Pedestrians

Invisible pedestrians are a nightmare for bus drivers, who live in fear of running over people they can't see. Three pedestrians were killed in 63 accidents with SEPTA buses in 2012, the most in recent history. Now, bus drivers are urging SEPTA to reposition outside rearview mirrors, contending they create a blind spot that endangers pedestrians, especially during left turns. The drivers have an ally in David Sale of Vancouver, Wash., whose daughter Danielle, 22, was killed by a left-turning bus in Portland, Ore., in 2010.

Driver beware. Cruising through a crosswalk filled with pedestrians in New Jersey could cost you $43. That's the fine in a state statute rarely enforced in this busy shopping district until now, according to local police. As a reminder, the police department is putting up removable 36-inch signs each weekend at three busy intersections on North and South Main Streets, telling drivers to brake for pedestrians, a tactic already used in such towns as Haddonfield, Woodbury, Swedesboro and Hammonton.

As the nation was still reeling from the schoolyard shooting in San Diego, it must have been disturbing for Philadelphians to learn that they can be threatened by guns even in their cars, that most sacrosanct of realms. News reports told of the sentencing of a gun-toting patent attorney, Jeffrey Spangler. Last June, when a car drove dangerously close to him as he attempted to cross the street, Spangler, who describes himself as an "aggressive pedestrian," pulled a gun from his briefcase.

WHENEVER it snows, the city plows Roosevelt Boulevard and Broad Street to make them safer for drivers. But what about the pedestrians? When the city plows these streets, they block the corners where people have to cross. Crossing the Boulevard at Rising Sun Avenue was horrendous! The snow was plowed up on the walkway! We had to walk in the street alongside of incoming traffic and hope we did not get hit. It is bad enough to have to cross any section of the Boulevard or Broad Street without snow.

It was a hair-raising adventure for many of the folks on foot who carefully made their way to the center lanes of Benjamin Franklin Parkway for Thursday's public announcement of a welcome $17.1 million plan to upgrade the boulevard. Cars whizzed along the outer lanes as usual, making some pedestrians' journey a potential life-and-death moment. Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter needed no better illustration of why the Parkway needs to be more pedestrian-friendly. Their announcement was welcome to those who have waged a years-long effort to wrest back the Parkway from car and truck traffic.

Lindenwold has found a way to bridge the gap between the old and historic. Borough officials said that when a new United States Avenue bridge is built, the old bridge, which dates to 1904, will not be demolished. Instead, it will be restored and preserved as a span for pedestrians and bicycle traffic. Mayor Frank DeLucca said the old bridge was closed in 2000 because of deterioration and was deemed unsafe for cars, trucks and emergency vehicles. The two-lane wooden plank bridge is 140 feet long and 16.4 feet wide, and is steel-enforced.

Have you seen the new Walnut Street Bridge? If you haven't, don't bother. It's as if they took a highway overpass, slapped it across the Schuylkill, and walked away without a second thought. Great for cars, maybe, but not exactly something you'd want to look at or walk across. The new bridge, which opened in the fall, is more than just an eyesore. It's another lost opportunity. As the bridges linking Center City and West Philadelphia have been replaced this century, they've become increasingly ugly and anti-pedestrian.

As anyone venturing through Center City on foot during this sweltering summer must surely have noticed, Philadelphia is one of the few American cities that compete with nature to blow hot air in your face. The steamy vapor that wafts up from more than 500 sidewalk vents and heats your already overheated body is the unintended byproduct of a century-old steam utility that still provides heat and hot water to offices, hospitals, hotels and other large commercial users in Center City.

A commercial vehicle struck and killed two pedestrians just before 5:30 a.m. Saturday along Route 100 in Chester County, police said. Uwchlan Township Police did not immediately release the names of the pedestrians, who they said were hit by a southbound vehicle between Rutgers and Worthington drives. The victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Anyone with information on the accident was asked to call Uwchlan police at 610-692-5100. - Claudia Vargas

By Brian Hickey There are 19 reasons to set aside the hysteria over last week's erroneous reports that Philadelphia plans to punish people for texting while walking. Police should be on the lookout for - and even issue fines to - egregiously distracted pedestrians. The city's continuing "Give Respect - Get Respect" campaign to reduce distraction, which generated the exaggerated stories, is not unprecedented. A yearlong 1997 initiative called "Operation Crosswalk" also increased traffic enforcement and education.

DELRAN - Burlington County's portion of Route 130, which has been named one of the state's deadliest highways, will get extra patrols under a coordinated crackdown on unsafe drivers and pedestrians. State Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced the launch of "Operation 130 Safe Passage" at a news conference with other officials who gathered in a parking lot off the busy six-lane highway in Delran. He said the initiative is designed to "avoid future tragedies" on the dangerous 23-mile stretch of the road, which travels north and south past numerous strip shopping centers.

Sobbing as he did throughout the trial, a Northeast Philadelphia man was sentenced Wednesday to 111/2 to 23 months in prison for the 2010 road-rage death of a pedestrian he and his father beat for crossing too slowly in front of their idling SUV. "Can I say goodbye to my mom?" Gerard Shaffer Jr., 24, called out to Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian Ransom as sheriff's deputies moved to take him into custody. "Turn around to say goodbye," Ransom said. Shaffer, tears running down his cheeks, arms out at his sides, waved his hands inward as his mother, Mary Beth Shaffer, stood and started walking toward him. "That's not allowed," one deputy said, and Shaffer was hustled out of court, mouthing, "I love you," to his crying mother.

Trains struck and killed 28 pedestrians in Pennsylvania last year, an increase of 22 percent over the number of such deaths in 2011. Nearly half the deaths occurred on SEPTA's tracks. Last year, SEPTA trains killed 12 people, up from 11 in 2011 and six each in 2010 and 2009. Last month, a rash of train-related accidents and suicides prompted State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Bucks-Montgomery) to urge SEPTA officials to do more to prevent such fatalities, even if it meant reduced speeds or lost revenue.

Three switchbacks? One switchback? No switchbacks? Those are the choices for a planned pedestrian ramp on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin Bridge, as outlined for the Delaware River Port Authority board Wednesday. All three of the alternatives would allow wheelchair users, as well as cyclists and walkers, to use the walkway on the south side of the 1.5-mile-long bridge. Currently, the walkway on the Camden end of the bridge ends in a steep staircase with 39 steps.

When she wants to ride her bike, Barbara Berman usually straps it to the roof of her car and drives out of Cherry Hill. "I'd love to go to Wegmans on a bicycle," said Berman, who meets friends outside town to ride. "It depends on how brave you feel, you know?" For Berman and other bicyclists, crossing the sprawling township and its wide, heavily trafficked highways can be a challenging, and sometimes frightening, endeavor. So they were excited Tuesday when the township Planning Board adopted a bicycle and pedestrian master plan - a project they pushed - to change that.

Invisible pedestrians are a nightmare for bus drivers, who live in fear of running over people they can't see. Three pedestrians were killed in 63 accidents with SEPTA buses in 2012, the most in recent history. Now, bus drivers are urging SEPTA to reposition outside rearview mirrors, contending they create a blind spot that endangers pedestrians, especially during left turns. The drivers have an ally in David Sale of Vancouver, Wash., whose daughter Danielle, 22, was killed by a left-turning bus in Portland, Ore., in 2010.

GERARD SHAFFER JR. cried enough tears to douse a small fire Monday after a Philadelphia jury rejected a third-degree-murder charge against him and instead convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, a lesser crime. Shaffer, 23, who aspired to be a city firefighter like his late father, Gerard Sr., could face three to 12 months in prison when he is sentenced March 8 by Common Pleas Judge Lillian Ransom. Shaffer was tried for the April 2010 death of pedestrian Mark Wallace, 54, who slipped into a coma and succumbed to head injuries from a street fight with Shaffer and his father, who also was charged but died of a heart attack in December 2011.

Police were investigating a hit-and-run accident that left two pedestrians critically injured Saturday night in Voorhees. The crash happened around 6:40 p.m. at Hudson Avenue and County Route 561. Officers from the Voorhees Township Police Department were still at the scene late Saturday. The victims, both women in their twenties, were walking near the southbound lanes of Route 561 when they were struck. They were listed in critical but stable condition Saturday night at Cooper University Hospital.

Jury deliberations will resume Monday in the murder and conspiracy trial of Gerard Shaffer Jr., 23, accused of fatally attacking an intoxicated pedestrian who walked too slowly in front of his father's SUV. The Common Pleas Court jurors deliberated for less than an hour Friday after closing arguments in the case. On the evening of April 8, 2010, Shaffer grabbed Mark Wallace in a bear hug, and the two fell on the street at Knights and Fairdale Roads in the Northeast, police reports show.