He pointed to the 2017 audit, but drew attention to one more issue. In 2020, the Spartańska Street primary school community reported that children walking to school had to cross four-lane Woronicza Street, which has up to three pedestrian crossings without traffic lights.” – Said Saia.
The Żoliborz MJN councilor Łukasz Porębski said that not only an audit of pedestrian crossings in Warsaw was carried out, but also speed measurements. He recalled that in Żoliborz in 2018, on ul. Powązkowska, the speed of cars reached 104 km/h, on ul. Popiełuszki – 108 km/h. He emphasized that despite many reminders from the ZDM, he only paved the way there.
He stressed that the city government should make money available to improve safety at pedestrian crossings, otherwise tragedies like those on Tuesday would occur.
Mokotów City Councilor Zofia Jaworowska reported that in the morning she submitted a request to the Mayor of Mokotów regarding the safety of pedestrian crossings on Woronicza Street and other streets in the district. She recalled that the district council, in its previously adopted position, called for the installation of radars or sectional speedometers, among others, on Pulawska Street.
In turn, the councilor of Warsaw Left, MJN and Razem, Marta Szczepańska, said that the councilors would present an interpellation regarding the City Council’s plans regarding the audit of the ZDM. As Warsaw City Councillors, we demand that we take Warsaw’s road safety seriously. – she added.
Jakub Dybalski, spokesperson for the Municipal Road Authority, commented on the audit issue when asked by PAP.
“In the middle of the last decade, we realized that we needed specific and objective information about dangerous places in the capital. We focused on pedestrian crossings. A comprehensive audit of all (4,092) unmarked pedestrian crossings on roads managed by the ZDM was therefore carried out in 2016-20.. The audit gave us a clear basis on which crossings should be improved and how. And year after year, several dozen, sometimes a hundred, zebra crossings in Warsaw undergo changes. Sometimes a small reconstruction, sometimes a complete one – how to improve safety is indicated by the audit recommendations,” Dybalski said.
Almost 500 crossings received the lowest grades in the audit (0 or 1). “0” also gained passage from Woronicza Street to Spartańska Street, where Tuesday’s accident occurred.
Dybalski reported that to date, as a result of the audit, the following measures have been introduced: changes in 542 meetings in the capital including 231 with a rating of 0 or 1. “For the Woronicza/Spartańska intersection, the contractor is finalizing the preparation of the project documentation, which includes, among other things, the complete signage of this intersection. We will accept this project in September and we plan to reconstruct it – if we get funding – next year,” the ZDM spokesperson noted.
