Not all crosswalks are created equal
By Remington Lynch, Landscape Planning Associate
6 min read Dickerson Pike can be, and typically is, a dangerous street to cross. Recently, TDOT announced that a 2-mile stretch of the Pike will be transformed into a Complete Street, so it is important to understand the current conditions of the street. We explore hypothetical street scenarios as a pedestrian and discuss some solutions that will lead to a safer street for all users.
Making a busy “Stroad” safer to cross
A “stroad” is a term that Strong Towns coined to demonstrate high-speed city streets that act more like country roads. They aren’t effective for pedestrian activity, for local economies, or for moving people through a place quickly without conflict; you end up with a much more dangerous experience for all users which is why there is always high crash data on “stroads.” A local stroad, Dickerson Pike, will receive a multi-million dollar Complete Street upgrade for an overhaul of its streetscape over a multi-mile stretch through Trinity Lane to Ewing Drive / Broadmoor Drive.
This process consists of establishing sidewalks, crosswalks, medians, traffic lights, vegetated buffers, bike lanes, reduced car lanes, and more. This endeavor isn’t meant to completely change the character of the neighborhood, but enhance it with features that allow people to explore and interact with the vibrant community that is currently there. In a kickoff project announcement, TDOT referenced the Civic Design Center’s Nashville Youth Design Team in partnership with Walk Bike Nashville for their efforts in advocating for a safer Dickerson Pike. Youth can make a difference now! We are so excited about this process but fear that while change will take 5 years or more, people will continue to die on this stroad. We are proposing a tactical urbanism intervention to test designs and help protect community members who cross Dickerson every day.
The Google Street View above shows existing conditions between Rock Street and Dellway Villa on Dickerson Pike.
To get some context of how it feels to be on the street today, we begin with a hypothetical situation at Rocketship Elementary, located at the intersection of Rock Street and Dellway Villa. By experiencing the road ourselves and watching the activities and movements that activate the crossing we start to get an idea of what Dickerson Pike is like on a daily basis.
It’s morning on Dickerson Pike just before daylight savings, and commuter traffic is moving fast. There’s a slight drizzle, but not enough for an umbrella, so it is darker than normal. There is no traffic guard and the school zone flashing lights have not yet been turned on. All looks seemingly normal from an outsider’s perspective, and yet there is a student trying to use the crosswalk to get to the school for an early morning club.
At the same time, a parent is trying to turn left off Dickerson to drop off their child and a truck with a trailer is attempting to turn right onto Dickerson from the side street the parent is hoping to turn onto. Everyone is looking for an opening to make their move and do it fast. With the five lanes of speeding traffic, lack of sidewalks, no traffic/ped lights, and sloped streets, it’s hard to feel comfortable in this situation for any of the users.
An intersection without stop signs or traffic lights is actually more dangerous than crossing in the middle of the street, but this is how the Rocketship crosswalk is set up. With five lanes to cross and no refuge, the child needs to make sure they have a clear opening before entering the street. However, the parent attempting to turn is eagerly trying to find an opening. They probably do not notice they have pulled into the middle of the crosswalk while trying to assert their turn as fast as they can amidst the two lanes of incoming traffic. Meanwhile, the truck driver is in the safest position but is the biggest vehicle and the widest turning radius in the situation. If everyone moves at the same time, it is the pedestrian that would pay the biggest price.
This is not an unusual hypothetical at this intersection, and this is an issue experienced on many of Nashville’s major pikes and stroads. Behind the school, there is an industrial area where trucks are generally entering and exiting. Of course, most students in the Nashville area are being dropped off by a parent. However, any student that might walk or take transit to and from school has no choice but to brave crossing Dickerson. Even though the speed limit drastically decreases during school drop-off times, after speaking to parents and school administrators, many people also feel concerned for the crossing guard’s safety.
Make it stand out
This diagram shows the complexities of potential pedestrian pathways crossing Dickerson when there is a steady flow of vehicle traffic.
During the Summer of 2022, when the Design Center and WalkBike Nashville performed a People’s Life Study at the intersection, the pedestrian activity looked a lot different but was still treacherous. There was a much larger number of older adults coming to and from Fallbrook Apartments walking or biking to get groceries. Now, imagine if wheelchair users were attempting to cross 5 lanes of traffic without a pedestrian refuge.
Temporary Designs To Inspire Change and Future COmplete Street
With all these moving pieces, from a pedestrian scale to truck driver, we need to make sure each of these components are treated fairly, but in the current situation, this is not the case. Pedestrians are not well addressed in the existing streetscape due to the lack of safety/crosswalk features, while the vehicles have five lanes of traffic. With the Complete Street improvements this area could greatly benefit from enhancements, however, pedestrian safety should not be delayed.
In the interim, we hope to implement a TURBO (Tactical Urbanism) installation to test how the complete street process could go. A big move for the potential TURBO install is relocating the crosswalk closer to Dellway. Placing it there caters to the people that live on Dellway and experience greater foot traffic than Rock Street. Along with the crosswalk, we would add a median/buffer in the turning lane to help protect pedestrians and give them a place of refuge on the 5-lane street.
Potential TURBO Installation Options
To assist all pedestrian access to the sidewalk, we would implement an ADA ramp to access the bus shelter. The crosswalk placement works in conjunction with a new bus stop design proposed by Kimley Horn. At the other end of the crosswalk we would create a designated pedestrian zone to help distinguish the shoulder from the rest of the street that would protect pedestrians from the trucks turning onto Gallatin. Going off of the visions that Metro Planning shared, we also created a more finalized version of what this space could look like by adding in a planted median and Pedestrian Hybrid beacons. Dickerson Pike just received Nashville’s very first Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon in front of Urban Housing Solutions’ newest development, so there is a great precedent for this already.
Potential Longterm Recommendations
All Crosswalks are not made equal
This crosswalk project is important because it is not only creating a safer crossing for people, it is calling out the lack of human-scale amenities along Dickerson Pike. This site happens to have a crosswalk already, but that is not a common occurrence on the Pike, and the functionality of the existing sidewalk is more performative than truly safe. There are little to no sidewalks, ped islands, street trees, crossings and crossing signals along Dickerson Pike. We need to create a space on the Pike that can act as a model for other portions of the street to look to for inspiration. There are so many people and businesses along this corridor that they need to have the ability to access the components that make up their community comfortably.
Tactical urbanism to experiment with street safety solutions before we make changes.
By implementing a temporary tactical urbanism design, we would be able to track the success of a pedestrian island and get a glimpse of how a complete street could look on Dickerson. This can give us an opportunity to test and provide options for the final designs that go into the street design. The process for a TURBO installation on a state road is a challenging one. The only experimental installation that TDOT approved was when the Nashville Youth Design Team asked directly to implement a bulb-out and crosswalk at the deadliest intersection in 2021, located at Dickerson Pike and Hart Lane.
If you support this tactical urbanism installation, please comment on this blog, and share widely!
Studies and Information about Dickerson PikeRecently, Dickerson Pike was evaluated by the Nashville Planning Department, Civic Design Center, NDOT, TDOT, and other traffic safety professionals. Based on the community feedback, site analysis, and budgetary analysis, the following resources were created to keep track of progress and understand the planning efforts that will lead us into the future of Dickerson Pike.
Dickerson South Study - “The Dickerson South Corridor Study is a supplement to and a part of the East Nashville Community Plan of NashvilleNext. It addresses land use, transportation, and community design at the neighborhood scale. Dickerson South is the first of two phases to study Dickerson Pike.” READ MORE
Dickerson North Study - “The Dickerson Study is a small area plan produced by the Metropolitan (Metro) Planning Department. Small area plans illustrate the vision for corridors and neighborhoods within Nashville’s 14 community planning areas.” READ MORE
Public Life Study - Partnering with Walk Bike Nashville, and made possible with a grant from the Tennessee Department of Health, the Civic Design Center conducted a Public Life Study on June 21st to learn more about pedestrian behaviors on Dickerson Pike. READ MORE
WalknBike - “The 2022 WalknBike Plan serves as a blueprint to make Nashville more walkable and bikeable over the next three years. WalknBike 2022 updates the 2017 WalknBike plan, laying the foundation for expedited delivery of projects that are both needed and constructible.” READ MORE