roadway are two laned and situated in an inner city with considerable pedestrian foot traffic in the morning and evening commutes. The current time is 8:00am on a typical weekday.

Picture yourself as a pedestrian waiting on the southern corner of an intersection waiting to cross and continue heading north toward your office. A green light is signaled for cars traveling in both North and South directions while automobiles traveling in East/West directions wait at a red signal. You see a walk signal but before you can step off the curb a car making a right-hand turn to the east is already part-way through the intersection. You and a few other bold pedestrians hurry past the steel nose of the car and make it to the northern curb, you pause to look back and observe while your fellow crosswalk pioneers continue their speed-walk.

Here’s what you see

On your side of the street you watch as a stream of cars continue to inch forward attempting to pass through the intersection just inches away from dresses, suits, joined hands and canes. Some cars narrowly break though while most wait as traffic and tensions behind them build. Energy consumption is high. You can feel it. Cars stop and start as fuel injectors hungrily slurp gasoline as their operators inch forward all the while thinking about the traffic, directions and parking. Meanwhile pedestrians hesitate judging time, distance and speed of both the foot and car traffic, some even outwardly annoyed at the inconvenience and complication of navigating the crosswalk. Like salmon swimming up stream to migrate cars and people struggle for their way. This scenario is further complicated by vehicles traveling East/West attempting to make their right-turns on red lights so that they may be on their way.

At 4 AM you wake up thinking

There may have been a point in time where the idea of letting both pedestrians and cars pass through an intersection simultaneously was a decent idea. In my collection of neurons it seems quite sensible to have a distinct time where automobiles are permitted to pass and another time where pedestrians and other legged creatures can have their turn at safe passage from one curb to another. Allowing cars to turn into pedestrian traffic is insanity.

Common sense & closing thoughts

Humans and for that matter all mammals, reptiles and crustaceans have typically not fared well in any tournament with the automobile. The automobile represents even today an unprecedented opportunity for our fellow humans to propel themselves at a high rate of speed with close to total freedom. So it is no surprise crosswalks are a battle ground of the footed and the wheeled modes of travel.

So this may not seem earth shattering to the DOT but why not have a walk sign for all directions of foot traffic during which all automobiles are completely stopped. No right turns on red just plain stopped at the intersection. After the global pedestrian walk signal has passed then autos can move about as-per-usual.