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“During the last two years in Kaunas, there were no deaths at the crossings, except for the one case last year, when a pedestrian entered the street with a red light,” said Martynas Matusevičius, Head of the Department of Transportation Management and Kaunas traffic. Municipality of the city. – The benefits are obvious: so-called diamonds really work by attracting the attention of drivers and protecting pedestrians. Many municipalities have already shown interest in these signs, so Kaunas is ready to share its experience with other cities. “
Kaunas Municipality took over the never-before-seen horizontal marking on Lithuanian roads in Japanese cities almost three years ago. In the land of the rising sun, such a measure has long proven its worth and produces tangible results.
“The diamond effect is very clear. The numbers speak for themselves: the tragic disasters at the crossings have been reduced to a minimum. But we have a government representative in Kaunas, who, instead of helping to legalize such a measure, is complaining to law enforcement agencies and the city face fines for it. At that time, in the capital, the authorities are much more tolerant of rainbow streets, although the reactions in society are incomparably more hostile. Perhaps someone is bothered by the color? of the white rhombus? If so, there are few problems: we can find other variants, but only in colors other than the rainbow – here we are talking about an effective road sign, not a loud expression of protest.
And the representative of the Government, even as a member of the family of the representative of Conservatives of Kaunas, must understand that his job is not only to criticize or complain, but also to support things that are useful to the people. Apparently the sudden leap in his career made his head spin so much that the employee does not use the acquired power to serve all people, ”Visvaldas Matijošaitis is quoted in the Kaunas City Municipality press release.
At that time, Vilius Šiliauskas, director of the municipal administration, assured that the city was not willing to give up an effective measure: “Fines are fine, but people’s lives are more expensive than anything else. If I go to that extreme, I will pay the fine, but pedestrians will still be protected by the diamonds. “
Starting in the fall of 2018 in Kaunas, drivers approaching the crosswalks will be greeted by two diamond-shaped symbols painted on the road surface. The first marks a distance of 30 meters to the crossing. This corresponds to the stopping distance, including the driver’s reaction time, when the car is traveling at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour.
Another closer diamond means that there are 15 meters left before the pedestrian crossing. These markings are useful not only for transportation drivers, but also for pedestrians, as people can remotely assess whether a car approaching an intersection slows down.
The search for new and effective solutions was driven by Kaunas residents who were affected by an extremely painful traffic accident at one of the Žemai Šančiai crossroads, which claimed the life of a teenager a few years ago. Along with diamond-shaped markings, the city has improved the lighting of most pedestrian crossings, installed LED directional lights, security islands, and in some places installed new traffic lights and a smart light alarm to inform drivers on pedestrians approaching the street.
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