Hollywood and Vine getting ped-friendly scramble crosswalk this summer
Following the popularity and success of the scramble crosswalk at Hollywood and Highland boulevards, the next big intersection to the east—Hollywood and Vine—is in line for a multi-directional crossing.Work to install the scramble crosswalk will begin “soon,” with completion scheduled for sometime in July, says Oliver Hou, a spokesperson for the city’s transportation department.Scramble crosswalks allows for pedestrians to cross from all corners at once, moving across the street diagonally as well as horizontally and vertically.They don’t just make crossing the street easier. Data from the transportation department shows they are keeping people safe too.In the five years before the diagonal crossing at Hollywood and Highland was installed, 18 pedestrians were hit by cars in the intersection, four of them were severely injured.In the two years and 10 months that followed, five pedestrians were hit, one of them was severely injured. That’s an average of 1.7 pedestrian-involved crashes, down from of 3.6—a 53 percent reduction.A scramble crosswalk at Vine isn’t going to make Hollywood Boulevard a total pedestrian paradise. But like the one at Highland, it could go a long way to making this corner of Hollywood a little safer for people to travel on foot.