First, let me say that near my apartment, almost every corner has a stop sign or stop light.
Probably because of this, drivers don’t stop at stop signs unless they think that they are going to be hit by a rival car.
There is a particularly bad corner 1 block from me, where there is no rival automobile traffic, only pedestrian traffic. There are also pigeons. Hundreds of pigeons. It’s on a park.
There is a stop sign at the corner, but no traffic light. The city is unwilling or unable to do anything about it. I believe they don’t want to put a traffic signal there just for pedestrians and also because it may hurt the ambiance of the park.
My thinking is that if I leave bird seed in front of the crosswalk, the birds will congregate there, and traffic will at least slow for the birds.
Will it work? Is it legal? People regularly feed the pigeons in the park.
I have to use this corner occasionally, and it literally is taking your life in your own hands.
Do you live in Minneapolis? Ugh. That city is awful for having a stoplight or stop sign at every intersection. Whether or not it’s legal only matters if you get caught. The idea’s pretty creative; I say go for it.
Well…I can’t think of anything illegal about it. But you’re going to get a lot of pissed off drivers and a goodly deal of squished up birds. See, at least pedestrians realize that big ol’ cars can cause lots of damage to their internal organs, even if they ignore it and jaywalk anyway. Birds don’t realize this. They won’t move until the car gets close enough to them.
So if you’re looking to control the bird population, by all means, lead them to their death Pied Piper. But if you’re looking to slow down traffic may I suggest a lovely orange vest and a hand held stop sign?
You might cause an accident instead of preventing it and if you are caught you will be held responsible.
You might also attract rodents. I have seen little sign in NYC parks that have a picture of a rat saying something along the lines of ‘go ahead and feed the pigons, there is always plenty of food left over for us’
Just a WAG, but I’d wager this is illegal. Most jurisdictions (in the States at least – I’m assuming that’s where you are) have laws outlawing cruelty to animals. Your plan will certainly lead to more pigeon deaths, so that’s definitely cruelty. Plus, as k2dave noted, you might cause an accident as someone swerves to avoid the pigeons.
You all are missing the point. The feeding is done in the cross walk or just in front of it, where cars are supposed to be stopped. If they have to swerve there, it means they didn’t stop for a stop sign! So it’s their own damn fault if they hit a pigeon or have to swerve. They’re supposed to stop! That was the whole point.
NYC has a huge problem with rats. Chicago doesn’t - there are rats, for sure, but it’s not an infestation. Let me just say that in this area, the pigeons and little birds would eat all the feed before any rats got to it.
I’m not sure if they would stop for pigeons before stopping for pedestrians or not. I think they assume that pedestrians will quickly jump out of the way, whereas with the birds, they might not want to get their SUV dirty or have to clean the tires of their taxi. The buses probably would not stop anyway.
Hey, give your city council a break! Sticking up signs and lights at every opportunity isn’t always a good idea. If it turns out there really isn’t such a large number of pedestrians after all drivers get used to the idea of never having to stop because the lights are always green for them until one day they forget and splat. Visual pollution is also a genuine concern. How many other people in your city have a bit of pavement they’d like to plaster with signs and lights etc because it just happens to be near them? Traffic management isn’t just an art its a science.
assuming it’s legal, you will still have a choice of two worries as you approach the corner with birds pecking away. 1. Are the cars going to stop for the birds? 2. Are the cars going to stop for ME? Why confuse the issue, feed the birds in the park and forget about question 1.
If the road is so jam-packed that you can’t cross, how is it that the birds are going to stay there? Conversely, if the birds are freely grazing on their newfound plenty in the crosswalk, only infrequently having to scoot out of the way of a passing car, how is it that you are having trouble traversing this area?
In other words, How did the chicken cross the road, if you can’t?**