A short article and video demonstrating the new pedestrian priority phase (pedestrian scramble) implemented in Toronto this summer. Will be interesting to see if the pilot project gets expanded to other intersections.
Pedestrians First at Yonge and Dundas
I vaguely remember this (or at least talk of this) when I was in school in a typical college town. Seems to make a great deal of sense when the number of pedestrians can justify it. Be nice to see more of these around.
Much work remains to be done before we can announce our total failure to make any progress.
I would have expected the video to show a lot more pedestrians crossing there.
It is a great example though of what can be done and certainly tells the story in such a way that is easy for the public and public officials to understand. That is half the battle when it comes to trying to implement something that is slighhtly different. Thanks for the link.
We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes - Fr Gabriel Richard 1805
Sackville, NB was a one traffic light town when I went to university but the light worked like this.
I remember Moncton, New Brunswick having this system in the 1960s. thought it was wild at the time! Still do.
Not all the comments are so kind. Some promise impatience among car drivers akin to road rage. Here in Bangkok, at busy intersections, they have a digital countdown to the light change. They tell me this has a very calming effect on both drivers and pedestrians. Puts some predictability into th process.
In Toronot, how do they deal with turning right on a red light during the pedestrian free for all?
Thanks for the link. I am an idealist and would like to believe that this can work in U.S. cities, but I fear that the country has become too lawsuit-crazy. In the U.S. there are sure to be ambulance-chasing lawyers who magically appear at the scene when the first pedestrian becomes injured, (even if it's minor).
I'm extremely familiar with how personal injury lawyers speak; an intersection like this in the U.S. would be called "a tort waiting to happen."
We use ped countdowns here - it tells pedestrians how much longer they have until the light changes to red. I actually find them much more useful when driving...Originally posted by Monamogolo
No right turns are allowed at this intersection, period. Those restriction were in place prior to the scramble installation. There was talk initially of restricting pedestrian movements to the scramble phase only and re-introducing right-turns for vehicles during their green phases, but this was put-off (probably due to the fact that peds would try to keep crossing if they saw the light was green for the direction they wanted to cross in).
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