City of Birmingham works to improve walkability with $10 million grant easing pedestrian frustration
By Ayron Lewallen
Click here for updates on this story
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — If you’ve ever walked through downtown Birmingham, chances are you’ve stood at a crosswalk wondering why the walk signal takes so long to change.
For some pedestrians, the wait is more than frustrating. It’s enough to make them cross the street anyway. Now, the city of Birmingham is trying to do something about it.
City leaders have applied for a grant that would help make some of Birmingham’s busiest walking areas more pedestrian-friendly. The focus is on heavily traveled areas like downtown, Lakeview, Five Points South and other places where people regularly walk to work, class, restaurants and events. The city is now waiting to find out whether it will get the funding.
“We’ve all experienced getting stuck at a corner and just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting to be able to cross the street,” City Councilor Clinton Woods said. “Maybe it’s a short light, so there’s some small tweaks that we can make to kind of get in line with the guidance that’s being presented, and we just have such a large footprint that there is everything from traffic signals to addresses to intersections and things. A lot of, but I think this will be a very important first step.”
Pedestrians said one of the biggest issues is long wait times at crosswalks. In some cases, they said it feels faster — and more tempting — to jaywalk than to wait for the signal. At some intersections, walkers said the problem is even more noticeable because there are no pedestrian push buttons at all, including at 20th Street and 3rd Avenue.
“It’s not bad,” downtown resident Sydney Austin said. “It’s just not ideal, especially if you want to go for a run. I’ve seen people running in place mainly and waiting for the lights to change or the jaywalk as well. I’ve jaywalked as well.”
If Birmingham receives the grant, the money will go toward improvements designed to make walking safer and easier. That could include better signal timing, improved visibility, and installing or upgrading pedestrian push buttons so people can activate walk signals more easily. Woods said the goal is not just convenience, but safety and accessibility, especially in areas where foot traffic is high.
UAB student Tristan Curtas said she uses the intersection at 20th Street and 3rd Avenue twice a day and sometimes feels like waiting simply is not an option when she is trying to get to class on time.
“Usually, other students are with me and jaywalking, and then more elderly people choose to wait,” she said.
Woods said Birmingham should know whether it got the grant sometime between July and September of this year.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.