Pedestrians get new pavement

MDoT hopes the new design would cut down jaywalking.

By Ethan Simonds

Published March 23, 2010

Students crossing the street at the intersection of College and University avenues no longer have to tread the same old asphalt. The Missouri Department of Transportation, working in conjunction with the GetAbout Columbia Project, has made it a crosswalk with a different look.

Jason Sommerer, the senior traffic studies specialist at the Missouri Department of Transportation, described the new crosswalk as a "pedestrian enhancement" and said it goes along with the GetAbout Project, part of the $25 million federal grant Columbia received to add bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks, as well as test new pavement markings.

The new crosswalk has a white stripe down each side for traffic control purposes, but the middle is painted to have a redbrick look. Sommerer said this design could cut down on jaywalking.

"It's partly an effort to get students to use the crosswalk rather than crossing the street anywhere between that intersection and Rollins," Sommerer said.

Although no detailed analysis went into choosing the exact intersection for the upgraded walk, Sommerer said College and University was a logical choice.

Sommerer said the new crosswalk is really just an experiment, and no plans have been made to install similar crosswalks in the city as of yet. If the project is a success, there could be similar improvements in the future.

Sommerer said the crosswalk is similar to one in Jefferson City that was made a year and a half ago. Jefferson City's Greenway Trail, a series of bike and pedestrian sidewalks, crosses a fairly high-traffic area.

"It was put in to test the durability of a project like that," Sommerer said about the Jefferson City crosswalk.

So far, that crosswalk has lasted, and Sommerer hopes Columbia's version would have similar success.