Flashing lights mean....what?

A recent Watchdog item in the Star highlights some of the silliness of traffic signs.

Greg Muleski of Kansas City wonders about two sets of push-button flashing yellow lights that Kansas City officials have placed at a crosswalk on Wornall Road at 74th Street.

“The button activates flashing yellow lights that confuse motorists and make it more difficult to cross than without the lights,” Muleski contends. “Drivers don’t know what to do in response to the flashing yellow. What’s the reason for the flashing yellow?”

Greg is absolutely right. All the lights do is either confuse motorists if they are not ignored by motorists altogether, while pedestrians tentatively, and perilously cross the street hoping the motorists know what to do. (in fact, it may actually make things more dangerous for pedestrians). In downtown Mission, the city even posted large signs in the middle of the street, telling motorists to stop if pedestrians are crossing, or face penalty under state law. And yet still I nearly saw a pedestrian struck by a large car there.

Why does this happen? I am currently reading "Traffic" by Tom Vanderbilt, and he discusses the ubiquity of traffic signs flooding our senses.

Try to remember the last time you saw, while driving, a "School Zone" or "Children at Play" sign. Chances are you will not remember, but if you can, now try to recall what you did when you saw it. Did you suddenly slow? Did you scan for children? If you're like most people, you did nothing. You may not have understood what it was asking you to do, which is rather common - in one study, subjects who were shown a sign warning WATCH FOR FALLEN ROCKS, were split equally between those who said they would look for rocks falling at the moment and speed up and those who said they would slow down and look for rocks already on the road. 

Traffic signs have become so numerous they became white background noise, easy for motorists to ignore. And if we do notice them, they are so ambiguous, motorists don't know what to do. Its even more problematic in a town with so few pedestrians like Kansas City - motorists simply aren't accustomed to dealing with them.

So what to do? Vanderbilt cites the late innovate traffic engineer Hans Monderman who advocated removing street signs and simply slowing the street down - not through traffic humps - but through psychological means.

"How foolish are we in always telling people how to behave. When you treat people like idiots, they'll behave like that."

People behave like idiots when we drive because we are conditioned to rely on signs to tell us what to do. Outside of our cars, we don't need signs to tell us what to do. We use our intuition. We pick up on cues. When I walk, and a man approaches me, I subtly notice he shifts his shoulder to his right, so I move to my right to avoid contact with him. At the park, on a trail or an open field, I know I can run without risking running into anyone. But as I approach a crowded playground, or an area occupied by people sitting enjoying a fountain, I know I must slow down and take more care so that I don't slam into an elderly woman or young child.

We should use this same kind of logic in dealing with automobiles. Waldo has an emerging hot spot at 75th and Wornall with eclectic bars, restaurants and shops. There is a sizable residential and office community and it serves as a transit hub. It follows that there will be a good number of pedestrians and planners should begin to look at the intersection as more of a neighborhood that showed be slowed to a pedestrian-level pace, rather than a way to run cars down Wornall as fast as possible.