I shared some of the Summit Street Improvement project information yesterday and while it’s still fresh in my mind I thought I’d pass along another small piece of that project — the planned HAWK Pedestrian Signals.
Way back, when we held all of the public input sessions that factored into the design of the project, a common theme we heard was pedestrian safety. That’s no surprise since Summit Street parts the campus and students, parents, visitors and faculty cross the road all day long in what resembles a live version of the game Frogger far more than anyone is comfortable with.
There’s lots of elements built into the new project that will help solve that problem but one of the more interesting fixes is the new HAWK pedestrian signals planned for the two new round-abouts.
The HAWK signals have been reported to have been effective in other similar project applications so the City and University staff have included them in the Summit Street project.
The HAWK’s are still fairly new but AMATS has been working with the City of Akron to install a new HAWK signal at the intersection of the Freedom Hike & Bike Trail and Brittain Road.
They have developed a new video that explains how the signal works and I thought it was a good way to introduce one of the centerpieces to the Summit Street project coming to Kent.
Click here to watch the Akron video: http://amatsplanning.org/hawk-walk/
