Raised Crosswalks: The missing link

On August 9, 2023, Frisco Heritage High School sophomore Landon Bourque was riding his bike to school on a Wednesday morning. While crossing the intersection of Independence and George Washington, he was hit by a car. The driver stopped and tried to render aid, but Landon didn’t make it. He was an outside linebacker and the treasurer of the FFA. He was 15 years old.

Car fatalities are one of the leading causes of death among school-aged children, and the numbers are on the rise. Unfortunately, the solution many parents decide upon is driving their kids to school, which only makes the problem worse.

Putting more cars on the road only adds more chances for kids to get hit by one. Kids who are driven to school aren’t safe from this; they’re more likely to be killed by a car. Most child pedestrian fatalities involve cars moving at low speeds in parking lots or driveways. In 70% of these cases, the child is killed by their own parent or another family member, often driving a large, “safe” car with enormous blind spots.

Additionally, pedestrians are several times safer on roadways than car passengers are. In 2021, the pedestrian fatality rate was 2.32 deaths per billion miles traveled, compared to 15.8 deaths per billion miles for motorists the same year.

And finally, a kid is over 1,000 times more likely to be injured in a car accident while being driven to school (183,300 child passenger injuries per year) than kidnapped by a stranger while walking to school (100-150 stranger abductions per year). Any way you slice it, kids who walk or bike to school are safer than their car-dependent peers.

But then there are cases like Landon.

Infrastructure
Obviously, walking and biking would be more appealing if there were infrastructure which prioritizes walking and biking. Once more people begin walking and biking, pedestrians and cyclists will be even safer with fewer cars on the road, which would get even more people to walk and bike. It’s up to us to do something in order to get this positive feedback loop in motion.

Many towns already have a good start on non-motor infrastructure. The gold standard is separated sidewalks/bike paths, which are already common in the suburbs, on residential and arterial roads alike. The main problem is poorly managed intersections, like the one where Landon was killed (pictured below).

As a cyclist myself, I typically feel safer riding in roads, compared to riding on the adjacent sidewalk. The sidewalk simply has too many conflict points at intersections and at entrances into parking lots. On the sidewalk, pedestrians and cyclists frequently cross spaces which are meant for cars, and motorists usually aren’t looking for anyone on the sidewalk. Drivers are more likely to see cyclists in the road, and it’s also easier to predict where the cyclist is going to be next.

Raised crosswalks
Legally, pedestrians and cyclists have the right-of-way, and our infrastructure should physically and visually reflect that. A simple, effective, cheap solution is raised crosswalks.

Benefits of raised crosswalks include:

• Serves as a physical reminder (much better than a zebra stripe) that pedestrians and cyclists may be present

• Visually demonstrates the crosswalk is a pedestrian space, and cars are merely guests

• Discourages cars from stopping in the middle of the crosswalk

• Easier for mobility-impaired people, since the crosswalk is level with the sidewalk

• Functions as a literal speed bump

• Costs about as much as a speed bump

• Cars are supposed to slow down at intersections and when making turns anyway!

To begin with, raised crosswalks can and should be used at every crosswalk adjacent to a school. Better still, any intersection where students are likely to cross in multiple directions should be an entirely raised intersection, where the road is brought up to sidewalk level, rather than the other way around.

The benefits of raised intersections are similar to those of raised crosswalks, with the added benefit of working on all cars, rather than only those turning onto or off of a side street. Compared to school zone signs, which can be missed or ignored, this is a more effective means of calming traffic, and may even eliminate the need for a crossing guard.

By making non-motor transportation easier, more people will choose not to drive, and cars will be removed from the road, which means:

• Fewer accidents

• Saves lives

• Cleaner air

• Quieter neighborhoods

• Less traffic

• Less parking needs

• Lower road maintenance costs

• Better public health

• Accessibility for people who can’t drive (aka 1 in 3 Americans)

These benefits apply to everyone, including people who drive a car 100% of the time. Many towns have already built ~90% of an extensive walk/bike network. This is the last step, and with effort, it could be done in a matter of months, at reasonable cost.