A pedestrian was struck and killed by a motorist in Downtown Louisville early Sunday morning, July 17. The collision took place at 3:30a.m. around Seventh Street and Broadway. The pedestrian died at University Hospital.
The only report of the fatality we could find is from WHAS11. And it’s not a very good one, quickly calling the crash an accident and reporting nonessential information that serves to blame the victim without any real details.
There aren’t a lot of details here other than we already know Broadway is a dangerous street for anyone using it. The city has proposed remaking the corridor with dedicated bus lanes and a complete streets treatment as part of the Move Louisville plan, but that’s years away if it happens at all. Louisville needs a mechanism for making rapid tactical safety improvements to its streets that can begin saving lives right away.
Louisville is currently in the midst of a three-year pedestrian safety campaign called Look Alive Louisville. The federally funded program is in response to the city’s above average pedestrian fatality and collision rate. Broken Sidewalk tracks pedestrian and cyclist collisions and fatalities under the hashtag Carnage.
Part of the “solution” to the carnage is the 4 sec delay of lights in the city center. Motorists have quickly learned this and run lights before they turn green. Traversing motorists know they ‘have’ an extra four seconds, so they run lights that have just turned red. Will you start counting t-bone wrecks as carnage.
And all the while pedestrians still jay walk, cross against lights and cross streets while NOT paying attention!!
Traffic engineers need to learn human nature not traffic theory before making changes.
Broadway just looks archaic for a downtown that is ostensibly supposed to be friendly to all the people they want to get to live there. A redesign cannot come soon enough!
I agree w/ diblasi. Traffic Engineers and urban planners could do so much more to promote pedestrian safety. For example, since Broadway is so wide, Metro could install sections of fencing along the sidewalks mid block to divert foot traffic to safe cross points (i.e designated crosswalks). Metro could also break up some of the sections mid-block to install landscaping or grass medians, which would also direct pedestrian traffic to safer cross points.