At the first sign of pedestrians

[Retrorockit]

There is a traffic light where I have to cross a 4 lane divided road with 45mph speed limit. There is a canal along one side of the road, and a sidewalk separated from the road by a median on the other.
Due to the walled community there the sidewalk is empty and uninterrupted and so I ride there. At some times of day the pedestrian crosswalk there is manned by a crossing guard, and elementary school children are waiting to cross the road. I cross onto a 30mph side street with no bike lane. It's the only non 45mph road that goes east/west from where I live.
A couple weeks ago the pedestrian crossing sign was knocked down. Judging by the 2 foot wide section of the pole pushed down into the grass, it was probably one of our many dually pickup trucks that instead of stopping left the road and took out the sign. The sign was down Monday. Friday there was a new sign. The new sign had a breakaway fitting in the post so they wouldn't have to dig a new hole every time the sign got plowed under. That would be the 2nd sign of pedestrians.
On the next Monday there were 75 feet of skid marks in the grass, just missing the new sign by inches, but breaking off the crossing control post itself and hurling it 50 feeet down the sidewalk, and uprooting the concrete base of the pole. The skidmarks continued another 25 feet and returned back onto the road just past the intersection. So the driver instead of stopping, left the road, crossed the grass easement and the sidewalk, took out the crosswalk pole, and then crossed back over the sidewalk, and median and into the road again. Fortunately the children are gone before rush hour really heats up there. Moron this to come.

[Retrorockit]

In the small towns of central Florida they paint the sign posts with tar about 3' up the pole. Then when the signs get mowed down they look for the truck with tar on the front bumper.

[Retrorockit]

At the 2nd sign of pedestrians. They missed the new breakaway sign but took out the crosswalk control. Zoom in to see it down the sidewalk

[Retrorockit]

The last time I crossed here the road was blocked off by police cars due to a 3 car pileup at the light. A Honda plowed into a stopped delivery van pushing it into an SUV stopped in front. The driver of the Honda was dead on the scene. With no attempt to stop they weren't sure if he died from the accident or was just driving around dead already. So maybe there are zombies to contend with now.

[Retrorockit]

I learned a new word today. Vaccident...........................

[73Eldo]

You can tell a lot of thought went into the design there. Notice how they placed the control box for the lights so that the lawn mowing people would not have to go around it, don't worry about blocking half the what I'm sure is a billion dollar sidewalk.

[Retrorockit]

Don't worry, like everything else there it's temporary. You can see from the chunk in the concrete base somebody already took a shot at it. At least they put in a sidewalk instead of a painted bike lane.
It's as far back from the road as they could get without being on private property. If they were smart they would have hidden it behind the utility pole. Maybe the next one?

[Retrorockit]

No photo this time. Because there is nothing left to see.
The nitwits have taken out the pedestrian crossing control on the other side of the crosswalk. I don't think this one actually does anything as far as the traffic light goes. Some of them activate the pedestrian crossing indicator, some of them it just works all the time anyway.
The most impressive thing about this is the damage to the guardrail between the sidewalk and the canal. The place where it's damaged is 2 feet away from a concrete light pole that has no damage!
Smashed guardrail, 2 foot sidewalk, and undamaged concrete pole. The crosswalk control was right next to the guardrail. But the guardrail isn't damaged there.
So if you think you're safe on the sidewalk, hiding between a light pole on one side, and a steel guardail on the other. Guess again. Not around here anyway.

[Retrorockit]

Maybe I'll ride down there when the crossing guard is there and see if she knows what happened.

[Retrorockit]

Now that it's been repaired this was actually a Traffic Trifecta. They got the crosswalk control. and the crosswalk sign both at the same time, after vaulting off of the guardrail..So now we have all new signage and crosswalk controls at the school crossing.

[TNC]

In the small towns of central Florida they paint the sign posts with tar about 3' up the pole. Then when the signs get mowed down they look for the truck with tar on the front bumper.

LOL!...kind of like the dye pack in a money bundle at banks for bank robberies. I tell ya...I pretty much won't even ride a bicycle in urban areas anymore, and when I rarely ride one of my bikes out in the sticks when the trails are wet, I make sure to stay off any heavily traveled areas. It's just not worth it. I wouldn't commute in a city on a bicycle under any circumstance unless it was totally off street or in some extremely low traffic location. Many, many drivers are stupid and have no situational awareness. I ride a motorcycle also, and it's just as bad...nearly. I think the bicycle is more dangerous merely because of the overtaking situation you're constantly in pedaling beside traffic. And that's not a slam on bicycle commuters...just a fact as far as drivers are concerned.

[Retrorockit]

Central FL is the only place I ever actually witnessed a dye pack going off. Lake Panasoffkee (No stop sign or traffic light on the main road).
I saw a couple teens walking across a field next to a shopping center looking down into a paper bag they were carrying. I thought maybe they has caught a snake. But then the red dye started billowing out of the bag. One kid pulled a gun and started to head back towards the bank, but the other guy thought better of it, and they jumped into a passing Toyota and went down the road with their heads out the window because the car was full of smoke.
It didn't go POOF like they do on TV. This thing was like a smoke bomb.

[Retrorockit]

I just cross busy streets to get to places like this.
https://electricbike.com/forum/forum...-share-my-road
Of course the thread "Let Them Eat Airbags" describes trying to get there.

[Retrorockit]

I spoke to the crossing guard there. It seems I missed one. It's a tee intersection and someone went straight through the hedge and metal fence and into the lake beyond. I had seen the hole but thought it was just the landscapers making some changes. The crossing guard parks her car as far away form the road as she can get, leaving room for people to drive on the sidewalk, and out of line of the intersecting street. She didn't know about the dead guy driving around.