FREAKIN' BEACONS
LOREN BENOIT/Press A pedestrian uses the new crossing between Kootenai Urgent Care and Kootenai Health on Ironwood Drive on Tuesday. The flashing beacons were installed this week.
New pedestrian crosswalk beacons were installed earlier this week to help improve foot traffic between Kootenai Urgent Care and Kootenai Health. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Bosley
COEUR d’ALENE — In an effort to make a street crossing safe at Kootenai Health, flashing beacons were installed this week, allowing pedestrians to scurry to the other side of Ironwood Drive without incident.
The yellow blinking lights communicate an urgency for motorists heading east and west on the busy street to stop.
A problem was discovered, however.
It’s called a complete breakdown of communication.
“Typically we should expect an 80 percent yield rate,” said Chris Bosley, Coeur d’Alene’s city engineer. “Nobody is yielding to those out there.”
The yellow, flashing crosswalk lights, called rectangular rapid flashing beacons in construction parlance, or RRFBs by people enamored with acronyms, work on a button system:
Pedestrians approach the crosswalk, hit a button on the post with the attached beacon, and the lights flash, signaling motorists to stop because people need to cross the street.
On Ironwood Drive, though, the stop rate is sketchy.
Bosley went out and tried it himself.
“I got about a 50 percent stop rate,” he said.
Despite what appears to be a high rate of noncompliance, the city has another 15 locations where the beacons are scheduled to be set.
The $7,000 beacons — paid for mostly by highway grants, or similar funding — work well in other places in Coeur d’Alene. Despite being a relatively new item on the market, cities across the U.S. use them to help people get from point A to B without getting squished.
The beacons are approved for safety by the Federal Highway Administration and have been tested and shown to grab the attention of drivers.
The beacons caught the attention of local Rotary Club members who bought one for a school crossing at Bryan Elementary School on Harrison Avenue.
“They love it,” Bosley said. “The Rotary was so pleased, they are looking at funding one for another location.”
So, Fernan STEM Academy may get a beacon of its own.
The beacons aren’t like normal crossing lights. Once a pedestrian hits the button, there is no red light that stops traffic. Instead, the lights flash, telling motorists to pay attention and stop at the crosswalk, allowing pedestrians to cross.
“Once you get the flashing light, you wait for the traffic to stop before proceeding,” Bosley said.
A small hiccup in the national distribution of the beacons, however, has required cities to either not erect the beacons they have or take down beacons already installed. It has to do with a lawsuit over the patent of the item.
The lawsuit doesn’t affect Coeur d’Alene’s rectangular rapid flashing beacons.
Bosley just wants cars on Ironwood Drive to notice them and stop for pedestrians.
That’s kind of the point.
He doesn’t know if people driving on Ironwood are just in more of a hurry, more apt to daydream and not pay attention, or if they just want to blow the light.
“It’s a tough spot,” Bosley said. “Motorists just have to notice the pedestrians and be courteous of them.”