More than $800,000 is going towards improving one Pittsburgh intersection in Oakland near the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University campuses.<\/p>\n
The signal upgrade will be at Fifth Avenue and Dithridge Street, according to a news release from city officials.<\/p>\n
The changes here will reduce the potential for crashes and injuries, Mayor Corey O’Connor said.<\/p>\n
“There’s always cars, there’s always pedestrians, there’s always students,” Pitt sophomore Noa Shimshi said.<\/p>\n
Shimshi knows how tough walking in Oakland can be at different points during the day.<\/p>\n
“It’s just a little frustrating sometimes,” she said.<\/p>\n
The city is hoping to quell some of those frustrations. At the intersection of Fifth and Dithridge, countdown signals will go in, ones you can hear.<\/p>\n
The city is putting in new LED streetlights, larger traffic lights that it said will make it easier for drivers to see, along with concrete bump-outs to make the crosswalk distance shorter and slow down turning cars.<\/p>\n
“I usually stand like right on the edge, too, and sometimes have to back up if someone’s cutting it pretty close,” Carlow University junior Peyton Wilkerson said.<\/p>\n
There has been a history of crashes at the intersection, the city said. Officials said someone even died here in 2020.<\/p>\n
The money that will fund the improvements comes from a PennDOT program that funds road safety projects through money from red light violations.<\/p>\n
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