100 signatures reached
To: Charlottesville City Council
Petition to Add Crosswalk at Elliot Ave and 2nd St IX Access
Help make Charlottesville Streets safer!
We need a crosswalk at the Elliot Ave and 2nd St access to the IX complex NOW. This is a highly trafficked legal crossing with no markers to protect civilians from oncoming traffic. Elliot Ave is wide and straight with a steep hill that encourages people to accelerate — and they do!
Every year we have fatalities from speeding (both pedestrians and drivers) between 5th St and 6th down Elliot Ave. The 2nd St access to IX lies at the bottom of the hill. We have witnessed cars in this 25mph zone drive 40-50mph, letting gravity increase their speed as they prepare to go up another hill.
The least we can do is offer a marked crosswalk to protect the many pedestrians already legally crossing at 2nd St.
There are crosswalks at 1st and 6th, both of which are circuitous routes into IX — both missing sidewalks and requiring people to walk in the road, through parking lots or in margins. So why is there no crosswalk at the actual entrance to IX on 2nd St?
We have contacted the city about this issue and were quickly dismissed by the city’s acting traffic engineer. He suggested pedestrians walk a long loop out of their way and up the hill to Sixth Street or to 1st Street. This is his stock answer to requests for a marked crosswalk.
People DO NOT take inconvenient routes when there are already direct routes available just to use a marked crosswalk! The city’s traffic engineer’s suggestion is a great example of how Charlottesville city managers don’t understand how people actually use their streets.
The city’s traffic engineer has also used the ADA as an excuse for not installing a marked crosswalk at 2nd Street and Elliot Avenue. He claims that a marked crosswalk cannot be installed because there are no curb ramps there.
Fun fact: Curb ramps are missing there because of a violation of federal law by the city of Charlottesville!
The city has neglected to obey Federal law and install curb ramps at that intersection when the street was repaved.
The recent survey of the city has found 551 similar locations where curb ramps should have been installed when streets were repaved, but the city ignored the federal law.
For the city to claim that they cannot install a marked crosswalk, because they ignored federal law and didn’t install mandated curb ramps is some sad, convoluted, reasoning. By definition ia “marked crosswalk“ includes ADA mandated, curb ramps.
Please sign our petition and help us make a change that could save lives.
For more information, questions or copies of the petition please email me at [email protected]
We need a crosswalk at the Elliot Ave and 2nd St access to the IX complex NOW. This is a highly trafficked legal crossing with no markers to protect civilians from oncoming traffic. Elliot Ave is wide and straight with a steep hill that encourages people to accelerate — and they do!
Every year we have fatalities from speeding (both pedestrians and drivers) between 5th St and 6th down Elliot Ave. The 2nd St access to IX lies at the bottom of the hill. We have witnessed cars in this 25mph zone drive 40-50mph, letting gravity increase their speed as they prepare to go up another hill.
The least we can do is offer a marked crosswalk to protect the many pedestrians already legally crossing at 2nd St.
There are crosswalks at 1st and 6th, both of which are circuitous routes into IX — both missing sidewalks and requiring people to walk in the road, through parking lots or in margins. So why is there no crosswalk at the actual entrance to IX on 2nd St?
We have contacted the city about this issue and were quickly dismissed by the city’s acting traffic engineer. He suggested pedestrians walk a long loop out of their way and up the hill to Sixth Street or to 1st Street. This is his stock answer to requests for a marked crosswalk.
People DO NOT take inconvenient routes when there are already direct routes available just to use a marked crosswalk! The city’s traffic engineer’s suggestion is a great example of how Charlottesville city managers don’t understand how people actually use their streets.
The city’s traffic engineer has also used the ADA as an excuse for not installing a marked crosswalk at 2nd Street and Elliot Avenue. He claims that a marked crosswalk cannot be installed because there are no curb ramps there.
Fun fact: Curb ramps are missing there because of a violation of federal law by the city of Charlottesville!
The city has neglected to obey Federal law and install curb ramps at that intersection when the street was repaved.
The recent survey of the city has found 551 similar locations where curb ramps should have been installed when streets were repaved, but the city ignored the federal law.
For the city to claim that they cannot install a marked crosswalk, because they ignored federal law and didn’t install mandated curb ramps is some sad, convoluted, reasoning. By definition ia “marked crosswalk“ includes ADA mandated, curb ramps.
Please sign our petition and help us make a change that could save lives.
For more information, questions or copies of the petition please email me at [email protected]
Why is this important?
Pedestrian safety initiatives save lives!
Signing our petition will show the Mayor of Charlottesville that this is a real issue (albeit a small one in a sea of other issues). Even so, this one small step to improve our city will ultimately impact thousands of lives.
Hopefully this change will also push the city to make federally mandated changes to accessibility of our streets and sidewalks as required by the ADA.
Signing our petition will show the Mayor of Charlottesville that this is a real issue (albeit a small one in a sea of other issues). Even so, this one small step to improve our city will ultimately impact thousands of lives.
Hopefully this change will also push the city to make federally mandated changes to accessibility of our streets and sidewalks as required by the ADA.
How it will be delivered
This is an online and physical (paper) petition that we will deliver to city council at a meeting in early December.