To cross the busy street, summon the little white man in the crosswalk sign by pushing the button … um, wait, which button?
My colleague Sue Misao wrote in on this one, inspired by an intersection near our workplace at Colby Avenue and 41st Street in Everett: “How about a ‘pedsmarts’ about all the walk (and) don’t walk buttons that are blank? For people with directional issues. Disclosure: me.”
We alerted the city’s public works crews, and a fix was made right away.
“Interesting note about those crosswalk signs or legends,” said spokeswoman Kathleen Baxter. “The old ones were not made to withstand the cleaning products needed to remove graffiti, so once the graffiti is removed, often the legend goes with it. We can recover with new graffiti-resistant legend stickers, and that is what we (did) in this case.”
Graffiti clean-up isn’t the only reason the crosswalk push-button signs wear out, though.
The older style in use at our nearby intersection is simply susceptible to “legend failure,” traffic engineer Tim Miller said. “Overtime, all of this design will be replaced with ADA-compliant push buttons.”
“Until that is accomplished, we are committed to replacing the legends with vandal-resistant stickers,” Miller said.
“We encourage the public to let us know whenever they see damaged signs so we can replace them in a timely fashion,” he added.
For Everett, there is an online service request form (everettwa.gov/PWServiceRequest), or you can call a 24-hour dispatch number at 425-257-8821.
Have a question or topic for Street Smarts? Email streetsmarts@heraldnet.com.
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