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Consultants urge limits on standing in medians; Columbia council asks for more data before any ordinance
Summary
A consultant team presented a draft pedestrian-and-median safety study that recommends restricting pedestrian use of medians on streets with speeds 35+ mph, ADT ≥15,000 or medians narrower than 6 feet; council members asked for sidewalk overlays, demographic breakdowns and MoDOT coordination before considering legislation.
A traffic-engineering consultant presented draft findings and policy options Wednesday that would limit pedestrian access to medians in Columbia on streets meeting objective safety thresholds, and council members responded with questions about equity, enforcement and jurisdiction.
"A high percentage, about 80 percent of those pedestrian fatalities are at night," said Sean Light, a principal with the consultants' firm, citing national and local crash reviews used in the study. The presentation, commissioned after a December staff report, mapped recent pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in Columbia and offered three recommended thresholds to flag medians for restriction: vehicle speeds of 35 miles per hour or higher, average daily traffic around 15,000 vehicles, or…
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