Fatal Accident At Russell and Lake Illustrates Danger of Stretch
Written by David Greenwald Thursday, 22 December 2011 06:48
Back in late October, the County Board of Supervisors held off on raising the speed limit, on the stretch of Russell from Pedrick Road to Lake Blvd, to 45 mph from the current 35 mph.
To illustrate the dangers of current road speeds on this stretch was a serious injury accident that occurred on Wednesday, as a pedestrian crossed that stretch of road.
According to a press release from the Davis Police Department, Davis Police Officers were dispatched to the area of Russell and Lake Boulevard for a traffic collision. Officers determined that 61-year-old George Souza (a Woodland resident) was driving his Ford Pickup eastbound on Russell Boulevard.
25-year-old Megan Glanville (From Chico, but currently living in Davis) was crossing Russell Boulevard as a pedestrian where Russell intersects Lake Boulevard. As Megan Glanville crossed Russell, she was hit by the pickup truck driven by Souza.
Megan Glanville suffered severe injuries, including head trauma. She was rushed, by ambulance, to the UCD Medical Center in Sacramento. Megan Glanville is being treated for her injuries there at the UCD Medical Center, and her current condition is listed as critical.
Police do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor in this incident, but they suspect that the heavy morning fog played a role.
The problem with the entire stretch of road on Russell, that begins as soon as Arlington Blvd veers off from it, is that it looks like a rural road for a stretch of perhaps a mile to a mile and a half. But it is not a rural road.
The press release did not list the speed, but this is the exact problem that was brought up at the meeting with the Board of Supervisors back in October.
The county was concerned about the enforceability of the speed limit and that was their impetus for wanting to raise the speed on this stretch.
Staff argued, "These actions will bring affected speed limits into compliance with the California Vehicle Code (CVC) and California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and ensure that the posted speed limits are enforceable under state law."
The California Vehicle Code (CVC) and the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) govern the criteria for establishment of speed limits. The CVC sets the basic speed limit for two-lane, undivided highways at 55 mph.
According to the staff report, "Setting speed limits outside the guidelines constitutes a speed trap, under the CVC, and those speed limits are not enforceable using radar."
That is based on the premise that they are required to set speed limits in the 85th percentile, that is, a speed at which 85% of the drivers will drive at a reasonable speed for the road and conditions.
"To establish a speed zone less than 55 mph the agency must conduct an E&TS [Engineering and Traffic Survey], including a speed zone survey," the staff report argued.
According to Panos Kokkas, the Yolo County Assistant Director of Planning and Public Works, they did a speed survey last year that showed the 85th percentile for Russell Blvd was 49 mph, which he characterized as "rather high compared to the posted speed."
Based on that, he argued that the speed limit would need to be 50 mph, but due to the residential areas, school, children and churches in the vicinity, they determined that they could lower that to 45 mph.
According to Mr. Kokkas, if the speed limit is not raised, it would go back to 55 mph, which is the basic non-posted speed limit, and people driving 55 mph or less could not be cited.
Concerns were raised that raising the speed limit would further drive up the speeds. But Mr. Kokkas, citing limited data from a pilot study conducted in Davis, argued that they should find that the actual speeds remained constant, despite the increase in the posted speed limit.
The motion made by Councilmember Don Saylor and passed by the Board of Supervisors instructs their staff to look into road-calming measures.
Supervisor Matt Rexroad, while concerned about raising speed limits, was concerned with the overall cost of such measures.
The Vanguard has also learned that a serious accident involving a child was the original rationale for lowering the speed limit in the first place.
Staff argues, and they may be correct, that studies show that posted speed limits do not impact the speed of the road.
While we certainly sympathize with the budgetary aspect of smart road designs, on the other hand, from what we have learned in Davis, a lot of these traffic-calming measures do not have to be overly-expensive. In addition, grant money is often available to implement smarter street designs.
Immediately after the meeting in October, we drove the stretch and realized that if one is coming from Pedrick Road northbound and turns eastbound on Russell, there is no 35 mph sign visible until you are inside the Davis city limits.
Staff argues that this does not matter, but it is almost counterintuitive.
What does matter is that there may be a public safety threat on these roads and the county and city need to work together to get funding to make that stretch of road safer without raising the speed limits - which, while enabling the police to enforce the higher speeds, does not address the core issues here.
It was later reported that Ms. Glanville passed away from her injuries.
---David M. Greenwald reporting
David - We have gone over these issues before but just to reiterate: given that the "critical speed" is 49 MPH on that stretch the county is limited in it ability to lower the speed limiet while keeping it "enforceable." Enforceable means it can use electronic means to assess speeds and issue tickets. If the posted speed limit is set too low it can use these measures but judges will not uphold speeding tickets.
AB 529, which becomes law on January 1, 2012 will have this effect (taken from http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/...tered.html):
What this means for the case of Russell in the segment under discussion is that the county could lower the speed limit to 45 MPH and have it be enforceable. It could not lower it any further and enforce the limit.
I would favor traffic calming for this segment (and some others around Davis), unfortunately calming all the streets that need to be calmed will be expensive. I believe, therefore, that the way we are going to have to go is to seek a further change to the law that would allow local jurisdictions to set their own speed limits based on the needs/realities of their communities. The Russell segment would be an example of a road that we as local citizens understand much better than the state. We (county government) should, therefore, have the right to lower the limit. That segment is used by large numbers of pedestrians and cyclists and we should be able to lower and enforce lower limits based on the reality of OUR community's needs not a "one size fits all" state statute.
David, it would be ideal if we never had any traffic accidents, but the reality is far from the ideal. IMHO, a better way to look at the Russell situation is to look at accident frequency rather than focus on one single accident.
With that said, how frequenly are accidents reported on that stretch of Russell?
David and Robb, the key appears to be pedestrian-auto with special concentration at the cross walks. Embedded blinking lights that the pedestrian/bicylist pushes to clearly advise any oncoming car that they are in an active right of way situation would seem to be the best of the traffic calming alternatives.
Matt - Last week at the 5th Street redesign input meeting we saw at least one new technology that seems to be working well in alerting cars to pedestrian crossings. I won't get into the description here (have to look it up) but my point is that such things are possible.
However, I also want to add that I think we can and should take a preventive approach to reducing the likelihood of injury in the case of accidents by pushing for lower speeds on segments with high pedestrian and bike involvement. One of my New Year's resolutions ;-) is to write a summary article on research on car speeds and pedestrian and bike injury probabilities at different speeds.
Beyond this I think we need to lower speeds on a limited number of segments to encourage more people (especially children) to bike/walk. We have 30+ out of compliance streets in the city meaning that the critical speeds are way beyond the posted speed limits. Some of these streets are important bike/pedestrian thoroughfares and we need low cost solutions to calming them to encourage more biking and walking (per city goals on mode share shifts). I will continue to argue (until someones just tells me I am crazy) that one way to do this is to push for legislation that allows us to create our own speed limits and enforce them. We know our city and what its goals are and the state should yield decisions about local speed limits to us.
BTW, speed limit reductions and "slower cities" are being discussed more widely (see http://www.salon.com/2011/12/1...than_cars/). I realize that some readers of this blog will object that such speed limit reductions are a limit to personal freedom but I would answer that this is a "car-centric" view of the world.
Robb Davis
I read that the pedestrian hit was jogging. Was she wearing ear phones and distracted by listening to music? Did she stop and look before crossing? If she had stopped and looked before crossing, with the thickness of the fog, could she have seen the car approaching? Was she wearing clothes, so that, even with the fog, the driver could have seen her? There are so many factors here.
The only pedestrian accident I remember at this intersection was years ago when students were still being bused to school. The bus stop was on the corner of Russell and Lake and while waiting a student stepped off the curb and was clipped by a passing car and killed. The school district moved the bus stop a block up Lake to a safer location after that.
I realize I've primarily suggested factors involving the pedestrian. Here are others: Was the driver going too fast for the conditions, regardless of the speed limit? Was the driver distracted by activities in the car (tuning the radio, drinking coffee, conversing with passengers, etc.)?
Ryan has good questions... to these, I would add: what was the speed of the vehicle? Were the headlights on?
Under the law, the "basic speed law" can trump the posted limit... given the fog and time of day, you can be cited at much lower than than the posted speed given the driver's ability to react and stop in time to avoid a collision. On the pedestrian/jogger side, anyone crossing streets in those conditions should give serious consideration to wearing reflective clothing and/or have a light so that vehicles (be they bicycles or cars) can detect their presence.
As I have mentioned before in a previous post, the intersection at Lake and Russell is particularly dangerous. When I used to live in an apt right there, there were no less than five accidents in one year as I remember it. I notified the city of Davis, requesting a 3 way stop, but was ignored. A 3 way stop at that intersection would force cars to slow down on that stretch of road. A stop sign could also be placed at the church that is located on Russell west of the Lake/Russell intersection. I do not believe adjusting speed limits will make a hill of beans difference, as it is a lengthy stretch of country road with minimal side streets that people see as an opportunity to "gun it". No matter what speed limits are placed on that stretch of road, my guess is drivers will continue to go way too fast for conditions. Two stop signs (a minimal cost) would force traffic to slow down...
Why not put a stop sign at Lake and Russel? How damn expensive can that be?
Regardless, a big part of the blame goes to fog. It has been responsible for many terrible traffic accidents and deaths.
Related to a stop sign and fog, I have watched cars sail through intersections not seeing a stop sign. Maybe a stop sign would not have helped in this situation.
Even so, my heart goes out to this young girl and her family, and to the driver. What a tragedy.
Does anyone know what a lighted pedestrian crossing costs... like the one on Russel where pedestrians can push a button to cause flashing lights to cause the traffic to stop? I think that could be a good alternative in addition to stop sign.
One other point about that stretch of Russel. People cross all up and down it. That is a problem with bike and pedestrian flow... people taking risks instead of walking or riding a little farther to use a safer and more common crossing. Just like people biking on Fifth Street without a bike or helmet light after the sun has gone down. There is only so much we can do to keep people safe from their own bad judgment.
I'm terribly saddened that Megan was killed. I'm particularly sensitive about this right now because I just experienced the death of my best friend's wife on October 30th. She was a pedestrian killed by a person driving an automobile also. Deaths such as these are easily preventable and we as society have a responsibility to make the roads safer.
Two points:
1. These laws that force city road designers to set speeds limits based on the 85th percentile are absurd. The majority of our roads are wide and straight with clear shoulders. This is the pretty much the most enticing environment for traveling fast in an automobile. So of course the average speeds are going be high, often regardless of how well the speeds are enforced by policemen. There is a simple solution: make narrow roads, that aren't straight and have obstacles. People will not drive fast if this is the case. There are expensive ways to do this and the inexpensive. I'm reminded of driving home one night from the North Sea to my house in the Netherlands. I was passing through a residential area on a road similar to Russell. All of a sudden a concrete barrier was in front of my car, blocking my lane, forcing me to travel in the oncoming traffic lane to pass. The other lane had a similar barrier 100 feet up. This may sound insane to us, but it caused all of the cars on this road to #1 drive slowly and #2 actually interact with each other for safe passage of all vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles. I didn't get it at the moment and was just dumbfounded, but I now see how that device made this unbelievably safer for all users.
2. Ryan Kelly's questions are not good questions. Pedestrians should not have to worry about dying when crossing a road!!!, regardless if we are listening to music, don't have reflective clothing on, or are just busy scratching our asses. I want to live in an environment where I don't have to be worried about being smashed by 5000lb vehicle when I'm just out for a run regardless of how clueless I am. We as a society have created roads that are death traps for all users: motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists. I'm a fan of making the speeds limits a function of momentum (mass times speed) instead of speed alone. That way massive vehicles have to go slow and when collisions happen between any two road users the energy is low enough that *all* people involved live to see the next day. The details of the accident are irrelevant in my eyes; roads should be safe, simple is that. They currently are not.
One other point about that stretch of Russel. People cross all up and down it. That is a problem with bike and pedestrian flow... people taking risks instead of walking or riding a little farther to use a safer and more common crossing. Just like people biking on Fifth Street without a bike or helmet light after the sun has gone down. There is only so much we can do to keep people safe from their own bad judgment.
We are both in agreement to the solution here Jeff - a stop sign to make the intersection of Russell and Lake a 3 way stop. However, there is no question that bicyclists and pedestrians cross Russell in various places to get over to the south side and onto the bicycle/pedestrian path that runs along Russell in West Davis. But as far as I have been able to tell, bicyclists/pedestrians are only crossing Russell in the designated crosswalks there. Unfortunately oftentimes the bicyclists/pedestrians tend to blend in with the walnut trees that line Russell in West Davis, so are not always readily visible as they step out into the street. A flashing yellow at such spots would be great, but I find that pedestrians/bicyclists do not always use such signals. Another thing I have heard about is flashing lights actually embedded in the road. But the flashing lights are an expensive approach which the city probably cannot afford at the moment. But I would think two simple stop signs at the intersection of Russell and Lake would be cheap and effective enough to make this intersection and that stretch of road much safer. Add a 3 way stop at the church to the west, and I suspect traffic would slow down quite a bit along the entire stretch of Russell between Portage Bay and Cactus Corners. Obviously the fog makes everything more dangerous, and everybody should be more careful when it rolls in.
I'm sure everyone on the Vanguard is saddened by the death of the victim of this accident; and the driver who will have to live w the consequences. Our hearts go out to their families as well...
The fog yesterday morning was some of the densest I've ever seen in Davis. I was driving to work on campus at 5:30 am, and I could not safely drive faster than 20 mph through town. Even though I knew where all the road intersections and stop signs were, they tended to take me by surprise. Anyone traveling by any mode - walking, bicycling, driving - should have been extremely cautious.
This evening, I went to pick up a pizza at Steve's, and observed a number of people doing extremely stupid things. Jaywalking in dark clothing, assuming any traffic would slow for them. Cyclists without lights or reflectors, again in dark clothing. As a cycling advocate, behavior like this really frustrates me.
None of these actions by stupid people have any bearing on the "accident" that resulted in the death of a promising law student, but they illustrate how far we have to go as a community to have a safe, predictable transportation system. All parties involved have to take responsibility. I hope the Davis PD does a thorough investigation into the cause of this fatality, and I hope the City follows through with proper mitigation to prevent future incidents of this type.
[None of these actions by stupid people have any bearing on the "accident" that resulted in the death of a promising law student, but they illustrate how far we have to go as a community to have a safe, predictable transportation system. All parties involved have to take responsibility/quote]Absolutely correct!
@hpierce
Yes, I'm correct that it "sounds insane", but there is nothing insane about forcing automobiles to go slow. We can slow automobiles in 99% of the cases by a countless number of physical and/or psychological methods. And these methods are so effective, that the need for speed enforcement by police can completely be eliminated. In fact, the technology exists for us to limit the maximum speed of every automobile using their GPS location. But for our poor city budget, concrete barriers could do the same thing for much cheaper.
Megan's life is no doubt worth the 180k for a stop light or the cost of any other traffic calming measure we come up with.
OSHA forces companies to implement Zero Injury policies, why don't we do the same for our streets?
moorepants said . . .
"OSHA forces companies to implement Zero Injury policies, why don't we do the same for our streets?"
To accomplish OSHA levels of protection would mean a full ban of the use of telephones and portable listening devices while walking, jogging, riding and/or driving. Are you ready to take that step. Substantial fines would need to be mandatory for all violations.
Clothing while walking and/or riding would need to be mandated to be of light color with reflective materials sewn in and/or battery powered blinking lights after dusk. Are you ready/willing to go to that level of proactivity? Will the ACLU support that level of proactivity?
The tragic reality is that if a pedestrian darts out in front of a motor vehicle (which may or may not have happened in this tragic incident), they have a high probability of a very bad outcome. There are some in the community who would advocate that no motor vehicle travel over 15 mph on ANY street. Just ban cars.... cars are most inefficient, and create more greenhouse gases when not operated in the 40-50 mph range.
Politically incorrect as it is, I am praying for the the repose of the soul of Megan, and for comfort and support of her familoy and friends, and for the driver involved, and his family and friends.
To everybody... be careful this holiday season... we don't want to lose any of you. God bless.
The discussion here and exploration of options is helpful. I mentioned in an earlier comment a pedestrian crossing enhancement recommended by the Alta consultants at last week's 5th Street redesign workshop. The crossing enhancement which, according to the consultant, is showing good results is called the "rectangular rapid flash beacon". I cannot vouch for its usefulness and know nothing of the cost--I am merely repeating what the consultant told me.
The "Insurance Institute for Highway Safety" (Google them if you want to know more about their credibility) has a useful Q/A section on pedestrian safety issues with summary answers referenced to studies. They say this in response to the question "How can the frequency or severity of pedestrian crashes be reduced?"
A 2003 Institute review of traffic engineering measures to reduce pedestrian crashes identified several effective approaches, which generally can be classified into three broad categories: separating pedestrians from vehicles by time or space, making pedestrians easier to spot, and reducing vehicle speeds.(emphasis mine)
Effective countermeasures involving separation include sidewalks, overpasses and underpasses, refuge islands in the medians of busy two-way streets, and exclusive traffic signal phasing that stops all vehicle traffic for part or all of the pedestrian crossing signal duration. Effective measures to help drivers see pedestrians include brighter roadway lighting...
Higher vehicle speeds are strongly associated with both a greater likelihood of pedestrian crashes and more serious pedestrian injuries. Effective engineering measures to reduce speeds in urban areas include construction of roundabouts in place of stop signs and traffic signals, traffic calming devices such as speed humps, and multiway stop signs. Speed limits should be strictly enforced in areas of pedestrian activity.
To this last point I add (again) my view that cities and counties need to be allowed to set and enforce their own speed limits. Moorepants has other good ideas for traffic calming that force cars to go more slowly.
To hpierce I merely say that reducing and enforcing speeds on certain city streets to 25 MPH would go a long way to reducing the probability of injury in case of accidents (I am not sure who, exactly, is talking about 15 MPH but the Bicycle Advisory and Safety and Parking Advisory Commissions passed a motion several months ago recommending the city work to adopt a city-wide 25 MPH enforceable speed limit).
A quick search of the web will reveal data that shows a general result that traveling at 25 MPH is no more fuel inefficient than traveling at 65 MPH--which we allow on major highways. The efficiency results are subject to many variables and hybrid cars are much more efficient at very low speeds. So... yes, we give up some fuel efficiency for safety just as we seem to be willing to give up fuel efficiency to allow people to get to their destination faster on freeways.
One other point from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Q/A that might be of interest. Again, they are summarizing various studies:
Public education programs generally have not been effective in reducing pedestrian crashes. Children however are an exception...
"Bicycle Advisory and Safety and Parking Advisory Commissions passed a motion several months ago recommending the city work to adopt a city-wide 25 MPH enforceable speed limit)."
That's a terrible idea. If there are bad stretches of roads then that situation needs to be addressed but a city-wide 25 mph speed limit is going way too far over the top.
