The lack of safety consideration in the ill-thought out change of the original planned train route from Olympic Blvd.to Colorado continues to haunt our city in the death of this man on Sunday who apparently walked in front of a train. My husband and I got into a serious situation with an oncoming westbound train at this same intersection 6 weeks ago. The NW corner of the intersection was blocked off (again!) for construction. There was NO pedestrian access, and no way to cross south except from the NE corner. We stepped off the corner the instant we could ‘walk’ with the light. About 1/3 of the way across the street the light turned red, and an approaching train began honking at us. We can safely cross Colorado within the normal time allotted by the signal, but as elderly and partially disabled walking slowly with a cane we cannot cross in 7 seconds or change course easily! I tried to turn to wave the train to slow, and it kept honking. Now, in a public meeting held years before during construction I asked the person officially designated to speak for the Metro about this very situation. He said “the trains will stop for all the lights.” Clearly, this is not true, as the traffic light changed within seconds of turning green, and I’ve seen this many times. One thing the City can do to improve safety in the unfortunate choice of routes is to enforce the Metro trains stopping at red lights so pedestrians who are making legal crossings are not endangered again.
Sincerely,
Deborah Dinsmore
Santa Monica