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Pedestrian Safety: A Cost-Benefit Analysis and Report |
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Manchaca Road is a traffic "artery," meaning that it is a main route with many smaller roads feeding into it. It intersects at right angles with Prather Road, a connector street that runs east from another arterial road, passes a junior high school, and ends at Manchaca. There is a stop sign on Prather at the intersection with Manchaca.
Children from a junior high school on Prather produce a high volume of foot traffic in the crosswalk across Manchaca in the mornings and afternoons. A senior citizens' activity center just north of the intersection produces steady volumes of foot and vehicular traffic throughout the day. Also, a preschool just south of the intersection adds vehicular traffic that peaks in the mornings between 8 and 9 and between 5 and 6 in the evening. There are city bus stops on each side of Manchaca, near the crosswalk. Buses arrive at each stop at approximately 20-mnute intervals throughout the day and evening.
The speed limit on this section of Manchaca is 30 m.p.h. However, between 7:30 and 9:00 a.m., and between 2:30 and 4:00 p.m., on Monday through Friday during the school year, flashing "School Zone" signs designate a 20 m.p.h limit for 200 yards north and south of the intersection on Manchaca, and for 50 yards west of the intersection on Prather. There are yellow pedestrian warning signs near the crosswalk on both sides of Manchaca.
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