Is the crosswalk immediately to the right of the driveway? Too often, car drivers pulling out of these driveways only look left, ignoring pedestrians in the crosswalk to their right. Do not demand that pedestrians always make eye contact with you. In most of these collisions, the pedestrian has crossed half way across the street in the crosswalk when they get hit. Waiting in the middle of the street for a car to stop is extremely dangerous since then you are target for cars coming from more than one direction.

Drivers, please look right before turning right. Always always always. This applies to all right turns (driveways, intersections, on/off ramps, etc.). Thank you.

@parent:

There are crosswalks on all four sides of this intersection. The driver pulled out of a shopping center lot, meaning he probably pulled out of the REI/Bed Bath & Beyond lot.

As the article states the driver was headed due east, that means he/she turned left, not right. The intersection light in question is two-way, meaning there is no dedicated left turn light, drivers coming up Independence Avenue have the right of way if they are going straight (into the shopping center lot). Vehicles that want to turn left must yield first to oncoming traffic.

This means the driver probably had no oncoming automobile traffic, but turned directly into the pedestrian in the eastern crosswalk.

Drivers should look all directions before turning.

Shame, hope this injured pedestrian fully recovers.

I came upon the collision scene about two hours later, when the police were surveying the scene for data. The injured man had been moved, but what appeared to be his shoes and clothing remained in the leftmost eastbound lane of Charleston. Here's the photo: pic.twitter.com/GlzI3O48eN

Crossing a road with a WALK signal should not be life-threatening. The man was in the middle of the roadway, so the perennial guidance to "check both ways before stepping into the street and "look the driver in the eye" do not apply here.

We need everyone who drives a vehicle to look carefully for and yield to people crossing at intersections, even on wide ones like this that look more like expressways than city streets. That means taking an extra half-second to look and going slower. It won't kill you to do it, but can you kill someone if you don't.

More driver tips for pedestrian safety: Web Link

Once again drivers trying to zip around cause bodily harm.
We are WAAAAY too liberal with who is allowed to have a license.
If it was a cop he could have been justified in shooting the driver...because he felt his life was in imminent harm. They do it all the time.
When can the rest of us protect ourselves the way cops get to?

The city really needs to change the traffic lights so that the left turn light does not go on when the pedestrian light is also on. This is really confusing to many drivers who think they rule the road when the turn arrow is on. This really should not be a problem when the pedestrian has to activate the light with a push button.

@parent:

As explained before, this is a two-way signal at Independence Avenue and Charleston Road. There is no dedicated left turn arrow signal for vehicles. It is the standard green traffic light with a sign that says "LEFT TURN YIELD ON GREEN." But don't just believe what I say, go to Google Maps and use Street View. THERE IS NO LEFT HAND TURN SIGNAL FOR AUTOMOBILES.

At intersections where there is a green turn arrow signal, the pedestrian crosswalk lights are programmed not to indicate walk when the vehicle has a green turn arrow light. This is the way at Castro and Villa Streets downtown. The westbound vehicles in the left turn lane on Castro Street initially get a green left turn light and the pedestrian crosswalk lights stay red. After a while, the left turn light expires, and the pedestrian crosswalk light goes green when the eastbound vehicles on Castro get a green light. The vehicles in the left turn lane must abide by the standard "yield to pedestrians" rule when trying to turn left onto Villa.

The city is not at fault for the traffic light programming at this intersection as there is no left hand turn signal light to begin with.

The crux of this incident is that the driver did not abide by the basic rule that vehicles must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. In this case, the pedestrian had the right of way.

It's worth pointing out that if the lights at Charleston/Independence or Castro/Villa were improperly programmed, then the city would be liable and there would be *LOTS* more accidents and injuries.

That is simply not the case.

@parent:

Stop blaming the city, the driver is 100% at fault here. Now if you'd like to argue for installing dedicated left-hand turn traffic lights at this intersection and subsequently reprogramming traffic, you'd have a case, but you're not doing that. You are blaming the city for a situation that you describe that is blatantly incorrect.

I am not familiar with this particular intersection, but I have seen plenty of intersections where the pedestrian light is green at the same time that left turn traffic has a green arrow to cross the pedestrians' path. I have seen many cars failing to yield, as they are required to by law. I see this so often, that I believe that the majority of intersections are like this, including busy streets around Mountain View like El Camino and Middlefield.

P.S. I mean that majority of intersections that have both left turn arrows and pedestrian crossing lights.

The problem is they made a T intersection into a 4 way intersection but one "road" is now the mall drive way. They never made proper left turn lanes or light modifications to the existing roads. People leaving the mall do not know if the cars opposite will go straight or turn left or turn right. Several cars probably went straight into the mall and back up the traffic waiting for the pedestrians walking to Chipotle. This blocked his left turn view of the walking pedestrian in the attempt to turn before the light changes. I have seen this many times.

@parent:

First of all, if you want to criticize the city's deployment of traffic programming at a particular intersection, be damned sure you know what you are talking about. Again, you know nothing about this intersection, but the answer is available from Google Street View.

THERE IS NO LEFT HAND TURN TRAFFIC LIGHT FOR AUTOMOBILE TRAFFIC THAT CONFLICTS WITH PEDESTRIAN SIDEWALK SIGNALS.

It's just a round green light. Autos turning left or right must yield to pedestrians or other traffic. You can only execute your turn when safe in this situation.

You should report all poorly programmed intersections to Caltrans/the city.

As I mentioned before, Charleston/Independence and Castro/Villa are correctly programmed. If you are a driver or pedestrian following the traffic lights and California vehicle code, there would be zero risk. Sadly, there are pedestrians/cyclists/motorists who do not follow vehicle code and create dangerous situations.

We'd really like to see a list of the intersections you think are improperly programmed. Identifying such intersections would help the community greatly. Notably, if said intersections were incorrectly programmed, we should be seeing far greater frequency in vehicle-pedestrian incidents, so it would be interesting to correct your list with actual locations with high incident rates.

Again, if you want to criticize the city/government/rest of the world, just be specific about the intersections in question, none of this "plenty of intersections" vagueness. That doesn't help anyone understand where the problem points are and the specific areas that need to be fixed.

It's like telling your doctor that you "don't feel good" without being specific (like feeling pain in your left ribcage when you cough or laugh).

Be specific.

@parent:

First of all, if you want to criticize the city's deployment of traffic programming at a particular intersection, be damned sure you know what you are talking about. Again, you know nothing about this intersection, but the answer is available from Google Street View.

THERE IS NO LEFT HAND TURN TRAFFIC LIGHT FOR AUTOMOBILE TRAFFIC THAT CONFLICTS WITH PEDESTRIAN SIDEWALK SIGNALS.

It's just a round green light. Autos turning left or right must yield to pedestrians or other traffic. You can only execute your turn when safe in this situation.

You should report all poorly programmed intersections to Caltrans/the city.

As I mentioned before, Charleston/Independence and Castro/Villa are correctly programmed. If you are a driver or pedestrian following the traffic lights and California vehicle code, there would be zero risk. Sadly, there are pedestrians/cyclists/motorists who do not follow vehicle code and create dangerous situations.

We'd really like to see a list of the intersections you think are improperly programmed. Identifying such intersections would help the community greatly. Notably, if said intersections were incorrectly programmed, we should be seeing far greater frequency in vehicle-pedestrian incidents, so it would be interesting to correct your list with actual locations with high incident rates.

Again, if you want to criticize the city/government/rest of the world, just be specific about the intersections in question, none of this "plenty of intersections" vagueness. That doesn't help anyone understand where the problem points are and the specific areas that need to be fixed.

It's like telling your doctor that you "don't feel good" without being specific (like feeling pain in your left ribcage when you cough or laugh).

Be specific.

@parent:

First of all, if you want to criticize the city's deployment of traffic programming at a particular intersection, be damned sure you know what you are talking about. Again, you know nothing about this intersection, but the answer is available from Google Street View.

THERE IS NO LEFT HAND TURN TRAFFIC LIGHT FOR AUTOMOBILE TRAFFIC THAT CONFLICTS WITH PEDESTRIAN SIDEWALK SIGNALS.

It's just a round green light. Autos turning left or right must yield to pedestrians or other traffic. You can only execute your turn when safe in this situation.

You should report all poorly programmed intersections to Caltrans/the city.

As I mentioned before, Charleston/Independence and Castro/Villa are correctly programmed. If you are a driver or pedestrian following the traffic lights and California vehicle code, there would be zero risk. Sadly, there are pedestrians/cyclists/motorists who do not follow vehicle code and create dangerous situations.

We'd really like to see a list of the intersections you think are improperly programmed. Identifying such intersections would help the community greatly. Notably, if said intersections were incorrectly programmed, we should be seeing far greater frequency in vehicle-pedestrian incidents, so it would be interesting to correct your list with actual locations with high incident rates.

Again, if you want to criticize the city/government/rest of the world, just be specific about the intersections in question, none of this "plenty of intersections" vagueness. That doesn't help anyone understand where the problem points are and the specific areas that need to be fixed.

It's like telling your doctor that you "don't feel good" without being specific (like feeling pain in your left ribcage when you cough or laugh).

Be specific.

God, this comment server sucks.

It feels like 1999.

Unfortunately, even though there are many marked crosswalks on Independence, between Old Middlefield and Charleston, drivers don't pay any attention. I won't walk there any more because so many drivers glide through the stop signs or lights and pay no attention to pedistrians.

@ Jay Park- I think it is more likely that the driver was turning right out of the Michael's parking lot. If he'd been turning left he likely would have seen the pedestrian but like Parent said, when turning right most people are looking left for clear traffic and forget to look right. The victim was probably just stepping off the curb and driver didn't see him until it was too late. It's easy to forget so this is s good reminder.

@Mary:

Actually, my explanation makes more sense. There is more traffic out of the REI/Bed Bath and Beyond lot than Michael's at 9:23am because ***STARBUCKS*** is also in the same complex as REI. How many people are grabbing coffee at 9am? How many people are visiting an arts & crafts store at 9am?

Please note Janet Lafleur's photo: pic.twitter.com/GlzI3O48eN

The car was clearly in the left hand lane of eastbound Charleston Rd, which is where one would expect a car turn left from the REI/Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot.

Michael's is an unlikely explanation. A car pulling right out of Michael's parking lot would be faced with a red traffic light if the pedestrian was crossing Charleston. Plus, it appears the pedestrian was hit in lane 1 of eastbound Charleston Road per Janet's photo.

Remember, there is very little retail on the south side of Charleston Road, just Michael's and Video Only.

It is far more likely that a left-turning auto did not obey the signs to yield to traffic (pedestrian or automotive).

@Mary:

Also, the news is describing the vehicle as leaving a shopping center parking lot. Michael's is not a "shopping center". It is a standalone retail store with its own lot. I think Video Only is next door, but they are separate properties and their parking lots do not connect, so the media description matches that of the REI/Bed Bath & Beyond lot, not Michael's.