Information About The Crash
At 5:13PM on January 12, 2023, emergency responders were called to Stadium Blvd. near Arbor Farms Market. A pedestrian had been struck. CIAA learned about this crash in a FOIA of police crash reports. CIAA has found no media coverage or social media postings about this crash, so all of the details below are taken from the crash report.
The AAPD Monthly Pedestrian Crash Report, which is attached to the February, 2023 City Administrator’s Report, mentions this crash, but incorrectly describes it as having happened outside of a crosswalk.
According to the description in the police report, two pedestrians were crossing Stadium at the mid-block crosswalk south of Liberty. They pressed the button to activate the RRFB and crossed. The diagram shows that they started from the west side and made it through one south-bound lane of Stadium. When they entered the second south-bound lane, one of the pedestrians was struck by a car. Within the report, witnesses have recorded differing accounts of how quickly the pedestrians entered the crosswalk and whether or not the driver of the car had enough time to stop.
See the Stadium location in Google Maps
Pictures below show the crosswalk, looking from the north and south. There are signs with RRFBs on both sides of the Stadium at this crosswalk, and signage in the pedestrian refuge island.
The diagram and narrative in the police report describe the incident. The pedestrian was struck in the second lane, after having crossed the lane closest to the curb.
Recommendations
Our primary recommendation is that the experts from the City of Ann Arbor examine the scene of this crash and determine how changes to the infrastructure might help to prevent a future crash like this one.
Additional Signage and RRFB beacons
It is worth noting that the crash happened in the middle southbound through lane. Next to the outside southbound through lane, on the sidewalk, there is a large pedestrian crossing sign with an RRFB (rapid rectangular flashing beacon) that lights up when a person presses a button, indicating that they want to cross. Next to the inside southbound through lane, however, the only crosswalk signs are lower, on flexible posts. They do not illuminate when the RRFB is activated. At this crosswalk, pedestrians have to cross two lanes of traffic before they get to the refuge island. Additional signage and RRFB beacons in the pedestrian island would help to make it obvious to drivers in the middle through lanes that someone is trying to cross.
Many crosswalks on streets with 4 through lanes have RRFB signage for the middle through lanes.
- The Plymouth Rd. crosswalks, like this one, have signs and RRFBs that are visible to drivers in the center through lanes, mounted overhead.
- A relatively new crosswalk at Huron and Ingalls has an RRFB in the refuge island.
- W. Stadium Blvd. near Pioneer does not have a refuge island, but it does have overhead RRFB beacons, like Plymouth Rd.
Looking at the designs installed elsewhere in the city, there are RRFB treatments that could be used on Stadium to make the presence of crossing pedestrians more obvious to drivers in all lanes. The city could revise its crosswalk design guidelines so that center RRFBs are used more frequently.
Similar Locations
There are other locations in the city where pedestrians use mid-block crosswalks to cross two lanes of traffic in the same direction, but there is no RRFB above or adjacent to the middle through lanes. These crosswalks should be evaluated for center RRFBs.