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May 15, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette, I want to echo Tom Contos’s concerns about the city’s plans for the intersection at McLaughlin Street and Lime Kiln Road as reported in last week’s article “Lexington OK’s ‘Sound’ Budget.”
I frequently take walks with my 2-year-old daughter in the neighborhood, so I’m glad to see that there are plans to add crosswalks at that intersection and at the one at McLaughlin and Myers, down the street from where we live. However, widening the intersection at Lime Kiln is indeed counterproductive for pedestrian safety.
Crosswalks in residential areas with frequent pedestrian traffic should be accompanied by narrower, not wider, car-turning radii in order to force cars to slow down at the turn and allow pedestrians to stand closer in the driver’s field of view before crossing. The Federal Highway Administration and the National Association of City Transportation Officials both recommend narrower radii as safety measures. This would also allow for better placement of the stop sign on McLaughlin coming from the north to Lime Kiln, potentially avoiding tree removal.
Since many of our city’s streets were laid decades, if not a century before car traffic became prioritized, we have several “built-in” safety features that we can improve upon to the benefit of pedestrian and bike traffic. For example, narrow lanes and building setbacks on streets such as Main, Jefferson and Nelson force drivers to slow down and make right-on-red impractical. This is street design doing every second of the day what a speed limit sign and radar gun cannot practically do.
In reaching out to our city leadership recently, I’ve appreciated their willingness to listen and quickly respond to these concerns. Let’s continue to collaborate in order to make this place safe and accessible to all people, not just one particular form of transport. STEVE LANDGRAF Lexington
