Driving You Crazy: Is it mandatory drivers stop or is it just a courtesy when crossing the street?

ARVADA, Colo — Chuck from Arvada writes, “What's driving you crazy? On 72nd just west of Simms St, there is a painted white crosswalk with a triangular sign pointing at the crosswalk depicting a pedestrian and cyclist. As a pedestrian or cyclist waiting to cross fewer than 5% of cars will stop to allow you to cross. Is it mandatory to stop or just a courtesy?Also, if a car stops heading one direction the cars heading the opposite direction may or may not stop. Is it mandatory that they stop?”

Colorado law is clear about this issue. Colorado Revised Statute 42-4-802 states, “The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk.”

That said, this pedestrian crossing that has painted lines on the street and a yellow pedestrian crossing sign for each direction of travel feels a little out of place for a driver. There isn’t a traffic signal here to draw the driver’s attention. Only the westbound yield to pedestrian sign has yellow blinking lights. Neither sign has a rapid flashing beacon people can activate to alert drivers they will be crossing. And it isn’t a highly used crossing with many walkers opting to stay on the nearby Leyden Creek Trail. Regardless, when drivers see a person trying to cross here, they are obligated to stop.

What I noticed first when I went to use the crossing is that drivers were going quite fast. While I did not have a speed gun, I’m a pretty good judge of speed and I sensed that many drivers were going well over the 40mph speed limit.

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In my 30 minutes here, only 2 drivers stopped for me as I was waiting to cross. And when I started crossing, I still didn’t feel safe. I felt I had to have my head on a swivel, constantly looking at traffic coming from the other direction to see if that driver coming the other way was paying attention and stopping. I Actually felt the safest hanging back from the street a bit and crossing when both sides of the roadway were clear.

I talked to the City of Arvada about this crossing and if there are ways the city could make it safer like installing a set of rapid flashing yellow lights like other communities have at similar crossings. I was told that for a mid-block crossing like this one, any infrastructure improvements like a push to cross, rapid flashing beacon would first require a traffic engineering review. After completed, the traffic team would then need to assess the average daily traffic volume and calculate the distance to other signals or crossing locations to determine if any improvements are warranted.

The City tells me depending on the outcomes of that analysis, there may be a recommended improvement ranging from a rapid flashing beacon to a full traffic signal. Because the volume of traffic from the neighborhoods to the north and south as well as the full signals nearby at Simms St to the east and Ward Rd to the west, a full traffic signal wouldn’t be warranted here. The city says if they believe a rapid flashing beacon should be installed, they typically cost around $30,000 with installation dependent on identifying funding and on material purchasing timelines which can be up to a year or more.

The city never indicated that they would start this assessment process only saying, “We always recommend that our community members interested in these improvements place a request through Ask Arvada so the team can log, track, and follow up on these requests.”

So don’t expect any improvement to the signage in the short term. But as I said before, I felt most comfortable when both sides were clear and crossed then. I know it would be a bit of a detour, but you could walk about 5 minutes east to the intersection at Simms St where there is a signalized intersection and a new signalized crosswalk. That would be much safer, especially if you need a little more time to cross the street.

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.