Crosswalk shuffle
According to the minutes of the Toronto City Works Committee, on Wed. June 7th they proposed installing
“pedestrian countdown signals as a standard component of all LED traffic control signal installations in the City of Toronto.”
The Metro paper had a picture of a typical countdown fixture that literally shows the number of seconds remaining before a light turns yellow.
Now, that is a nice, no-nonsense introduction to our cities pedestrian setup and the city of Mississauga already has some up at this point. But on this subject of crosswalks I do have another point to bring up. I have noticed many areas around the city (especially the intersection of Lebovic and Eglinton - where the large Cineplex movie theatre is) where many people become “stranded,” unsure of whether to cross or not.
There are certain lesser intersections where, if you do not push the pedestrian crossing button before the light changes, the light will change quicker and the orange, “do not walk” hand sign will remain illuminated. (As the processors do not receive any signal to indicate that there is a pedestrian waiting to cross.) Since most people don’t push what they refer to as the “idiot button” they end up dumbfounded when the signals do not change. Believing, most likely, that it is simply a “left turn 1st” light they wait, only to see the traffic lights turn yellow, then red. I’ve heard more than a few puzzled remarks after such an episode.
Now, honestly is that a big problem? No, not so much a problem at al, but it has been an interesting thing to observe.
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There are similar idiot buttons all along McCowan, south of Steeles. On McCowan, being such a busy street, they are required to move north & south traffic along at a brisk pace.
Why don’t people just press? It takes a second to do and you’re not rushing to cross the street after you do it.
I think countdown timers are unnecessary but helpful. Did the Committee bother to mention the cost of implementing the proposal?
No Arv, I don’t think $$$ was mentioned at all. However, city council has yet to vote on whether or not this will be done from what I read.