No one knows if marked crosswalks or a proposed law would have saved the life of Brian Reams. Eugene city officials say more crosswalks could make Hilyard Street more dangerous, while advocates for crosswalks in Portland say adding paint to northwest Portland streets has made a difference in their community.
A vehicle struck Reams, a 22-year-old University student, when he was trying to cross Hilyard at 15th Avenue during the early hours of March 4, and he died the next day at Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Eugene city planners discussed marking more crosswalks on Hilyard when construction crews repaved it last summer, but decided more crosswalks weren’t needed. City officials say adding more crosswalks on Hilyard may actually train drivers not to stop at crosswalks.
In Portland, two neighborhood groups recently persuaded city officials to paint more white stripes on northwest Portland streets, and the groups say the stripes have helped drivers become more aware of pedestrians. Crosswalks mark the intersection of 13th Avenue and Hilyard at a stoplight, but no crosswalks mark 14th or 15th avenues. On Tuesday afternoon, pedestrians traveling between campus and the West University neighborhood peeked over parked cars to see if it was safe to cross Hilyard Street at 14th and 15th avenues. In a 15-minute period, no cars stopped for the pedestrians.
Under Oregon law, drivers must stop and remain stopped for crossing pedestrians until they have cleared the lane in which the driver is traveling and the adjacent lane. A crosswalk exists at any public street intersection, whether it is marked with paint or not.
A bill approved last week in the Oregon Senate would require drivers to stop for pedestrians who are waiting on the curb at a crosswalk when they raise an arm to signal. The House and the governor still need to approve Senate Bill 573 before it can become law.
Debra Reams, Brian’s mother, said she is not sure if crosswalks would have saved Brian.
“I don’t think a crosswalk would have helped because the guy that was driving was the only one on the road, from what I understand,” she said. “It wouldn’t have made a difference if Brian was in between corners or if there had been a crosswalk.”
When Eugene Public Works closed Hilyard Street last summer for a $2 million reconstruction, the department kept old crosswalks in the same location.
In Portland, city officials added striped crosswalks at various intersections on northwest city blocks this month after a motorist hit and killed a pedestrian crossing a street last year.
The city initially rejected Portland’s Northwest District Association and the Nob Hill Business Association’s request for more marked crosswalks on the shopping streets of 21st and 23rd avenues, citing installation and maintenance costs.
Frank Bird, president of the Northwest District Association, said neighborhood groups had pushed for marked crosswalks for the past few years. A driver hit and killed Sara Cogan, 66, while she was crossing the street late one night in January 2006. The driver said she couldn’t see Cogan in the dark.
“That energized a huge outcry,” Bird said. “There were lots of letters, and people showed up at city council meetings.”
Bird said crosswalks make drivers aware that pedestrians are in the area.
“When you’re driving down the street and you see those crosswalk markings, it should stimulate some kind of awareness,” Bird said. “When crosswalks start showing up every block, it’ll make some people pay attention.”
Eugene city planners decided against more crosswalks along Hilyard Street because more crosswalks could actually be unsafe and impractical, said Tom Larsen, Eugene’s traffic engineer.
He said drivers don’t typically stop at uncontrolled intersections without a signal or a stop sign. A stop light controls the intersections of Hilyard at 13th and 18th avenues.
“Driver compliance is difficult to get,” Larsen said. “Simply marking a crosswalk doesn’t seem to help. What seems to make crossing safer is a large number of people doing it.” He added the pedestrian-heavy intersection of 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street slows car speeds and has a low collision history.
Larsen said drivers may not stop at crosswalks that are not often used.
“If I put one at 13th, 14th and 16th all the way up Hilyard, and I never see anyone crossing, I think drivers who usually go that way won’t expect anything,” he said. “If we save them for places that are high volume, like a school crossing or a park, it’s more likely drivers will comply.”
Crosswalks may actually prove to be unsafe for pedestrians in some instances, Larsen said, because pedestrians could think a crosswalk is a safe area to cross.
“An unmarked crosswalk tells pedestrians to be more cautious,” Larsen said.
Steve Gallup, project manager for the Hilyard Street re-pavement and a City of Eugene planner, said crews considered adding a marked crosswalk at the 14th Avenue intersection because of a neighborhood park.
The West University Neighborhood Park near 14th Avenue and Hilyard Street closed in 1995, but neighbors want to re-open the park in the next few years.
“We thought there may be more demand sometime in the future, and a park would generate more pedestrian activity,” Gallup said.
Along 21st and 23rd avenues in Portland, crosswalks will mark intersections, including those without stoplights and stop signs. Unlike Hilyard Street, the avenues with new crosswalks in Portland are not one-way streets with two lanes.
“Unless you have a device that trips some kind of flashing light that says a pedestrian is crossing, both lanes of traffic might not be able to see,” said Kim Carlson, chairwoman of the transportation committee in Portland’s Northwest District.
Bird, who lives in Portland, said he has already seen improvements when he crosses the street during a jog.
“When I come up now where there’s a crosswalk, there is no question that I’m getting better attention than before,” Bird said. “People have more of a tendency to stop or slow down.”
Bird said he wishes crosswalks were put in earlier.
“Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder why it took so long,” he said. “Unfortunately, in our case, it took a death for this to happen.”
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West University, which stretches from Kincaid Street to Willamette Street and from 19th Avenue to Broadway, is a popular area for University students to live. Eugene city statistics from 2003 show around 3,000 of the area’s 5,500 residents were between the ages of 20 and 24.