#02 - Cross Walk Discussion - Laserfiche WebLink

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City of Blaine Crosswalk Policy (Adopted by City Council on November 20, 2014) Background The City of Blaine strives to provide safe and efficient movement of people, goods, and services throughout the city. It shall be the policy of the City of Blaine to provide for safe pedestrian crossings along public streets by installing and maintaining marked crosswalks at all locations where there is substantial conflict between vehicle and pedestrian movements, where significant pedestrian concentrations occur, or where pedestrians would not otherwise recognize the proper place to cross. A marked crosswalk is any crosswalk that is delineated by markings placed on the pavement for the purpose of directing pedestrians to use a particular location to cross the street. General Both pedestrians and motorists in the State of Minnesota have rights and responsibilities when traveling along or across roadways. It is important to recognize that all intersections, by default, are legal crosswalks and thereby drivers are required to yield to pedestrians. Pedestrians are urged to cross with caution in any street crossing, marked or unmarked. Marked crosswalks are viewed as safety devices and pedestrians have the right of way within them. There is strong evidence that these facts prompt many pedestrians to feel overly secure when using a marked crosswalk. As a result pedestrians will often place themselves in a hazardous position by believing that motorists can and will stop in all cases, even when it may be impossible to do so. In contrast, a pedestrian using an unmarked crosswalk generally feels less secure and less certain that motorists will stop and will thereby exercise more caution before crossing. Marked pedestrian crossings at intersections will have the effect of lowering the effective rate of compliance at similarly marked intersections.