Helen, I'm very sorry to hear that you and your kids were brazenly harassed by a driver last night. I share your frustration with the traffic situation in HP in general, but specifically in regard to the schools in the neighborhood. At the four way intersection of Stanton and Collins, a crucial intersection for pedestrians attempting to approach or leave Dilworth, there is 1 (one) stop sign, the one on Collins that the idiot who harassed you felt to be optional. I simply cannot understand the reluctance (perhaps it is simply negligence?) to provide more pedestrian accommodation at that intersection. I think at very least, there should be 4 stop signs, and crosswalks on each facing of the intersection. As we all know, you take your life in your hands each and every time you approach a road as a pedestrian. We cannot ultimately rely on street markings and/or basic human decency to ensure our safety, but can we not demand that the traffic situation around our schools be addressed? The neighborhood planner for that area may be reached here: Dan.Sentz@city.pittsburgh.pa.us Also, there is a Walkability Checklist available on the City website, which one might print out and mail to City Planning: *City Planning *200 Ross Street Fourth Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15219 http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/cp/assets/07_Walkability_Checklist.pdf Perhaps if enough attention were brought to this situation, we could effect a change for the better. On Dec 20, 2007 7:02 PM, <neighborhood-request@highlandparkpa.com> wrote:
Send Neighborhood mailing list submissions to neighborhood@highlandparkpa.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.highlandparkpa.com/mailman/listinfo/neighborhood or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to neighborhood-request@highlandparkpa.com
You can reach the person managing the list at neighborhood-owner@highlandparkpa.com
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Helen Blier" <pacem1@gmail.com> To: "Highland Park" <neighborhood@highlandparkpa.com> Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:39:46 -0500 Subject: [Highland Park] Traffic, pedestrians, and the same old story Hi all - and especially Cmdr Brackney - I was at the Dilworth holiday concert last night with my kids. Great show. I took their hands and we had just started to cross Collins on the Dilworth side of Stanton - when a fairly ratty old sedan sped up, blew through the crosswalk and stop sign, and stopped halfway into Stanton - missing my kids and I by about a foot (and clearly going faster than the speed limit). Being a mama bear, I blurted out a "Hey! Watch it!" without really thinking about whether it was a good idea. The driver, an early 20s male, leaned over his passenger and screamed at me to F off, called me a f-in you know what, my fault for walking in front of his god**** car, then leaned out pointed at my kids and said "F*** you, and F*** you, and F*** yo mama!" I probably don't need to go into the effect this had on my kids.
OK. Learned my lesson. Bite tongue when dealing with nearly being killed by speeding driver who blows through stop sign. No need to castigate me offlist for bad judgment. But frankly, the traffic around Dilworth is a dangerous thing on any given day, and this is just the latest near miss. Furthermore, there were hundreds of folks - with lots of young children - pouring out of the building. It could have happened to anyone.
This traffic area has been a frequent topic of discussion on this list and at our PTA meetings - as have drivers like this guy. What - if anything - can be done?
Helen
-- <http://lists.highlandparkpa.com/mailman/listinfo/neighborhood>;