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5.29.11
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[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
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[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
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5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
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[CROSSWALK DEATH WATCH] Today's offender

6.13.06
I'm so sick of nearly getting run over in crosswalks in downtown Great Barrington, Mass., in broad daylight, that I am now going to begin a daily log of these offenses, which all will be reported immediately to the Great Barrington police.

Today, at approximately 8:04 a.m., while crossing in the crosswalk from the former Cheesecake Charlie's building to Rubiner's Cheesemongers, I made it more than halfway across the street when a gray/silver SUV or van, Mass license plate 78JR02, came speeding southward in the 'sidewalk' lane. The poor driver had to slow down in order not to hit me (maybe he was late for work?), and when he had about a one-inch clearance he gunned his vehicle through the crosswalk, nearly sideswiping me in the process.

I immediately reported this to the Great Barrington police, who said they would run the person's plate and see what they could learn.

Stay tuned for further updates in the Seth Rogovoy Crosswalk Death Watch....



Thank you for posting your experiences with the Great Barrington crosswalks. For years I have told my kids just how dangerous it is to be a driver or a pedestrian in Great Barrington. The way I see it is if you can drive from the Big Y in the southern end of town to Price Chopper at the northern end of town without hitting anyone, then you should be granted a license.

The crosswalks of Great Barrington need to be controlled by stop lights or lights over the crosswalks that turn on when a pedestrian is in them. What irks me is when pedestrians appear and don't even look to see if traffic has stopped. What irks me even more are the pedestrians who leap into the crosswalks like the daredevils they are. Families clearly stop and look to see if it is safe. But let me make myself clear, even if a pedestrian is NOT in a crosswalk, I have been trained that ALL pedestrians have the right of way. And I stick to that.

But beyond all that is the difficulty even seeing pedestrians when cars are parked on either side or when cars and trucks block your view of the crosswalks. So how do we solve this problem? I don't have a cure all but it looks like a multi-tiered solution involving crossing guards, lights, new paint on the crosswalks that are so badly faded, lower speed limits perhaps? (would 15 mph help?) and year round signage. It's a nightmare.

Until a few years ago I didn't even know there was a crosswalk down at Guidos. Then when I looked at it I was rather startled to see it is painted at a diagnol making the crosswalk even longer. In the crosswalk there was a carriage with three kids being pushed by a teacher from Care Bears daycare center. This is the same site where a pedestrian was killed last month. Thankfully someone was wise enough to put up a crosswalk sign after-the-fact. But does someone need to die for this? The crosswalk is still not painted and on a sunny day with the trees overhead making light and dark patterns on the road, no one would even know there was a crosswalk there. The traffic is heavy at that section of town and the speed limit is 35 mph. Very often I have to take a right when coming out of the Big Y parking lot to get home in Egremont via Sheffield. It's survival I think. A very dangerous situation that needs to be fixed.

Thank you Seth for your updates. I hope your insights will help increase our awareness of the dangers of walking or driving in Great Barrington.

Deborah


6/16/2006



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