Diana Nelson Jones describes how residents of "one of the most spirited do-it-yourself neighborhoods in the city" took it upon themselves to improve pedestrian safety.
At a particularly dangerous intersection in Polish Hill, anonymous residents who were apparently fed up with unheeded requests to the city to paint crosswalks have taken matters into their own hands. According to Jones, "four newly painted crosswalks, each of slightly different width,
recently appeared at the intersection of Melwood Avenue and Finland
Street."
"Originally reported on the Polish Hill Civic Association's Blogski,
this do-it-yourself solution to a traffic problem is illegal, but some
residents are delighted that if the city wouldn't help slow down
vehicles, someone did. The civic association reports that intersection
is 'one of the problem spots ... where residents have been suffering the
impact of speeding and careless drivers for years.'"
"The civic
association has formally requested that the city paint crosswalks at
that intersection and reports on its blog -- blogski.phcapgh.org -- that
while it 'didn't initiate this action and doesn't know who did, we
share the concern that motivated it.'"
Read the full story: Walkabout: Crosswalks created by the underground around Polish Hill
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