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Pedestrians cross the street at the busy intersection of Boulder Highway and Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011.
By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.
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Pedestrian killed near Alta
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KSNV coverage of pedestrian being hit and killed in Las Vegas, Nov. 5, 2011.
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Sun Coverage
A 15-year-old boy hit and killed on a Henderson street, a trick-or-treater dies after being hit by a car in Summerlin, a woman dead after being struck near Nellis Air Force Base and two pedestrians hospitalized after they were hit on the valley's most famous stretch of road — the Las Vegas Strip.
The past 10 days have been a bad time to be a pedestrian in Las Vegas. Four pedestrians died and five more were injured.
It sounds abnormal, but it really isn’t that strange for Las Vegas. One recent study claimed that the city is the sixth-most dangerous place in the nation for pedestrians.
A 1979 Las Vegas Sun article said the city had become an “international paradise for jaywalkers.”
Old-timers may remember a similar run of pedestrian accidents that killed 16 people during the first three months of 1995. That’s one person every 3 1/2 days.
More recently, in the three-year period that ended July 31, there were 84 pedestrian deaths and more than 2,000 injuries from 2,060 crashes in Clark County, according to data from the Nevada Transportation Department.
There have been different approaches to the problem. Pedestrian bridges were added to the Strip. Metro Police have been ticketing jaywalkers as well as motorists who ignore crosswalks — at times using a turkey-suited officer as decoy. Crossing guards now wield stop signs with flashing lights.
The next round of safety enhancements is being researched in a small, windowless laboratory on the third floor of UNLV’s Science and Engineering Building.
Here, in a room equipped with a dozen computers, a large table holds models of intersections, some complete with working stoplights.
Assistant Professor Alexander Paz emerges from his office, where the small whiteboard is covered with the diagram of an intersection. He explains some of the projects his students are working on.
Some are far-flung, like the proposal to lower Maryland Parkway and Harmon Avenue next to the UNLV campus so pedestrian bridges could be built at ground level, where people are more likely to use them.
“It’s expensive, of course, but very efficient,” Paz said.
This semester, a group is studying the prospect of installing infrared devices at crosswalks to detect pedestrians. The devices would then activate traffic signals or warning lights to stop traffic for the pedestrians, eliminating the need to push buttons to activate the lights, which some pedestrians don't do before crossing a street.
The projects aren’t without precedent for effecting change. Before Paz’s time at the university, the county readjusted a crosswalk on Maryland Parkway near campus after a graduate student proposed reshaping the median into an "S-curve" to force pedestrians crossing the street to face oncoming traffic.
But the really exciting stuff, at least to Paz and his associates at the Transportation Research Center, is the creation of a massive database, with input from law enforcement agencies, emergency responders and University Medical Center. The goal is to gather all of the data possible on every accident in the region for the past decade.
After a fatal or serious-injury accident, police investigate and record a massive amount of information about the crash. But that data isn't always integrated with other sources of information, such as victim medical records or the design and operation of the roadway, Paz said.
If researchers can gather all the data possible, they will get a better picture of how to avoid accidents, he said.
But there is still a missing piece to the puzzle, Paz said.
Investigators can only gather evidence after the crash. They weren’t there to record the weather, road conditions and exact circumstances before a collision.
That’s where virtual research comes in. Researchers are using a driving simulator to learn more about how people react to distractions.
The simulator includes a driver’s seat, steering wheel, gas and brake pedals and three monitors to act as windshield and mirrors. It can be used to re-create the weather and driving conditions before an accident.
The machine lets researchers test different scenarios and see what the impact of distractions are, whether it’s flashing lights along the road, a ringing cellphone or the buzz from one-too-many beers.
But that’s not enough. Some graduate students are working on new software to make the visuals more realistic and to give them more flexibility in creating driving scenarios. That step should be done next summer.
Then, the students plan to add pedestrians to the mix. Right now, the software adds pedestrians for the driver to avoid, but the computer-generated people don’t behave the way real people do. They don’t weave through stalled cars, for example.
But by the end of next year, the team hopes to add real pedestrians to the driving simulator, doctoral student Naveen Veeramisti said.
The pedestrians will use goggles to see the simulation, a treadmill to walk on and an Xbox Kinect system to add their movements to the simulation for the driver to see, Veeramisti said.
Once the pedestrians are in the mix, they also hope to add a bicycle simulator, he said. No other university has a simulator that incorporates the three transportation modes.
When they are able to combine the data from real accidents with data collected from the simulator, researchers should be able to answer some of the questions that have plagued traffic engineers, such as when and where a crosswalk should be installed, Paz said.
While safety advocates say crosswalks are always a good thing, some traffic engineers, looking to move ever-increasing numbers of cars, say they are added distractions that give pedestrians a false sense of security.
Erin Breen, the director of UNLV’s Safe Community Partnership, which is also part of the Transportation Research Center, dismisses that argument.
“I think it’s engineering out of a book instead of engineering for human nature,” she said. “What a marked crosswalk gives you is a situation where motorists expect to see someone.”
Paz doesn’t really take a side. He says that’s one of the areas that the accident database and the simulator will help them research.
“There is no consensus on whether or not it is good to have crosswalks,” he said. “Some people like it and other people don’t. Right now, we just aren’t clear about it.”
Paz agrees with Breen that educating drivers and pedestrians is a key to safety, but says when it comes to designing safer roads, data are going to bring the answers.
“We have to know what is reality,” he said. “We cannot just make guesses and then depend on those guesses.”
Yes, most drivers in this town are bad and dont look out for pedestrians or obey most other traffic laws for that matter. But look at the woman in the picture pushing the baby stroller. That's right......yapping on her cell phone!!!! Do you think you might want to keep a look out for the cars around you? If not for yourself, how about your child? As I always tried to burn into my kids head while they were growing up. Here in Nevada pedestrians do have the right of way over vehicles at cross walks. But if you get hit and killed by a car you might have been within the law but you are still dead.
How about fining the daylights out of these drivers who drive at 20 mph over the speed limit and blow redlights-aiming a 6000lb vehicle at someone is no less dangerous than using a gun-they both can kill
Yesterday, I drove past Ed Von Tobel, a middle school, just after classes had let out for the day. At Pecos and Carey, there were no crossing guards--none. The traffic lights were working fine. The walk signs were red, with the red hand up, meaning, as we all should know, don't walk. Dozens--I do not exaggerate--of kids went right through the crosswalk anyway. The light on Pecos was green, and one car got through because the kids ignored the signs. It seems to me that there is a lot of dereliction of duty here--parents teaching their kids, kids paying attention, and the absence of crossing guards.
The woman with the stroller on the cell phone is one example of the problem. The others are drivers with cell phones. I can only hope the cell phone ban is enforced to the max. I would love to see an all out blitz of undercover cops at busy intersections handing out ticket after ticket. Pedestrian deaths are becoming an epidemic.
I see people crossing busy intersections at all hours of night and day. I look at them thru my windshield and say "you will not catch me being a pedestrian in this city". Some are dressed in dark clothing, on cell phones, not paying attention as 2 ton cars and 6 ton trucks come barrelling down the road at high speeds.
With six lanes to cross. I would be constantly looking back and forth..sprinting to the other side if I had to cross Las Vegas intersections. No cell phone in hand.
The photo shows the intersection of Boulder Highway and Tropicana -- an intersection that *I* would be hesitant to cross due to its width and the traffic volume.
And yet the photo clearly shows a woman, pushing a stroller, looking down, on a cell phone while in the middle of a busy, wide intersection.
Wow.
Just as drivers must drive defensively, pedestrians must walk defensively. Laws and crosswalks and anything else the government can do won't help individuals unless they help themselves.
A few comments about safety from both points of view.
Real eye contact between drivers and pedestrians is a good thing. Be aware especially if making a right on red.
For pedestrians, be aware if crossing in front of a van, SUV, or other large vehicle you may not be seen by the driver in an adjacent lane. Real important at unregulated crossing spots.
Anything which obstructs the view at intersections. I refer to planters, sign spinners, and those "news" boxes with the stripper advertising magazines. Having to pull out into crosswalks to get a good view of traffic is dangerous.
I don't understand why bus stop enclosures are so near the road a walker has to walk within inches of the road to get past them. Stupid.
I have to stress the idea of making real eye contact. It's the most basic rule of staying accident free. When pedestrian and driver are aware of each other these accidents do not happen.
Yesterday and the day before and the day before that and the day before that, I was in a marker crosswalk on Oakey drive in front of Bob Baskin park and car zoomed by me like I did not exist. I had to stop and wait for them in a marked cross walk or they would just run me down. I cross Oakey on that cross walk every single day and it is rare that any driver will even slow down. They will make me stop in the middle of the street or run me over. Its just disgusting how terrible the drivers are in this city.
My mommy used to tell me always look both ways before crossing and when crossing. Some cars may not stop even if you have the green light. And I still do that today and my son also. Now everyone has the Wal-mart parking lot mentality, I got the right of way and you will stop. Why doesn't parents teach their children the right way?
Before I ever started school at the age of 5 I was taught when walking to stay on sidewalks. When I get to any corner, crosswalk or not to stop, look both ways then look again to be sure it was clear before stepping off the curb. Now I know I have the right a way when walking but still have to use common sense. If a car is coming, let it pass then walk when safe.
As a driver I know to always watch for people because most that are walking today just step off curbs all over the place. They don't even wait until they get to the corners.
No study is needed. Common sense is the name of the game here on both sides.
Two ton cars will kill you if you get hit by them. Running over someone will ruin their day and yours.
A bit more responsibility and respect for others goes a long way to living a long life. People need to think about it.
You want to see a real dodgem show, drive by Valley High School on Eastern when they let those kids out of school.
If you are aware of your surroundings, as a pedestrian, there are very few circumstances in which you should be in danger of being hit by a vehicle, short of it going off-road. It's common sense, and unfortunately the world is in short supply nowadays.
Darwinism is talking on a cell phone while pushing your child in a stroller at a busy intersection in a crosswalk all in Las Vegas. Idiot mother...
Both motorist and pedestrian must take proactive responsibility while traversing. Never assume the other person is going to proceed safely and watch out for you. This needs to be actively promoted on commercials, literature, and in schools. Make people aware, enforce the laws that are on the books, and we'll exist in a society that is functional and safe.
The Clark County Planning Commissioners must be held accountable for permiting massive numbers of housing communities to be built without sidewalks, narrow streets with no parking and no sidewalks, and nonexistant cross walks. Here is a vital part of the problem.
Parents need to teach and model safety to their children. They need to check on their children who are walkers, that they follow safe procedures time to time. Sadly, this is not being done and we see the proof in deaths and tragic stories.
Blessings and peace,
Star