You may recall that I was nearly killed in a crosswalk not too long ago. No, not that time, this was another time when I was nearly killed in a crosswalk.

Before my foot surgery (And again as soon as it's healed enough, which should be soon), I walked to work with the wife every day. We had a few "incidents" at 16th and U, where cars like to turn onto New Hampshire without yielding to pedestrians.

I understand that the traffic pattern is a little confusing, but it's still a problem.

So I emailed my councilmember, the often-helpful Jim Graham, and asked him to do something about it.

I didn't hear much for a while, until yesterday when I got an email from a member of his staff.

I apologize for the delay. I misfiled your email.

I am forwarding this to the pedestrian safety coordinator so that he can evaluate options for increased enforcement here.

Councilmember Graham reported a new law out of his committee that will increase fines to $250 for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians. The bill also requires that signs be posted to warn motorists. This law will come before the Council for final vote on September 16. Obviously, increased enforcement is also necessary as part of this effort. Councilmember Graham has been working to get the Department of Transportation involved in issuing moving violations to improve pedestrian safety.

Finally, in a few years, DDOT plans to redesign this intersection to make it much safer. I’ve attached an image of the proposed changes.

Jonathon Kass
Committee on Public Works and the Environment
Office of Councilmember Jim Graham

So that's pretty awesome. Below is the picture he sent me. I've never used Photobucket before, and it has a very "We built this site for AOLers in 1997 and just slapped a Web 2.0 facelift on it" feel to it, but theoretically if you click the picture you can see a bigger version.

And that's your DC government at work. They may be slow sometimes, but they do listen when you voice your concerns.

The plans look pretty decent to my untrained eye. It looks like they're widening the sidewalk on the northwest corner, which is good. And the goofy traffic pattern on the northeast corner will be gone.

Of course, it will be a few years before this happens. And I imagine that intersection will be a bit of a disaster during construction. But in the end, it'll be safer and better. I hope.

Have you ever walked south on 16th Street on the right hand side across U Street? You have a light there, but then you have to cross New Hampshire with a crosswalk and no light.

View Larger Map

The wife and I do it just about every day on the way to work. It's not a problem to cross U Street, but crossing New Hampshire is a little dicey. Almost every day, someone assumes that, because they aren't turning at a 90 degree angle, they don't have to yield to pedestrians. Twice in the last month or so, we've had a car actually slow down or pull over to yell at us for getting in the way.

This is all while walking in a crosswalk, by the way. The wife, being more confrontational than I, has exchanged words with some of these drivers.

I emailed Jim Graham yesterday, and he has tasked a staff member with looking into it. I want them to put up a sign reminding people that they have to yield. I know it's a funny intersection, but it's an area with a lot of foot traffic, and it's dangerous. It doesn't help that many pedestrians will yield their right of way to cars.

I understand the reasoning there - if you get hit by a car, your broken bones and whatnot don't really care about the stand you were making for pedestrian's rights. However, when you give up your right of way, you are also taking mine, because now the drivers think they're right.

So stand up for your right of way. And if you've ever had this trouble at this intersection, or any other, write to your councilmember. I don't actually know who's in charge of that area - Ward 1 and Jim Graham's turf ends just north of there at Florida Avenue. But your councilmember would no doubt be aware of who needs to be notified.

I'll keep you posted on what he intends to do about it.