by Sara 

Drive safely in Magnolia!

9 Comments

A recent email from a concerned Magnolia mom,

This afternoon my kids and I were walking home on the west side of 34th and had a scary near-miss with a car. We were crossing in the crosswalk at W Raye when my five year old dropped the flower she was carrying and turned around to pick it up. I turned around just in time to see a car turn from southbound on 34th onto W Raye, whizzing through the crosswalk and very narrowly missing my daughter. The car kept going and my neighbor who happened to see it let me know that the driver appeared to be a teenager. He or she didn’t seem to have noticed what had happened.

If you have a teenager, especially one who drives a 90’s era white compact sedan (looked like a Honda or similar) and would have reason to be turning from 34th onto W Ray around 4:00, please have a talk with them about driving safely around crosswalks, schools and kids. I’ve had a talk with my daughter about not stopping in a crosswalk and staying with me, but kids are unpredictable pedestrians and there are good reasons that the law says that cars must wait to enter a crosswalk until it is clear. We are very, very lucky that both our lives weren’t changed today.

A great reminder to?stay alert behind the wheel?and always be on the lookout for little ones!

About the author 

Sara

  1. There is a crosswalk at Galer & Thorndyke where I see near misses all the time. People (not just teens) come speeding up the hill and around the corner from the Magnolia bridge, totally oblivious to the fact that it is a very short distance between the blind curve/hill and that crosswalk. Considering that some folk are going 45 mph (that’s 15 over the speed limit there), they rarely have time to stop if someone is in the crosswalk–which they’d only see at the last minute. It’s worrisome how much people in Magnolia seem to speed without regard for all the pedestrian traffic. :/

    1. That intersection is a death trap for pedestrians as well as anyone turning left from Thorndyke to go east on Galer. Might as well put in a traffic light.

      1. Agreed and agreed. I wonder what it would take to have a light put in there. That left is just insane. :/

      2. The city has no money, so there will be no traffic light. the best you can hope for is a traffic circle or stop sign…but you have to petition for it.

  2. There seems to be a widespread misconception that 34th Ave W is a drag racing strip. It may be a main north-south corridor, but this is still a residential neighborhood.
    Sadly, these near misses happen a lot – particularly during morning and evening “rush”.

    1. I’ve lived on 34th for 23 years, nothing has changed, you just learn to be mindful and careful. People are not going to change their behavior, and there are always others to take their place. If you listen late at night, people literally race after midnight, and skip the stop lights at Emerson and Barrett…I will hear it once or twice a month, if I am up that late…they will do 60, 70, even 80+

  3. Okay but also please educate your older kids (tweens?) to be careful when crossing the street. On the “apartment hill” side of Ruffner, a couple fifth or sixth grade aged kids walked into the street without even checking or looking at all, and then when they noticed us slam on the brakes they went “Oh yeah sorry whatever.” They were without parents and that hill is sketchy anyway, so please please please tell your children to be careful on the street!! Everyone should be really careful, whether pedestrian or driver, old or young. Cars are scary things.

  4. The whole point of this thread is silly, the people reading and posting here are not the problem…

    1. Agreed. Best hope is for people who read this to understand they should avoid those crosswalks. The police speed trap on the bridge twice a year on sunny days nets the city some money and slows people down… but short of that, just realize people speed there and avoid it. The people who read here can do that… they cannot change the behavior of the speeders, unless the city took measures.

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