Elevated Pedestrian Walking Bridges

[Guest 5th & Main Urbanite]

Vanderbilt had the right idea for elevated walking bridges spanning 21st Avenue. I would love to see several of these over West End, Lower Broadway, Church Street, and Elliston Place.

 

There is a beautiful one in Knoxville spanning Cumberland Avenue with an amazing view of the downtown skyline.

 

I think Nashville needs to invest in these bridges.

 

Opinions? Discussion?

 

[Will]

They could be a workaround for center-lane BRT station placement so that passengers don't have to navigate traffic on West End after de-boarding.

[nashvillwill]

I have mixed feelings about these. Sometimes they work, like Vanderbilt's 21st overpass. In that case, it makes sense because it provides pedestrian access to the hospital from campus without significant elevation changes.

In other cases, like I would imagine on lower broad or west end, it forces people to climb up and back down. Certainly inconvenient. It also adds to the perception that "pedestrians are obstacles" mentality of the automobile. I don't think having bridges just for the sake of reducing traffic impedements, is the right way to go. IMO, pedestrians should be the very first consideration of traffic engineers.

Lets not forget that in order to meet ADA standards, all bridges that have elevation changes must have ramps or elevators.

I think they work in certain situations, but I certainly don't want them as the default pedestrian street crossing.

[BnaBreaker]

I agree with Nashvillewill, for the most part.  Pedestrian bridges over streets certainly have their place and are useful in some respects, but it seems to me that if they become too prevalent they'll affect pedestrian street traffic in a negative way.  In my opinion, we should be altering the streets to make them more pedestrian friendly, not altering the pedestrians to make them more street friendly. 

[UTgrad09]

I think the bridges only work where there is a ton of pedestrian traffic and a ton of car traffic (like Vanderbilt). I could possibly see something like that bridging West End Ave to Centennial Park, but not a whole lot of other places.

 

Rather than bridges, I would like to see raised crosswalks on Lower Broad (turn them into something like "speed humps" where the crosswalk is equal to the sidewalk's elevation). That's not a speedy area, but it would keep the traffic going a little slower, as we have some pedestrians (tourists) that often cross the street when there is no signal.

[nashvillwill]

Rather than bridges, I would like to see raised crosswalks on Lower Broad (turn them into something like "speed humps" where the crosswalk is equal to the sidewalk's elevation). That's not a speedy area, but it would keep the traffic going a little slower, as we have some pedestrians (tourists) that often cross the street when there is no signal.

I like that idea. Lets face it, lower Broad is a low speed area. I would highly support any traffic calming measures we could implement there. However, we do have many delivery and tour bus vehicles in that area, so I can see those humps as problematic. If I had a trailer with $1mil worth of sound equipment in the back, I don't think I would like those very much.

Another design I've seen is flashing yellow led's embedded in the road (built inside of those reflective humps) that let motorists know when the crosswalk is active. They are usually only triggered by a pedestrian actually hitting the crosswalk button (instead of every light cycle), so that they don't become arbitrary. But I typically only see those at mid-block crossings, not at intersections. At intersections I think it is assumed that there COULD be active pedestrians. Unfortunately, not all drivers make that assumption.

[Will]

I think the bridges only work where there is a ton of pedestrian traffic and a ton of car traffic (like Vanderbilt). I could possibly see something like that bridging West End Ave to Centennial Park, but not a whole lot of other places.

 

Rather than bridges, I would like to see raised crosswalks on Lower Broad (turn them into something like "speed humps" where the crosswalk is equal to the sidewalk's elevation). That's not a speedy area, but it would keep the traffic going a little slower, as we have some pedestrians (tourists) that often cross the street when there is no signal.

Agreed - good idea on the "speed hump" crossing. This kind of feature could help prevent the kind of accidents like the one on Demonbreun St. a year or so ago where a drunk driver struck and killed two men crossing the street early in the morning.