Scramble!

[electricland]

So I want to go over and check out the new pedestrian scramble at Yonge and Dundas, which is 3 blocks from where I sit. (And 17 floors down, yes. Don't trouble me with technicalities.)

I'm quite excited about this actually. Aside from anything else, it may one day save me from being crushed to death at the northwest corner, where there is next to no room to stand anyway. The CityNews story has obligatory driver whining:

It's that kind of pronouncement that angers drivers, who will now be forced to wait a lot longer at the lights, increasing their already simmering impatience and their feeling that City Hall is at war with the car.

"You've got to keep traffic moving somehow, and to hold up traffic just so a few pedestrians can cross wherever they want doesn't make sense," moans motorist Bryan Lawrence about the four way stop.

Because if it weren't for those darn pedestrians, traffic at Yonge and Dundas would just move like lightning! I decided some time ago that trying to drive in this area = Doing It Wrong. It's a recipe for rage and disaster. I don't think one changed pedestrian crossing more or less is going to make a difference.

This "war on cars" meme that's appeared lately irks me. Sorry, motorists, but yes, trying to change the transportation mix away from cars and towards cycling and public transit is going to involve some inconvenience for drivers. And personally I'm OK with that.

(I suspect that a lot of drivers are fine with everyone else taking the bus or their bike. Hey, more room on the roads!)

Comments

[headgardener.livejournal.com]

Quite right -- a nice simple geometrical calculation about fitting traffic into street grids is that if all the people who live and work in the couple of dozen blocks that make up what's called 'Fitzrovia' in London were to travel by car, they would need 6 x 10-lane motorways (or 10 x 6-lane motorways) -- the Buchanan Report on traffic in towns, back last century (sorry, can't recall the date off-hand). sheepthief?

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

(I suspect that a lot of drivers are fine with everyone else taking the bus or their bike. Hey, more room on the roads!)

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that if you polled most drivers they would be in favor of better mass transit, more car pooling, more people biking. I'm sure further probing would reveal that they're especially in favor of others pursuing those measures. Just because I can't or won't, doesn't mean that everyone else shouldn't. (I should admit that I'm far from innocent of this sort of thing myself.)

[lostvoice.livejournal.com]

I LOVE pedestrian scrambles. I first encountered them in Quebec City, and they're awesome. And it actually helps the flow of traffic, even if the driver has to wait a whole 28 seconds longer. :eyeroll:

As for the on cars - fuck'em. Right in the ear, as my roomie would say. ;)

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

Of course, you and I know that in Montreal, every intersection is a pedestrian scramble. :)

Cu,
Andrew