Research now substantiates what has been rumored among NYC pedestrians for years: crossing in a crosswalk is not as safe as J walking (crossing out of a crosswalk). Mind you, crossing any New York City street is a gamble, crosswalk or not. But the fact that this is now a fact prompts this Upper West Sider to propose crosswalks that are not at corners, rather crosswalks that occur during the long-stretches of vision, mid-block.

The rumor went like this: If you cross in a crosswalk you can get hit, by a car, turning hastily from one street to another avenue (or vice versa). Since the line of site is limited on a corner, the crosswalk crossing has proven more lethal, so it was said, than crossing 'out of walk' in the middle of a block where cars are turning no blind corners...rather they are driving straight, with greater vision of what lies ahead.

Now author Tom Vanderbilt has, in "Traffic," converted this great NYC pedestrian myth, to fact: More people are killed (yes killed!) while crossing in crosswalks than while jaywalking.

Those diagonal crosswalks in Beverly Hills, California are cool - like the road is closed for shopping or something. But what we really need to consider are crosswalks mid-block, where the life-saving statistics are on our side.

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