For some, pedestrian-crosswalk improvements on Highway 95 can’t come soon enough (Minnesota)

The Twin Cities Pioneer Press ^ | December 17, 2019 | Mary Divine

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Car after car sped past Bayport resident Heidi Olivier on Friday afternoon as she tried to cross Minnesota 95, the city’s busy main street.

With 2-year-old son Otto in tow, Olivier first checked traffic in both directions. Then she left Otto in his stroller on the sidewalk and stepped off the curb at Second Avenue with her arms out. After verifying that drivers in both directions had seen her and stopped, she headed back to the sidewalk to collect Otto.

“Only one car didn’t stop,” she said, after she made it to the west side of the highway just outside Andersen Elementary School. “That’s very unusual. This is a good day for us.”

The trip to collect daughter Violet, 7, from school can be “terrifying” some days, she said.

News that a 65-year-old Bloomington man was injured earlier this month while walking across the highway to get to his job at Andersen Corp. was especially upsetting to Olivier, who started an online petition and lobbied state and city officials to address pedestrian-safety issues on Minnesota 95.

Thomas Gasser, 65, was walking east on Fifth Avenue in a designated crosswalk around 6:45 a.m. Dec. 4 when he was struck by a 2013 Toyota Corolla driven by Tar Malar Baw, 26, of Maplewood, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Gasser was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul and remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition.

Gasser’s accident happened nearly 20 years after a Bayport mother and two daughters were struck by a van and critically injured in a crosswalk accident while crossing Minnesota 95 outside Andersen Elementary.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I checked the street in the vicinity of the school on Google Maps. It is one wide lane in each direction (room for parking) with a center turn lane.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING.

[Lion Den Dan]

So what is this with a woman wandering out on the street flagging traffic then going to get her kid from the side walk. She needs to get a life and just cross the road between cars. Concerning the old fellow who was struck by a negligent driver, that “accident” needs scrutiny for muslim anti American activity.

[Truthoverpower]

Word of advice to drivers walkers and bicyclists

Never ever ever trust any car and always assume everybody in a car is in a giant hurry and will easily run you over because they’re in such a giant hurry

When I’m driving and I drive a lot I call them “ Mr. and Mrs. in a hurry”

And you know what? I said go right ahead ! you get there first

I’ve probably driven several million miles and have narrowly avoided either death or serious bodily injury to me and whoever was in my car hundreds of times through this defensive driving

I’ve also nearly avoided running over furry creatures Street crossers and you name it by the same careful slow driving technique

Some 30-year-old driving with his mother in the passenger seat the other night in my quiet community here ran over a woman walking her dog and killed her

Yes he was drunk but his mother was in the front seat

Now just think for a minute how those lives are changed forever because he was in a hurry

Being in a hurry in a car is much more dangerous than anything else you can do !!!

For example. trying to read , doing drugs , being drunk trying to text somebody you name it

Now here’s the main problem most people do one of those things and are in a hurry there’s where your problems ensue

I can’t tell you how many times just going to and from the elementary school how many parents in cars with children in them I’ve seen in a hurry

You can be as in a hurry as you want if you’re getting yourself around this planet !

But if you have 3000 pounds of metal - you’re taking along - then you need to think completely differently

[sphinx]

The last line of the story finally gets around to the appropriate solution. They will be installing a stoplight (user activated). Per the story, there have been multiple people run down in the crosswalk at this location. That calls for a light. Maybe more than one, if motorists are using this stretch of road as a speedway.