Albany

Ty Stewart and I stood like statues at the side of Delaware Avenue, watching and waiting as car after car passed by.

We were there because a study from Portland, Ore., said black pedestrians wait at crosswalks 32 percent longer than their white counterparts. Blacks also get passed by twice as many cars before one stops, the study found.

Wow, I thought.

Would that hold true in Albany?

So I enlisted Stewart, a graphic artist at the Times Union, to help me conduct a study. I wanted to see if cars would stop for me, a white guy, more frequently than for Ty, who's black.

Our study wouldn't be as thorough as the one in Portland, but we tried to replicate it.

The Portland researchers, for example, tried to control for other biases, so they matched six pedestrian volunteers based on weight and height, and dressed them neutrally. Likewise, Ty and I are roughly the same size and age. On the morning of our experiment, we were each wearing plain T-shirts.

The Oregon researchers conducted their study at an unsignalized but marked crosswalk. We found something similar at the intersection of Delaware Avenue and Bertha Street, where there's a bright-yellow sign alerting drivers to a well-marked crosswalk.

The spot near Cardona's Market seemed ideal in other ways, too. Delaware — dubbed Albany's Main Street — passes through a diverse neighborhood, and it's used by locals and commuters alike. The intersection is also just a half block from the Delaware Community School.

Ty and I agreed to meet at 8:45 a.m. Thursday. I assured him he probably wouldn't be hit by a car.

The plan was for each of us to cross the street 10 times, and we'd come up with an average of how many cars passed before one yielded.

It was gray and humid when Ty launched the study by stepping up to the crosswalk. He stood as a string of cars zipped past before there was a break in the traffic.

The Portland researchers had said bias was immediately clear when they conducted their study. So obviously, these Delaware Avenue drivers were a bunch of racist pigs.

My turn at the crosswalk. Nobody stopped. Not one car.

Ty tries again. Same result.

"That's crazy how they just blow right through," Ty said.

Me again. No change.

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In time, it became obvious that no car was ever going to stop for either of us, black or white, purple or green. The Portland study, it turns out, relied on basic civic courtesy that doesn't exist on Albany roads. We couldn't test for bias, because Albany drivers are jerks to everybody.

Small cars passed without stopping. Big SUVs did the same. Even an Albany police cruiser refused to yield.

"I would have put my money on that school bus," Ty said as it roared up the avenue.

One car that passed Ty advised him to "Eat More Kale." It should have said "Eat More Kale While You Breathe My Exhaust."

In fairness, traffic wasn't especially heavy. We waited for strings of cars before stepping to the intersection, but drivers probably realized we wouldn't have to wait for long.

Still, a crosswalk is a crosswalk, and yielding isn't optional under state law. It's required.

The Portland study, conducted by researchers from Portland State University and the University of Arizona, noted that yielding is influenced by judgment. Past studies have shown that drivers are more likely to stop for pedestrians in their own age group, or for pedestrians with canes.

I saw an example of that selective kindness on Delaware when a driver actually stopped for a woman standing at the crosswalk with a small child. My eyes nearly welled with tears at the generosity.

But Ty and I had no such luck. Maybe we didn't do enough to tug on heartstrings.

Some drivers, it's true, looked guilty as they failed to yield. They probably feared being rear-ended.

The Portland study's authors say crosswalk bias might explain why black pedestrians are more likely to die in motor vehicle crashes. They may feel compelled "to adopt unsafe crossing behaviors."

As time passed on Delaware, I adopted unsafe crossing behaviors of my own. I strayed farther from the curb to show I was serious about getting across.

Eventually, I strolled across the northbound lane to stand in the middle of the road. Lo and behold, that's what it took to get a southbound car to yield — the only car that stopped for either of during our 45 minutes of standing alongside the street.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill