Webster Groves advisory group to form task force to standardize crosswalks and priorities

The Webster Groves traffic advisory group agreed at its meeting to form a task force to develop citywide crosswalk guidelines, aiming to create a transparent process for evaluating citizen requests and to recommend design standards that can be budgeted.

The chair said the task force would include members of the technical advisory commission, city personnel and Safe Streets stakeholders and would produce a guideline that explains the review steps, types of crosswalk designs by class, and recommended budgets tied to each design. The commission discussed classifying urgency (for example, giving higher priority to school-area crossings) and using existing examples from other cities rather than reinventing policy.

Commission members asked that the guideline include a clear deliverable and suggested asking the city to fund one Class A and two Class B crosswalk installations per year as a starting, budgetable proposal. Members emphasized that without a defined deliverable and associated costs, crosswalk requests remain difficult to prioritize during the budget process.

The group also discussed technical limits: members said mid-block crosswalks require substantial signage and flashing lights to be safe and are therefore costly. The task force will be asked to inventory existing policies, recommend a classification rubric (urgency and design class), and produce cost estimates that can be inserted into future capital budgets.

Next steps: members agreed to form the group, research other municipalities’ policies, and return with a written draft of the crosswalk guideline for the commission to forward to city staff and the council.