Drivers should have to stop before turning through a crosswalk with a "WALK" signal active [View all]

[CreekDog]

The danger to pedestrians is a turning car with a green light overtaking them from behind as it turns through their crosswalk even though the pedestrian has a walk signal. Understand that there is no practical way for a legally crossing pedestrian to watch for cars behind them while walking in the middle of the crosswalk.

This is just an interim step. Ideally, there should be a red arrow whenever a walk signal is active so that cars aren't going through a walk signal without stopping first.

The biggest danger that I'm trying to address is cars turning through a crosswalk with a walk signal without slowing down enough to stop. By not slowing down enough, they often don't see a pedestrian at all, or they see them, but are going to fast to stop in time. Slowing or stopping cars at this point would help pedestrians protect themselves as well, because they can react to a slow or stopped car, while a fast one will overtake them too quickly.

We had a six year old hit and killed New Year's Eve night in San Francisco by a driver who had a green light, but hit people in the crosswalk anyway. Had it been a red light, the chances that they would have slowed down or stopped would've been greater and may have been enough to have prevented the group from being hit.