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At 6:33 p.m. on Jan. 17, Davor Wagner was struck by two vehicles at the intersection of South Braddock Avenue and Sanders Street, in Regent Square. The man was hit by one vehicle, and the force propelled him into the path of another vehicle, where he became pinned under a tire.
“It was pretty traumatic. I just heard screaming, and not normal screaming, like a blood-curdling scream,” says Christopher Powell, who provided assistance to Wagner when he was pinned under the car. “I ran over and a woman was screaming, ‘The car’s on top of him, the car’s on top of him.’ To see the tire on his back — he was pinned down — was pretty gruesome.”
But this is far from the first pedestrian accident on this busy stretch of South Braddock Avenue. In 2004, 33-year-old Evelyn Wei was killed while crossing at a different intersection, and in 2012, 72-year-old Sue Clapper was seriously injured while crossing at yet a third intersection.
Two weeks after the Jan. 17 accident, Wagner was out of the hospital and recovering at home. (He communicated with City Paper by email but declined to comment for this story.)
“It’s been a problem for many years,” says Paul Heckbert, who lives eight blocks from the intersection. “I’ve heard reports of car crashes and car-pedestrian accidents for years.”
Regent Square includes portions of the city of Pittsburgh and the boroughs of Edgewood, Swissvale and Wilkinsburg; responsibility for the Sanders Street intersection is shared by Edgewood and Swissvale. Various intersections along South Braddock Avenue have been under a microscope in years past, with municipal officials and traffic experts working together to find solutions to make the roadway safer for pedestrians. Now, concerned residents say it’s time to focus on the intersection at South Braddock and Sanders.
A number of residents have called for a crosswalk there, which they believe will force drivers to slow down. It’s situated in a popular area of Regent Square’s business district — right near D’s Six Pax & Dogz — where pedestrian traffic has been increasing.
“There needs to be something to let people know that pedestrians are crossing, and they have the right of way when they’re crossing,” says Powell, whose chiropractor office is located on South Braddock near Sanders.
But a crosswalk might not be the solution many hope. Wei, the pedestrian killed in 2004 while crossing South Braddock Avenue, was in a crosswalk when she was hit.
Officials from Edgewood and Swissvale are looking at several options. They acknowledge something must be done to make the intersection safer; a new traffic study is currently being conducted.
“It’s definitely a high priority. People are becoming more aware of the importance of pedestrian safety. We have more people walking and biking,” says Mark Magliotti, co-director of University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure. “So I really believe Edgewood and Swissvale are doing the right thing to try to improve pedestrian safety, but it does take some time and some funding to implement. But it’s important.”
Safety concerns along South Braddock Avenue have persisted for years. The road leads to Edgewood Towne Centre and connects nearby to the Parkway East, and residents say drivers there tend to travel at high speeds.
“Braddock Avenue itself is a problem. Braddock gets a lot of heavy traffic,” Heckbert says. “It’s a high flow of cars, and fast-moving cars going right through a business district.”
Heckbert is a member of the committee on traffic and safety of the Regent Square Civic Association. He emphasizes that the organization has not endorsed placing a crosswalk at the Sanders Street intersection; rather, he has been advocating for the safety measure on his own. After the story went to press, Ken Kuligowski, President of Regent Square Civic Association, reached out to City Paper to clarify the group’s position. Kuligowski said, “the RSCA endorses the ability for pedestrians to cross safely at the Sanders/Braddock intersection, but defers to the upcoming Traffic Study as the basis to develop an acceptable solution in conjunction with the neighborhood and the Boroughs.“
His petition for the crosswalk has received 1,026 signatures. Many have been sharing stories of nearly being hit at the intersection.
“Hearing all these stories convinced me that there’s a serious issue here,” says Heckbert. “If we can get the cars down to the speed limit of 25 mph, that would help.”
Heckbert blames intergovernmental bureaucracy for the delay in addressing safety concerns.
“If the boroughs wanted to do something inexpensive that they could pay for themselves, they have the authority to put in the crosswalk themselves,” says Heckbert. “But if they use state money or federal money, the boroughs are required to get [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] approval. PennDOT requires a traffic study.”
Right now, the boroughs plan to install signs prohibiting the crossing of South Braddock Avenue at Sanders Street. But Heckbert says that since foot traffic to nearby businesses has increased, many pedestrians might not want to walk an extra block to cross at an intersection with a crosswalk or stop signal.
“That seemed just impractical to us. Even if you put up such a sign, many people would ignore it and cross the street anyway,” says Heckbert. “We need cars to slow down, so when a pedestrian does want to cross, they can do that without fearing for their life.”
For chiropractor Powell, the Jan. 17 car-pedestrian accident solidified the importance of improving safety at the intersection. But he says he has frequently witnessed people driving erratically at the intersection.
“I sit here and see people driving like idiots,” Powell says. “Drivers don’t slow down. They don’t stop to let pedestrians go. There’s a lot of distracted driving going on. I can see out the window and see people on their cellphones, texting while they’re driving.”
In 2014, Edgewood and Swissvale boroughs were part of a road-safety audit that was conducted by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. It looked at South Braddock Avenue in its entirety from the portion in the City of Pittsburgh to the Kenmawr Bridge.
According to Julie Bastianini, borough manager of Edgewood, “that road-safety audit suggested some improvements that could be made to the corridor.” Then in 2015, when the SPC had funding for pedestrian and bicycling improvements, the two boroughs decided to jointly apply for a grant to carry out some of the audit’s recommendations. They were ultimately awarded $479,000.
But other than installing curb cuts compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act at South Braddock and Sanders, the intersection would not see safety improvements from the grant.
“That intersection was looked at as part of the road-safety audit, and it was looked at in previous traffic studies as well,” says Bastianini. “The grant proposal was to update existing crosswalks.”
But thanks to the petition started by Heckbert, borough officials have since solicited a traffic study to look specifically at the feasibility of a crosswalk. The data collection for that study has been completed and is being analyzed by a consultant. A completed report is expected by the end of February.
“Our previous reports have shown us that is not a safe place to cross South Braddock Avenue. There is a safe signal cross one block away at West Hutchinson Avenue, and we encourage everyone to cross at that intersection,” says Bastianini. “However, some time had passed since we’d done a traffic study that looked at that intersection in particular. So council decided it was time to see if anything had changed at that particular intersection. I think they heard the request of the residents.”
While Bastianini admits it’s important to address safety concerns at that intersection, she says she’s not confident a crosswalk is the solution.
“We look to PennDOT standards for crosswalks. We don’t want to encourage people to cross somewhere where there might not be driver visibility to see them at a crosswalk. If we are encouraging you to cross somewhere, we want to make sure it is a safe place to cross,” Bastianini says. “In the past, it’s been about visibility and height distance. There is a hill there, so the concerns have been even if you paint the street, a driver cannot see a pedestrian crossing. We rely on the experts, so that’s why we have hired traffic engineers to look and see are there are ways we can optimize safety at that intersection.”
But Mark Magliotti, of The Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, says a crosswalk there makes sense.
“I don’t see why you wouldn’t put a crosswalk there. It’s an intersection,” Magliotti says. “Pedestrians have to cross and there’s no traffic signal. A crosswalk always provides some additional measure of safety for pedestrians, because it’s there mainly for the visibility of the driver so they know that’s a place where pedestrians are going to cross.”
In addition to a crosswalk, Magliotti says there are other kinds of pedestrian warning devices that can be installed to improve pedestrian safety and alert drivers that pedestrians are crossing.
These include lights that are imbedded in the pavement that flash when drivers come toward the crosswalk. A few have been installed at locations in Sewickley and Mount Lebanon. Mount Lebanon also has flashing lights that are activated by pedestrians before they cross that flash at drivers to alert them someone is about to cross in the crosswalk. But all of these measures are more costly than a crosswalk.
“It all depends on the community, what they can afford or what funding sources they have for something like that,” Magliotti says. “The two communities, Edgewood and Swissvale, would have to share the cost of what something like that would be.”
But increasing safety can also be a simple matter of reminding drivers of the rules of the road.
“Obviously, when you have a traffic signal, that’s probably the safest situation because the traffic has to stop, and they have crossing indications and things like that,” Magliotti says. “But pedestrians always do have the right away whether there’s a traffic signal there or not.”
Editor’s note: This story was changed to clarify the position of the Regent Square Civic Association.
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2017.
It’s Paul Heckbert Week in the local media! Good job!!
Speedbump.
The petition for a crosswalk at Braddock & Sanders is here: https://www.change.org/p/add-a-crosswalk-a… . If you want to help Davor Wagner, the man that was struck and injured while crossing the street, you might consider patronizing his gardening and landscaping business: http://www.thisyardofmine.com/
State of PA does not allow speed bumps. Nobody seems to want to discuss the simplest and cheapest option: a four way stop sign. The identical situation exists at the intersection of Ivy Street and Walnut Street in nearby Shadyside and there is a 4 way stop there with crosswalks. Same layout: the beginning of a dense shopping district with traffic coming up a hill with limited sight lines (on westbound Walnut) through a residential block. Why is a 4 way stop defensible there but not at Sanders and Braddock?
Traffic is not just a problem at the Sanders intersection — anyone who has tried to park their car along those blocks of Braddock in the commercial district knows that it is taking your life into your hands to try to time exiting the vehicle with a steady stream of cars flying up the hill from the parkway exit complex. I was hurrying out of my car a couple of years ago (after having checked what was coming) when a car that must have been going at least 40 flew by and hit the bag I had over my left shoulder, almost ripping it off me. Even trying to parallel park there is dicey since approaching traffic coming up the hill seems often oblivious to your intentions. If the northbound cars had to stop at Sanders you would have a reasonable expectation of a break in time to start backing into a space,
Traffic flies up that hill and I hope the traffic study that is underway collects data on the average speed of vehicles entering the Sanders crosswalk. I lived in Regent Square for 13 years and still drive through there daily and patronize the businesses. I see how motorists approach that block. I also know that even if cars rush through Sanders, at least half the time they are going to have to stop for the light at Hutchinson, the next block, anyway. I seriously doubt a stop sign at Sanders would impact congestion much at all and might even decrease it, since more restrictions on traffic on Braddock might make it a less attractive short cut for people who don’t have patience for the Parkway.
Neither Edgewood nor Swissvale is shy about restricting pass-through traffic severely with stop signs and speed limits in other parts of their respective boroughs. Swissvale has lights and all-diretion stops on other portions of Braddock Ave with far less pedestrian traffic. Edgewood clearly tries to discourage pass through traffic on Maple by an absurd 24 hour 15 MPH speed limit and multiple stop signs (doubt it is a coincidence that it is a street of half million dollar homes).
Braddock Avenue has seen steady increases in traffic in successive decades due to the growth of development — Edgewood Town Center in the 1980’s, Waterfront in the late 1990’s — and the various diversions due to closures of the Squirrel Hill tunnel and the Greenfield Bridge reconstruction. There is now a large sign at Braddock and Penn directing traffic onto Braddock as a major artery.
The only argument I have heard against a stop sign at Sanders is that it would “inconvenience motorists” and create more traffic congestion. The boroughs need to decide if their priority is the convenience of commuters who want to fly through their neighborhood unobstructed, or if it is to protect the lives and property of the residents and business patrons of the district. Bear in mind that that stretch of Braddock from the Parkway to Penn Avenue includes not just a business district and residential zone with sidewalks on both sides, but two schools, a Community Center and a huge playground and sports fields.
nice
Thank you for this story. I was hit by a car while in the crosswalk at S Braddock and Guthrie in Nov 2015. While I sustained serious injuries, I’m grateful It was not worse. I’m still recovering and am anxious every day when my son has to cross the street to go to and from school.
Nutmeg3711: you say you were hit crossing at Guthrie St. Could you email me at ph@cs.cmu.edu please? This is for our Pedestrian Safety committee. We’d like a comprehensive list of injuries along Braddock Ave. thanks.
Another woman was hit on S. Braddock in November 2016, also in a crosswalk. She sustained fairly serious injuries, form what I understand. it was discussed at my daughter’s school.
What happened to the money Edgewood and Swissvale were granted? That was a lot of money and must have been poorly spent. Neither Borough has done 479k worth of improvements. If they did, they gave the work to friends that charged ridiculous amounts of money for the work.
Maybe if there was more of a police presence(or any at all)people wouldn’t drive like such jags!
I live in this neighborhood, and the situation from Forbes down to the freeway is Bad. Crossing Braddock is often taking your life into your own hands. It sucks.
There are laws and there are law enforcers. What the article fails to include in the discussion is that it’s the responsibility of this city’s police to consistently enforce rules such as speed limits so that the sustained emphasis on compliance ensures a continually improving environment, or in this case drivers on Braddock respecting the speed limit, and watching out for pedestrians and ALWAYS giving them the right of way. Without vigilance, driver-related behavior just seems to get worse and more selfish and people get hurt and sometimes die. Enough.
Left to their own devices many drivers, like children, will try to get away with whatever they can. Seems like some need the threat of imposed fines or strikes on their license to act civilly. Perhaps ticket quotas from the new chief of police will encourage officers to do their jobs.
I’m glad this is getting some attention. I’ve nearly been hit a few times walking with a basket of laundry from the Square Laundromat, and I wold hate to die watching my boxers fluttering in the wind.
I drive that street several times a week, both ways, at different hours. I honestly have never seen a car speeding, partly because traffic is usually too dense to go more than a few mph.I have to say that part of the burden lies with pedestrians, too – they cross wherever they feel like it and driver’s don’t have six pairs of eyes! If a crosswalk were installed with maybe an overhead blinking light and pedestrians reminded somehow to use the crosswalk maybe it would help.
It’s just a weird intersection. It’s tight, especially with the parking along Braddock in front of McBrooms and eople definitely speed up as they start down the hill toward Swissvale. I had a guy take out the driver’s door on my truck a couple years ago. He was turning left onto Braddock from Sanders and missed me by inches. I was reaching into the back seat getting my jacket. He said he never saw me and actually thought at first that I threw my door open in front of him. There definitely has to be something that can be done here.