Every day since the new Ada County Courthouse opened in 2002, hundreds of jaywalkers have darted and dodged across Front Street to get to the building entrance.
Extra police patrols did little. Anti-jaywalking signs and the risk of a $56.50 ticket barely made a dent. Even after the county bought the parking garage and made courthouse parking free (first hour) or cheap ($1 an hour after that), the estimated 800 daily jaywalkers declined only modestly.
“While that number has dropped to something over 600 people,” said Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman said, “it is clear there is a still a major public safety issue with so many people at risk of being hit and possibly killed.”
So, to stanch the jaywalker flow and prevent the inevitable car-vs.-pedestrian crash, plans are in the works for a signal light at 2nd and Front streets early next year. The county will split the $140,000 cost with the region’s road-building agencies.
“Public safety is the primary responsibility of the county,” Ullman said, “so we are very happy to finally be getting a crosswalk that has been needed since the courthouse opened in January of 2002.”
Two signals/crosswalks flank the courthouse’s east and west sides at 3rd Street and Avenue A, but pedestrians still take the shorter route by crossing from near 2nd Street to the front of the courthouse.
On average, 80 pedestrians per hour jaywalk Front Street between the WinCo store and 2nd Street, according to Ada County Highway District. About 25,000 vehicles per day travel this stretch of Front Street.
“It’s a 35-mph road with five lanes of traffic and still people run across there. Officers issue tickets to jaywalkers but it continues to be a dangerous stretch for pedestrians,” said Boise police Sgt. Todd Ducharme.
Fortunately, no pedestrian or bike accidents have occurred in the past five years between Avenue A and 3rd Street, according to ACHD, but “close calls happen there every day,” said Boise police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Under a cooperative agreement, the county will pay $70,000, and ACHD and Idaho Transportation Department (Front and Myrtle streets are state highways) will split the other half.
Once each agency finalizes its budget and signs off on the project, ACHD can begin construction, likely in January. Construction would take six to eight weeks.
ACHD doesn’t expect the new signal to increase driver delays, because it will be timed with adjacent signals on Front Street.
Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428
