Can new crosswalk unite a divided neighborhood?
Six lanes now divide Bakersfield’s Westchester neighborhood, but city officials hope a new specialized crosswalk can connect the formerly merged halves.
Installed at what used to be the intersection of 24th and Pine streets, the new “High-Intensity Activated crossWalk,” or HAWK for short, was activated for the first time on Monday, giving neighborhood residents a supposedly easy crossing for the first time since construction began.
The crosswalk is the first of its kind in the city, and allows pedestrians to stop the flow of traffic by pressing a button on the side of the street. Once doing so, newly-installed lights flash yellow, before turning a solid shade of yellow and then red. When the walk signal illuminates, individuals can walk to the median, where they press another button to get across the second half of the street.
In theory, the crosswalk allows the flow of traffic to remain uninterrupted down most of 24th Street unless there are pedestrians waiting to cross.
“It’s a busy street, and it helps pedestrians that need to cross there cross in a more safe and efficient manner,” said Ed Murphy, a civil engineer for the city. “I think it’s a good tool, but it is new and people are still unsure about how it’s supposed to be used.”
Built as a compromise after the elimination of two crosswalks on 24th Street, the City Council approved the HAWK in 2017 following a community petition from residents who were worried they would be cut off from parks and schools if no alternatives could be found. For residents on the north side of 24th Street, the prospect of being cut off from Jastro Park and Franklin Elementary was especially daunting.
But some residents have questioned whether the new design will fulfill the city’s goals, and call the crosswalk unsafe.
“Basically the city is encouraging people to cross a freeway, and in doing so stand in the middle of a freeway with just chain and wood post protecting them, with cars whizzing by at 50 to 60 miles per hour,” said Vanessa Vangel, who was part of a group of neighborhood residents who tried to stop the widening project by suing the city. “This is a neighborhood with families, children on bicycles, people walking their dogs, elderly people on walkers. I cannot see that this design is safe at all. And I foresee the city is probably going to be in for some potential lawsuits.”
Former City Councilman and KNZR host Terry Maxwell brought up safety when describing his own experience trying to use the crosswalk on Wednesday.
“No one stopped until finally somebody realized that I was standing there,” he said. “And I pushed the button and I already had a green walk sign.”
He said “eight or nine” cars went through while the light was red and the walk signal had been lit.
When a Californian reporter tested the signals that afternoon, he saw up to four cars zoom through the red light a few seconds after the crosswalk was supposedly safe to use.
“The real danger is when you’ve got kids that press the button and think getting a walk sign is really going to be OK,” Maxwell said.
Still, the city calls the new crosswalk a “great addition” to its existing signal system. When Murphy was running initial tests on Monday, he said he witnessed vehicles erring on the side of caution.
“It’s a pretty good tool. We’ll see how Bakersfield responds to it,” he said before issuing a general reminder. “It’s the responsibility of both the pedestrians and vehicles at any crosswalk location to both be on the lookout for each other.”
But for some, even the new crosswalk won’t bring back the neighbors they lost when the road was widened.
“This is a neighborhood, and cities don’t run freeways through neighborhoods,” Vangel said. “I used to see people that live on the north side walk on my street. I don’t see that anymore.”