Crosswalks near bus stops get second look

It’s a man near a crosswalk, but all he ever does is tip his hat.

Street Smarts reader Don Peterson has an issue with that brass statue outside the Everett Performing Arts Center on Wetmore Avenue. It’s awfully close to the mid-block crosswalk there.

“From dusk on it looks like a pedestrian,” Peterson said.

Not too far down Wetmore, there’s another mid-block crosswalk that prompts question marks. This one, in the 3000 block between the police station and courthouse, has bus stops on both side of the street. Are people waiting for a bus or to cross the street?

“You don’t know,” Peterson said.

There’s not much the city can do about that statue.

But there are some things they can do about nearby bus stops.

At the Performing Arts Center, the city hopes now to shift the bus stops — and thus the people waiting at them — to the far side of the crosswalk.

“There are some physical hardscape improvements needed to make this change for the northbound direction because the sidewalk at the proposed location does not meet grade requirements for ADA access. A future development may be tasked with making this change,” said Marla Carter, a spokesperson.

Near the police station and courthouse, the options are more limited, Carter said.

But staff who checked out the scene noticed that transit customers reading the schedule placard on a bus stop sign post were close enough to the crosswalk that a driver might thing they were trying to cross the street.

“We are going to shift the bus stop signs for both the northbound and southbound from the crosswalk location to the south side of the bus stop shelters to minimize this issue,” Carter said. “However the bus stops will not be relocated due to the constraints of parking needs and building access.

“Wetmore at both these locations is only two lanes wide, and speeds are low,” she added. “We ask drivers to remain alert to pedestrian activity, both crossing the street, and getting in and out of cars in locations such as these.”

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