Do cars have to yield to pedestrians at Pa. rail trail crossings?

• By Nathan Willison / LNP | LancasterOnline

Each year, over 180,000  people use the Warwick Township, Lancaster County, portion of the 7.5-mile Warwick to Ephrata Rail Trail for both recreation and commuting.

After almost 30 years of development and planning, the full trail opened in December 2018 after a railroad bridge over Cocalico Creek was restored in Warwick Township. The trail — which follows the old Reading and Columbia Railroad bed that dates to 1863 — had been cobbled together in sections since 1996, about five years after planning began, and plans to extend the trail continue in municipalities all the way to Adamstown.

By and large, there have been few issues with safety at the numerous road crossings between Lititz Springs Park and Ephrata Borough or at the trailhead parking lots along the way. The first fatality of a pedestrian or cyclist along the trail came on July 24, when a 24-year-old father of two was fatally struck by a car just before 5 p.m. at the Rothsville Road crossing in Warwick Township. The investigation into Christian Scott Noto’s death is ongoing, according to Sgt. Adam Webber of the Northern Lancaster Regional Police. Investigations take into account anything that can potentially influence the factors that led to the crash, including speed, distracted driving, whether anyone was under the influence and weather conditions. They can take months to up to a year to complete.

For motorists, the crossings are marked with signs warning of the upcoming trail crossing. Some crossings, like the one at Rothsville Road, have flashing lights; others, like the crossing at Picnic Woods Road, have warning signs several hundred feet prior to the crossings and at the crossing itself.

 

An LNP | LancasterOnline reporter observed the Rothsville Road crossing on a weekday morning and saw cyclists and pedestrians yield to traffic — as well as several drivers slow down and yield to pedestrians.

But do vehicles legally have to yield to pedestrians who are crossing the road?

While the answer, based on the flashing lights and signs, as well as some drivers’ habits, might seem to be yes, that’s not the case. Signs on the trail indicate that trail users are to stop for traffic.

The Lancaster Watchdog took a look at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation safety rules for both pedestrians and drivers.

According to PennDOT and municipal guidelines, the party that must yield at a crossing is largely determined by the crossing’s location.

“Unlike pedestrian crosswalks in urban areas, vehicles have the right-of-way at trail crossings and are not required to stop for you,” a warning for trail users on the Warwick Township website states. “Be safe! Wait to cross roadways until there is no traffic and you can do so safely.”

In general, pedestrians must yield to vehicles on high-speed roads, those with speed limits at or exceeding 45 mph, like Rothsville Road.

In urban areas with lower speed limits, drivers must yield to pedestrians using a crosswalk, although drivers do not have to yield until a pedestrian begins to step into the crosswalk, and pedestrians should always practice caution, according to PennDOT’s pedestrian law.

On roads without an intersection or crosswalk, PennDOT officials say pedestrians have a responsibility to yield to vehicles.

For cyclists, PennDOT says they must yield to traffic before riding a bike across a road, though if they dismount and walk their bike, they have the same right of way at a crosswalk as any other pedestrian.