An aptly named RAM/Dodge Trucks photo
A new Anchorage record
Drivers of motor vehicles killed four pedestrians on Anchorage roads in five days last week and few residents of Alaska’s largest city paid it much attention.
Imagine if bears had killed even half as many in the same amount of time. Hysteria would have reigned.
All of which says something about the confused state of risk assessment in the far north and the attitudes of Alaska drivers. Many have only one thing on their mind when they get behind the wheel: getting to where they want to go as fast as possible.
Driving defensively is on the outs. Driving offensively is increasingly on the in.
Alaskans are not alone in this. Being in a car or truck anywhere in American remains dangerous. Far more people are killed in vehicle collisions than die in firearm homicides, but seat belts and air bags have helped to reduce the in-vehicle fatalities somewhat.
For anyone else near a roadway, it’s a different story. The risks for pedestrians and cyclists have risen substantially.
Human targets
“In 2022,” the report added, “the number of pedestrians killed in traffic crashes was the highest since 1981,” and “the number of pedalcyclists killed in traffic crashes was the highest since FARS (the Fatality Analysis Report System) began in 1975.”
“At the same time, roads are largely designed to prioritize fast-moving vehicle traffic instead of slower speeds that are safer for people walking. Many parts of the country lack infrastructure – such as sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting – that help protect people on foot. The U.S. vehicle fleet is increasingly dominated by larger, heavier vehicles that are more likely to injure or kill people walking.”
That summation pretty well defines Anchorage, a city where speed limits are higher than in many other cities but where speeding remains rampant anyway.
A few weeks ago, I had to take someone to the airport at near 7 a.m. We were running a bit late, so when I turned off the Lake Otis Parkway onto East Northern Lights Boulevard, I decided to just go with the traffic flow, something I usually don’t do.
The traffic was moving at 55 mph on the way to the Seward Highway intersection. The posted speed limit on this section of Northern Lights is 40 mph.
Traffic did slow somewhat west of the Seward in Midtown, but I don’t know how much. I slowed to 45, which I thought was too fast given the homeless who roam the streets in this area, and people were passing me on both sides and tailgating.
The posted speed limit west of the Seward is 35. Not many people seem to drive it.
Given those numbers and the way people drive in Anchorage, an urban area of the type in which most pedestrians are struck and killed these days, it should probably be considered a small miracle that more people don’t die on local roads.
One of the latest fatalities happened on Muldoon Road. There are stretches of Muldoon Road along which the sidewalk is directly beside traffic flying along at 50 mph or more, and it is rare for motorists to pay attention to anyone on that sidewalk and move to the far edge of their lane just in case.
And this is not the only place in Anchorage, a city short on sidewalks, that cars can be seen roaring along at high speeds immediately adjacent to sidewalks. Thankfully, you don’t see many people using those sidewalks.
Danger, danger, danger
They appear to sense the sidewalks are as dangerous as the right-on-red intersections in a city where it’s not uncommon for pedestrians to have to tap on the fender of a motor vehicle to alert a left-looking driver that they are about to cross the street on the green light.
And then there is the matter of crosswalks themselves. The Municipal Code says this:
And for anyone unlcear as to exactly what that means, the code also says this:
Good luck getting an Anchorage driver to yield to anyone or anything at an unmarked crosswalk. Last winter I tried to use the unmarked crosswalk equipped with a flashing red light at the intersection of Elmore Road and East 84th Avenue and watched a stream of motor vehicles ignore that supposed “stop” light.
When a dog-walking couple came along and saw me standing there with a fat bike, they paused to inform me, “They never stop.”
Despite the law saying drivers must yield at the unmarked crosswalks that exist at all intersections in the city, a pedestrian is taking his or her life in his or her hands trying to use one of these. It is rare to see a driver even slow down when they see someone entering one of these intersections.
The attitude seems to be that “I hope they get across fast enough, but if not, too bad.”
Then there is the Anchorage Police Department’s view on crosswalks, which just compounds the danger. APD is very quick to declare a dead pedestrian was “not in a crosswalk” when it appears in many cases they might well have been in a crosswalk but it was one of those “unmarked crosswalks,” which would compromise the vast majority of crosswalks in Anchorage.
But who cares?
A significant number of the pedestrians who get killed in Anchorage are lower-class residents, a fair number of them homeless, and killing the homeless with motor vehicles is one way to solve the city’s homeless problem.
I’m, in fact, pretty confident the issue in the minds of some drivers is as simple as this: “If you don’t own a car or truck, you deserve to die for getting in my way.” As one old lady driver clearly informed me, “roads are made for motorized vehicles.”
And God help anyone else who goes near them.
Correction: This is a revised version of the original story. The location of flashing red light on Elmore Road stop light was edited.
Categories: Commentary, News
It is my understanding that the pedestrians involved were in the wrong. Not in the crosswalks or walking against the lights….in the dark. But lets not talk about that. Lets vilify the drivers; surely, they hit the pedestrians on purpose and have no remorse. This article smacks of misguided thoughts and opinions. There has to be an alternative purpose for it…what is the hidden agenda here?
Some of them may have hit the pedestrians on purpose. Most of them probably did it due to inattentoin, which is why so they also regularly hit other cars and kill more other drivers than they do pedestrians. Did you actually read the story?
Drivers, stay off your phone, I watch this head down texting every day, two, drive in the right lane unless your passing, 3 learn how to turn left on a green light. These 3 items will reduce the frustration of others which in turn can contribute to unsafe actions by the other driver, not saying that is the right choice but it is all about reducing frustration and paying attention.
I drive Tudor daily and have witnessed disturbing actions
It’s rather astonishing what motor vehicles and traffic do to the personalities of some. I find myself constantly tamping down the urge to get royally P.O.ed at the driving of others when in the car truck. It is especially weird in the way anger can linger and try to build whereas on the bike, even when someone close passes so badly they scare the crap out of me, the emotions are pedaled away in a few hundred yards, and I’m back to normal. Could it be the endorphins?
There isn’t a flashing red light at E 88th and Elmore. There is one at E 84th and Elmore. As someone who drives Elmore regularly I don’t recall seeing anyone NOT stop for pedestrians. I realize that’s just my experience, and not the definitive proof that only a dog-walking couple can provide.
I commend you on stopping and others who do so. The traffic didn’t stop for me. I had to wait for a half-dozen cars before someone stopped, and I’ve seen traffic do the same for others. I’d only cite the dog walkers as further evidence.
Maybe it’s confusion over lack of a painted crosswalk beneath the sign. It’s clear most Anchorage drivers don’t understand the existence of the cities “unmarked crosswalks.” So why isn’t there a crosswalk painted on the road at 84th to provide a marked crosswalk to advise all those drivers who don’t know the law?
That said, thanks for the correction. Cloud editing is always appreciated. Don’t know what I was thinking.
Serious question: How many of these pedestrians were out at night in dark clothing and under the influence of alcohol?
I’d guess fewer than the number of dead moose. It’s a funny thing that I didn’t put in the story. When I was working as a cop-beat reporter in Fairbanks in the early ’70s, back when repoters went to the “cop shop(s)” (AST and FPD) to read through the entire log of a day’s dispatch calls, it seemed just about everyone who hit a moose was cited for “basic speed.” (13 AAC 02.275 (a):
“No person may drive a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent considering the traffic, roadway, and weather conditions.”
It was then presumed drivers weren’t supposed to hit things – moose, people or anything else – and if they did troopers, in particular, ususally made the conclusion that they were driving too fast for conditions. At some point, that policy ended. I don’t know when. But I’ve seen a number of moose hit by Anchorage drivers driving too fast and know of none of them being cited, despite one moose being clobbered by a former Hillside neighbor driving 40 mph downhill on an ice-covered road with a 35 mph speed limit which in the conditions of the moment was unsafe at 15 mph.
There was basically no traction on the hill. Even at 10, you couldn’t really stop. You could slow down if you didn’t lock the brakes (which was easy to do) and eventually come to a stop, but it took a long way to actually get stopped.
That said, to answer your question directly, I’d expect most of those hit at night lacked reflective clothing (it seems to have gone out of fashion) and who knows how many might have been drinking. There are a plenty of folks under the influence in Alaska both in and out of vehicles.
And reflective gear, plus lights, certainly didn’t protect Matt Glover in Fairbanks.
Reflective gear and lights are a great idea, but neither help if drivers don’t pay attention. And the lack of them is often a way-too-easy way of blaming victims to excuse bad driving. Sort of like blaming a pedestrian hit in a crosswalk for failing to look both ways before crossing just becuase they had a green light.
And in you’re a pedestrian in Anchorage – given the known number of red light runners – you really do need to look before entering an intersection on a green light. Hell, I do it in the car, and it has more than once saved me from being t-boned.
I had a theory when I was a city medic that most of these pedestrians hit at night were actually suicide…the ones late at night that have been drinking. Too many of the scenarios, the drivers would say that the person “just walked right out in front of my car”. Nearly all of them had on dark clothes and nothing reflective. In a country with over 20,000 recorded suicides a year, I can only think more of these pedestrian vs vehicles are suicides as well (at least those later in the day).
Homicide by vehicle has been a documented phenomenon, but then what is any driver going to say but that “he/she just walked right out in front of my car?”
Is someone really going confess, “I was trying pick up the chips I’d drop on the floorboard, and I looked and damn, there was someone right in front of me?” Or tell you, “I was only going 20 mph over the speed limit because I was in a hurry when this idiot stepped into the road and left me too little time to brake before hitting him/her?”
Not to mention that there is any easy way to make these suicides, if that’s what they are, less successful.