More flashing lights appeared last week over the intersection of 20th and K Streets in midtown.

The four flashers, which will turn the lights on this weekend, will bring more light to what is perhaps downtown’s flashiest corner. At that corner, a half dozen gay bars share street space with a handful of restaurants and the popular new MARRS Building, and hundreds of party people walk – and sometimes stagger - the blocks until the wee hours.

But the city’s department of transportation didn’t install the lights for looks.

Suspended over the center of the intersection itself, the four-lamp streetlight appears to be pointed down (see photo), but is actually just not yet activated. When it is lit up this weekend, the lamps will be rotated up and each will face down the four directions on both K and 20th.

The flashing yellow lights will alert automobile traffic that there are pedestrians about. Lots of them. And the lights will flash that they, like some of the drivers themselves, are likely to have had a drink or two.

How many people? Loanna Hernandez of the city's department of transportation went out to count pedestrians on one Friday night, between 10:30 and 11:30. During that time, she reported, 360 people crossed one of the four crosswalks at the intersection.

Given the considerable auto traffic, and an accident a couple of years ago, the department of transportation installed a "rumble strip" next to the pedestrian warning sign.

“It was to sort of 'wake up' drivers,” says Hernandez. “Getting people to slow down has been difficult."

So difficult, that a four-way stop was suggested, says Linda Tucker, spokeswoman for the department of transportation. But neither stop signs nor stoplights fit with existing traffic management in the area, because stops at the intersection could interfere with the railroad crossing half a block away, as well as with traffic on other busy streets one block away: 21st and J Streets.

The traffic flashers may not match the sophistication of one of the center city’s flashiest, most urban corners, but if it slows down incautious drivers – who have, we should remember, actually killed people in our downtown – those lights will be a very fine addition to the corner.