Calabasas has a ‘Smart Crosswalk’




JAMES FARRALLY/Acorn Newspapers  SMART CROSSWALK-A special crosswalk on Mulholland Highway at Eddingham Avenue in Calabasas provides extra protection for pedestrians with activated warning lights that flash to alert motorists when someone is crossing the street. Drivers will be seeing more of the safety devices.

JAMES FARRALLY/Acorn Newspapers SMART CROSSWALK-A special crosswalk on Mulholland Highway at Eddingham Avenue in Calabasas provides extra protection for pedestrians with activated warning lights that flash to alert motorists when someone is crossing the street. Drivers will be seeing more of the safety devices.


By Michael Picarella
pic@theacorn.com

The Smart Crosswalk, the latest in technology geared toward pedestrian safety, is becoming more and more visible in California. The crosswalk system uses a series of signal heads with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are embedded in the road at the crosswalk. The LEDs flash for approaching motorists as pedestrians go through the crosswalk.


Last February, the city of Calabasas installed its first Smart Crosswalk. Pedestrians who cross Mulholland Highway at Eddingham Avenue now have extra protection, according to Calabasas Transportation/Intergovernmental Relations Director Robert Yalda.


Cities with Smart Crosswalks are seeing that the new technology works, according to Yalda.


"Studies show that your driving pattern changes when you see something flashing ahead of you," Yalda said. "You automatically think twice about what’s going on, and then you see people crossing, and you know you need to slow down."


The Smart Crosswalk on Mulholland and Eddingham requires that pedestrians push a typical crosswalk button on a pole at the sidewalk before lights activate. Sensor posts on either side of the street will then read when someone steps into the crosswalk, and the lights will flash for about 35 seconds. If someone presses the button but doesn’t cross, the sensor posts will also read that and the lights won’t flash.


"Some cities are using only sensors to detect (pedestrians) in the crosswalk," Yalda said. "But what I’ve learned is that a lot of false sensors go off because of a dog walking by or something like that. What happens? The drivers see the crosswalk flashing and nobody is crossing and they get a false sense of (warning)."


Yalda hopes to make the installation of Smart Crosswalks a citywide effort. He has two more crosswalks in the works now. The city’s traffic and transportation department plans to install one Smart Crosswalk at the Parkway Calabasas/Camino Portal intersection and another at a location on Old Topanga Canyon Road behind Calabasas High School. Both crosswalks are still in the early planning stages, Yalda said.


"Since (the first Smart Crosswalk) was installed, we haven’t received any more reports of ‘close calls,’" Yalda said. "After the first week with the crosswalk, (area motorists) noticed the benefit, and I received—and I’m not exaggerating—over 20 letters thanking me."


Caltrans, the city of Los Angeles and others are installing Smart Crosswalk systems in key areas.


The design of the Smart Crosswalk system has been getting much praise, and the invention has been recognized up and down the West Coast. It’s received the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission Award of Merit, the Washington State Community Excellence Award, the California Helen Putman Award of Excellence.


Lightguard Systems, Inc., which manufactures Smart Crosswalks, said that the financial savings from fewer lawsuits and lower medical expenses related to pedestrian injury, decreased liability and lower insurance premiums will more than offset the expense of installing the system at many crosswalks. Thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries annually, they said, would likely be prevented nationwide by the full implementation of this type of warning system.


Company officials said that saving lives and preventing injuries would be the ultimate measure of the success of the Smart Crosswalk.


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