Im glad that you mentioned the dangerous crossing at Eastern Parkway and Washington. I have been meaning to write to the DOT about this intersection forever. The north side of Eastern has no crosswalk signal to cross Washington. And, since there is no traffic signal/signs on the local road where the crosswalk is, cars just dont respect the pedestrian right of way. Also, as you mentioned, many cars speed south on Washington to make the light and make left turns onto Eastern really fast. This intersection really needs to be improved.

M

And will just add this: yesterday, waiting at a light at Eastern Parkway and Washington, I saw an older pedestrian in a crosswalk get slammed into by a car making a fast left-hand turn. Eastern Parkway (for anyone who doesn't know) is a very wide street--four lanes in the middle, with two feeders at the side. The pedestrian probably started crossing with the light but had it change on him--and when he started crossing probably had the reasonable expectation that if the light changed, no one would simply slam into him in such a wide road, where visibility isn't a problem at all. But no, the driver hit him hard enough to lift him up and send him flying maybe fifteen feet.

Slower crosswalk speeds are a necessity. And speed limits need to be lowered for sure. And any violation of that lower speed limit needs to be treated like--I don't know, a crime.

With pedestrians outnumbering cars on most city streets, that safety of the pedestrians should take precedence and the speed limit dropped to a much more pedestrian safe 25mph.