A. The city council makes the following findings and adopts the following statement of purposes of this section:
1. Pedestrian fatalities increased in the United States by forty-six percent (46%) from 2009 to 2016, with the largest increases in urban arterial streets, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
2. Fifty percent (50%) of pedestrians who are struck by a vehicle traveling at thirty (30) miles per hour are killed; as speed increases, a higher percentage of people struck are killed, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Literature Review on Vehicle Travel Speeds and Pedestrian Injuries (2000).
3. The National Association of City Transportation Officials Urban Street Design Guide (2011) states that a median or island should be at least six (6) feet wide where pedestrians are present. This is consistent with the Public Rights of Way Accessibility Guidelines promulgated by the United States Access Board which specify that a pedestrian refuge in a street must have a top surface width of six (6) feet, excluding curbs.
4. Section 240 of the city traffic code provides that pedestrians crossing a street in the business district shall cross in crosswalks only. In the ten (10) years preceding, ten (10) pedestrian fatalities have occurred in Waterloo. There have been three hundred forty-one (341) pedestrian injuries.
5. The city engineer has determined based on city GIS maps and/or, where appropriate, site visits that the intersections listed in subsection B of this section do not have medians or islands of adequate width for pedestrian refuge; therefore, pedestrians should be prohibited from standing, sitting or staying in the medians at these intersections for any purpose other than to cross the street, if crossing is lawful.
B. Pedestrians are prohibited from standing, sitting or staying on a median or ramp nose for any purpose other than to cross the street, if lawful, unless the width of the top surface of the median, excluding the curbs is at least six (6) feet wide. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, medians and ramp noses on or near legs feeding the following intersections in the city:
E. San Marnan Drive and 218/380 Ramps.
E. San Marnan Drive and LaPorte Road.
Bopp Street and LaPorte Road.
Bopp Street and Crossroads Blvd.
Grimm Street and Crossroads Blvd.
Pennys Street and Crossroads Blvd.
Sears Street and Crossroads Blvd.
Flammang Drive and Crossroads Blvd.
Flammang Drive and Sarah Drive.
E. San Marnan Drive and Sears Street.
E. San Marnan Drive and Pennys Street.
E. San Marnan Drive and Flammang Drive.
E. San Marnan Drive and Shoppers Blvd.
E. San Marnan Drive and Lowes Blvd.
C. Pedestrians are prohibited from standing, sitting or staying on a median or ramp nose for any purpose, other than to cross the street, if lawful, regardless of the width of the top surface of the median, or ramp nose along the following streets or rights-of-way:
San Marnan Drive from Texas Street to Ansborough Avenue.
Sears Street.
Pennys Street.
Crossroads Blvd.
Flammang Drive.
Bopp Street.
1. Police officers, peace officers and parking enforcement personnel of the police department or employees of the fire department while performing official duties of the city.
2. Employees or contractors for the city or other individuals authorized by the city to perform construction or maintenance work on city streets or rights-of-way, while performing construction or maintenance work on the street provided that proper signage is used and streets are blocked off as required by the city.
3. Any individual responding to an emergency in the street.
E. The penalties for violating this section shall be a simple misdemeanor pursuant to section 1-3-1 of this code. (Ord. 5559, 6-8-2020)