Will a Flashing Warning Sign Make the Crossing Safe?
A local elected official here in Greenville sent out an email touting the fact that he was supporting making a dangerous road crossing safer by having a flashing warning sign installed at the Earle Street/Rutherford Road crossing.
I thanked him for the email about crossing. I let him know I was pleased to see that there is awareness that this particular crossing is deadly dangerous.
I pointed out that I had used that crossing hundreds of times over the past few years, I have come extremely close to being killed many times there.
Fortunately, so far, they were only “near collisions.”
I let him know that this particular intersection is the most dangerous I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve used tens of thousands of crossings all over the nation and world.
There is a shockingly high and dangerous level of motorists ignoring the red light traffic signal at this location. I have never seen such a high level of non-compliance.
I pointed out that until we end the 100-year failed experiment of trying to increase roadway safety with warning signs, warning lights, warning education, warning enforcement, and warning paint at locations such as this, these crossings will remain barbaric death traps. There is only one effective solution: Reduce this crossing to from four lanes to two lanes of motorized travel. I suspect, shamefully, that this will not happen until four or five young children or seniors or handicapped people are killed by motorists at that location.
I am fully aware of how politically difficult it is to do something effective at these crossings. I am ashamed that I live in a society that is incapable of making our roadways something other than shockingly and criminally dangerous.
It does not require rocket science to understand why the several large roadways (“STROADS”) in town center Greenville are disgracefully ugly, dangerous, and home to mostly struggling businesses and homes. And why almost no one with a choice is found to be walking, bicycling, or using transit anywhere near this proliferation of oversized roads.
By far, the number one task for leaders of cities such as Greenville – and the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) -- is to remove turn lanes and travel lanes from roads that are way too wide and high speed.