(haipo) - Over a hundred pedestrians were injured in Haifa from crossings in 2021.
A report published by the "Green Green" association indicates that most of the pedestrians injured while crossing the road were injured at a crosswalk. This is a serious figure, since the crosswalk is supposed to be the safest place for pedestrians crossing the road, but as the data shows, this is not the case in practice .
The "Or Yerok" association dealing with road safety publishes the 2021 data, from which it appears that 76.4% of pedestrians injured while crossing a road were injured at a crosswalk.
The 2021 data shows that the city of Haifa is in third place, after Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in the number of pedestrians injured while crossing the road at a crosswalk, with 106 injured. It also appears that this is a disturbing increase from 2020, in which 85 people were injured while crossing a crosswalk.
Attorney Yaniv Ya'akov, CEO of Or Yerok Association:
"It is dangerous to cross a road in Israel. We educate our children to cross only at a crosswalk, but the crossing has become dangerous and unsafe. In recent years, there has been an increase in pedestrian injuries at the crosswalk when the scene of the injury is very clear, therefore the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety, together with the local authorities, must install measures We will destroy and moderate the traffic and the speed of travel near crosswalks. These are cheap and simple measures to install, such as deceleration lanes near schools, kindergartens, parks and public gardens, but those that can make the difference between life and death. Even near nursing homes and day centers for the elderly, the infrastructure must be adapted So that you give priority to senior citizens and allow them to cross the road safely. It's time to give priority to pedestrians in order to reduce their high risk of road accidents and save lives."
Not by chance with such neglect of the stratification of streets, roads and sidewalks.
The transportation engineers in Israel created roads that kill pedestrians. In terms of pedestrian injuries from vehicles on the roads, Israel is among the "highest" in the world. There is an idea here that if we create freeways within the city it will help the traffic jams. This is how they planned Ibn Gvirol Street as a freeway without traffic slowdowns and without crossings and the result was more and more pedestrians who were run over to their deaths. Matron platforms in the middle of busy roads have become death traps for pedestrians from bus platforms to sidewalks. In Tchamat, hornbills cross at a wild run because the traffic light is too short, like that in the Ziv center as well. Everything prioritizes vehicles over the safety of pedestrians. The bottom line is vehicles that park on sidewalks and block sidewalks and force pedestrians to get off the road like at the beginning of Hagafen Street or along Allenby Street.
It is sad that this municipality, with all its branches and departments, is not educated to create a safety space for all passers-by. What exactly does the "Headquarters for Road Safety" of Haifa Municipality do? Department of Traffic and Roads? And everyone who believes in road safety. The roads only destroy the vehicles, signs are missing or simply faded, crosswalks are not marked, crosswalks block the field of vision because of plants that are not pruned and so on and so forth....
It's a shame they don't show more data: Are all pedestrians hit by cars? Were there any who were injured by a two-wheeled vehicle or electric scooters? How many pedestrians were injured when crossing a green light and how many crossed a red light and then were injured? And more....Only in this way will it be possible to understand what the main problem is and what are the gaps that still need to be closed in order for us to be in a much lower place in the national ranking...
Traffic lights must be installed at all crosswalks, so that pedestrians will press an activation button and cross only when the traffic stops and they are given a green light to cross. Especially when marking crosswalks on main roads, and stopping at them without a traffic light, also puts the stopped vehicle at risk of being hit from behind!
Every exit to the road means a war with the Israeli driver who is always in a hurry. Haifa is a mountainous city and many roads are steep roads mainly in the Carmel and Neve Shanan area. Crossing a road downhill from International St. in Remez or Samshon in the estate is a real danger to life. Every time I return home safely I bless the reward.
You forgot motorcyclists in slaloms between cars. You stand on the crosswalk itself to be two seconds ahead of the vehicles and disturb the pedestrians. I also saw a person run over by a scooter that got on the sidewalk to turn around and hit the person and continued to drive as if it didn't see him.
There are cameras, but who will bother with the police until they investigate something..