Child on Bike Killed in Homewood
Crash
On Sunday August 18 at 5:30 PM, nine-year-old Courtney Carter was riding her bike near the intersection of Rosedale Street and Tacoma Street in Homewood. Witnesses say that she was riding on a side street and crossed at the intersection when she was struck by a driver in an SUV. She was taken to Children’s Hospital in critical condition. At 6:24, she was pronounced deceased. The driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with police, and as of this writing has not been charged. On Monday Mayor Ed Gainey released a statement:
Our Collision Investigation Unit is actively working to investigate this incident in real-time. Once the investigation is complete, our Vision Zero Fatal Crash Response Team will complete a site visit to determine what improvements can be made to ensure that this never happens again.
On Tuesday, Courtney’s family held a balloon release in her memory. At that event, Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak acknowledged previous requests for traffic calming along Rosedale Street, but that at the time it hadn’t met the criteria for improvements and that “other projects that were more dangerous corridors … needed to go first.”
Courtney’s family has set up a memorial page.
Context
Both Rosedale and Tacoma Streets are extremely low-volume local streets, owned by the City of Pittsburgh and maintained by the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI). PennDOT doesn’t appear to have conducted traffic counts on either of them, and they don’t show up on any of DOMI’s plans. Both streets are approximately 30 feet wide. Their intersection is uncontrolled. The west side of Rosedale Street has single-family houses set back about 30 feet from the sidewalk. On the east side of Rosedale, there are vacant lots on both sides of Tacoma Street. The only thing that would affect visibility at this intersection is an overgrown tree on the northeast corner. The lot that this tree fronts onto is owned by the City of Pittsburgh, so whichever City agency is responsible for the lot (most likely the Land Bank) is responsible for the tree.
Countermeasures
The visibility of this intersection could be improved by simply pruning and weeding around the tree on the northeast corner.
Improvements could be made to both the intersection and the roadway to make them safer. Curb extensions, a raised intersection, or a traffic circle could slow speeds through the intersection, while simply adding a stop sign would bring them to a halt altogether. While raised intersections are rare in Pittsburgh, the other interventions have been employed in traffic calming projects in other parts of the city.
Example of a yield street. From NACTO.
Rosedale Street is also a perfect candidate for conversion to a yield street. A yield street is a low-volume street where traffic is allowed in both directions, but rather than each having their own lane, they share a travel lane, and have to take turns using it by temporarily pulling into the parking lane. Rosedale Street is wider that it needs to be and feels wider than it already is due to the houses being set so far back from the street. With it’s low traffic volume, as well as low on-street parking utilization rate, it could easily be converted to a yield street, reducing speeds and improving safety while having minimal impact on traffic flow and parking availability.
Contact
DOMI is responsible for the maintenance of these streets and takes requests for neighborhood traffic calming at this site, but with the attention the Mayor is already giving to this case it is likely already in their queue. In order to make sure it remains at the top of the list, you can contact Mayor Ed Gainey’s office online here or by calling (412) 255-2626; and Councilman Khari Mosley by email here or by phone at (412) 255-2137. Encourage them to make short-term improvements by properly maintaining the tree on the City property at the northeast corner of Rosedale and Tacoma Streets, and to continue with long-term improvements to both the intersection and the length of Rosedale Street.