Residents have complained for years that the crosswalk on Ederlee Drive where a woman was hit and killed last month is unsafe. Drivers come down a hill, around a curve, often too fast to yield for people waiting to cross.
“I’ve seen them slam on their brakes, pissed off, because I’m in their way,” said Bob Kokol, who lives on nearby Lions Gate Drive and uses the crosswalk regularly. “Or I’ve seen them just fly on by and wave at me, as if, ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t really see you there.’ And then you have people who really don’t care and just blow on through.”
The N.C. Department of Transportation, which owns and maintains Ederlee Drive, recognizes there’s a problem. It has secured $350,000 in federal funding to install a “pedestrian hybrid beacon” that would allow people to push a button and activate a red light to stop traffic so they can safely cross the four-lane road…