Pedestrians in downtown Walnut Creek on Tuesday morning are the first to use the city's new diagonal intersections.
Two diagonal junctions, also called "scramble" intersections, were introduced Tuesday at the busy intersections of Olympic Boulevard and South Main Street and Olympic Boulevard and Locust Street, according to city officials.
The city has implemented new traffic signal cycles at the two intersections to reduce hazards to pedestrians and cyclists, especially where cars are making right turns, according to city officials.
At both intersections, there is now one traffic cycle just for
vehicles traveling north and south, a second cycle only for vehicles going east and west and a third, pedestrian-only cycle.
During the third cycle, pedestrians -- including cyclists walking their bicycles -- may cross the intersection in any direction, including diagonally.
The city decided to introduce the diagonal intersections due to the large number of pedestrians in the area currently and the expected future increase in foot traffic with several nearby housing and shopping complexes being built.
Over the past three years, there was one pedestrian collision at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and South Main Street and one bicycle crash at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Locust Street, according to city staff documents.
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City staffers said both collisions were caused by driver error, according to the documents.
