Signaling Older Pedestrians’ Fears

Just as the pedestrian signal turned green, the slightly stooped woman stepped slowly from the curb and began walking across the intersection of 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue.

Bracing her steps with a cane, she made her way to the middle of the intersection by the time the green walk signal dissolved into a foreboding red. She was still walking when red turned again into green, and only made it across to the opposite curb after the signal turned red again.

To a pair of geriatricians who spent three days watching more than 1,000 older pedestrians in the Fairfax district cross the street, it was a dramatic example of a dangerous moment that most drivers take for granted.

In charting the movements of the elderly at the intersection near Farmers Market--a neighborhood with a large population of older residents--the physicians found that 27% of older pedestrians could not make it across the street in the amount of time allotted by the signal.

Many of those ended up short of the curb by a full lane of traffic. When the physicians interviewed members of that group, three-quarters said they felt in danger each time they set out to cross the street.

The doctors published their findings in the Journal of American Geriatrics earlier this year, then took them to the city Department of Transportation, which agreed to reset the lights at the Fairfax intersection to give pedestrians more time to walk.

“We kind of have to do a balancing act to try and make as many people happy--both the cars and the pedestrians,” said Brian Gallagher, a city transportation engineer. “Just giving an extra second makes a big difference in the numbers of people who are able to safely cross the street.” The Fairfax study underscored a problem that is quietly faced by older residents throughout the city who must cross busy intersections.

“The fear that you may get hit can really have a tremendous impact on a person,” said Ann Delorise Smith, director of the city Department of Aging. “A lot of older people probably don’t leave their houses because they’re afraid of traffic and crossing the street.”

Dr. Laurence Z. Rubenstein, who works at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center in North Hills, knew from studies of gait imbalance disorders in older people just how much a lack of mobility can diminish the quality of a person’s life.

“It contributes to falls, which is a major problem with older people,” he said. “It contributes to a lack of independence and a fear of going out. Getting across the street does become an issue.”

Those kinds of complaints by Dr. Russell E. Hoxie’s patients at the Eichenbaum Health Center, part of the Freda Mohr Center on Fairfax Avenue, prompted him to undertake the study with Rubenstein at 3rd and Fairfax.

The numbers showed how real the fear was.

With the signal timing before the study, pedestrians had to be able to cross the street in 17.5 seconds. But for the elderly, the average crossing time was 25 seconds, “and there was a significant number who couldn’t even make it across in 30 seconds,” Rubenstein said.

Drivers were alternatively patient and rude, the physicians observed. Some sat politely, like those who waited through two full cycles of the light for the older woman with a cane to cross the street. Other times impatient drivers began honking. Sometimes the pedestrians shook their canes in the air in anger. On occasion cruder gestures were exchanged.

“I talked with several of the drivers and they told me it was a real problem,” Hoxie said.

To determine how much time pedestrians should be given to cross a street, the city uses a widely adopted standard that assumes a person walks 4 feet per second.

Trouble is, the standard doesn’t always work because the walking speed for older people is 2 1/2 feet or 3 feet per second, Rubenstein said.

The city can increase the crossing time if it determines that many pedestrians in the area need more time.

City transportation engineer Gallagher conducted his own study at nearby Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax and decided to add three seconds to the time allowed pedestrians at the 3rd-and-Fairfax intersection studied by the physicians.

“After talking to these doctors, we have stepped up our efforts in trying to help (older people),” Gallagher said.

Other cities have grappled with the issue; more are expected to follow as the graying of America’s population continues.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., for example, the city uses a walking speed of 3 feet per second to time signals in areas heavily populated by the elderly.

In New York City, officials in 1986 began making numerous changes to increase pedestrian safety on Queens Boulevard. At Queens and 60th Street, the city increased the crossing time as much as 14 seconds during certain times of the day. Oversized speed-limit signs were added, and safety arrows were painted along the boulevard.

“The situation has improved significantly and the end is not in sight,” said Allan J. Fromberg, deputy director for public affairs in New York’s transportation department.

Hoxie and Rubenstein want Los Angeles to review signal timing in communities with concentrations of older people.

For their part, pedestrians of all ages need to understand the rules of the road, Gallagher said. For example, many pedestrians don’t understand that to obtain the maximum crossing time, they must push the button at the crossing signals that have them.