What Maya Angelou Can Teach Us About Crossing a Street
Vol. III, No. 262 - The City Clarifies The Use of Certain Traffic Control Devices
Maya Angelou once said that people will forget what you said and forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel. That quote does not just apply to people. It applies to places too. And right now, for many residents, downtown Troy does not always feel like it was designed with them in mind when they are on foot.
If you stand on the Public Square and look around, you see a lot of signs that cars matter. You see a roundabout built to move traffic. You see big concrete flower pots acting as barriers instead of real refuge islands. You see crosswalks that used to exist on West Main Street but are gone now, making some walks longer and some crossings less clear. What you do not see is a clear, simple story that tells a parent with a stroller, an older adult, or a family heading to Prouty Plaza, “We put you first here.”
Recently, City Hall released a detailed memo about Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, or RRFBs, those flashing crosswalk signs some people want to see downtown. The memo leans on sixteen research studies and state and federal guidance. It makes a serious technical point: in a low speed, visually busy downtown like Troy, and especially once new refuge islands and better geometry are in place, RRFBs may not be needed and could even add visual clutter. From an engineering point of view, that argument is not unreasonable.
But the way the memo makes that point matters. It spends a lot of time correcting one council member, calling his statements incorrect, and lining up sources to prove City Hall right. It talks about cognitive overload, operational delay, and traffic warrants. It talks very little about what it will actually feel like to cross the square on foot. In other words, the memo is strong on what is said and done on paper, and weak on how people will feel in practice.
That is where Maya Angelou’s lesson comes in. You can tell people that crash numbers are “acceptable.” You can point to future drawings that show splitter islands and shorter crossings. You can argue that RRFBs are a specialized tool and not always the right one. All of that may be true. But if a person walking downtown feels exposed, confused about how to cross, or like an afterthought compared to traffic, that feeling will stick longer than any memo.
None of this means that RRFBs are the magic answer for Troy. The research could be described as mixed, and the memo is right to say that good design, clear markings, and low speeds are the basics, especially once the new Public Square streetscape project is built.
The real opportunity is looking at streetscapes differently; not from the perspective of someone behind the wheel, but by someone on foot. City Hall needs to start talking about downtown not just as a traffic system, but as a place where people live their daily lives.
And that also means explaining choices in plain language. It means using shorter sentences and fewer acronyms. It means owning the fact that some past choices, like relying on temporary flower pots for years, have not sent the right message about pedestrians. It means creating eleven page memos that read like something out of a civil engineering textbook simply does more to alienate residents than to bring them on-side.
A good first step would be to distill every long, technical memo with a one or two page summary written at an eighth grade reading level. That summary should answer simple questions. What is changing for people walking? How will crossing the street feel safer or easier? What tradeoffs are there, and why were they chosen? It should acknowledge what residents see with their own eyes today and explain, in clear terms, how the city plans to make that experience better, not just more efficient for cars.
Downtown Troy is about to see major investment in the Public Square. The new refuge islands, better geometry, and improved markings really can make crossing safer and more predictable if they are done well. So well, that maybe RRFBs will simply be an afterthought.
But if the public conversation stays focused only on traffic flow and engineering calculations, the city will miss a chance to build trust. People will remember whether downtown feels like a place that welcomes them on foot. They will remember whether City Hall spoke with them, not at them.
In the end, that is the lesson from Maya Angelou that Troy can use right now. A truly successful downtown is not just one that moves vehicles more efficiently. It is one that leaves people feeling safe, respected, and invited to stay, shop and play.
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