Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
How many planners did it take to put the crosswalks for the peace bridge not near the bridge? Do we need a walking coordinator to make sure common sense gets used?
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I've posted about this before over the years because it's always interesting to me.
My buddy was part of planning this project. His team's original design put a crosswalk at the end of the bridge.
Druh Farrell's office killed the idea because it would slow down Memorial drive (three pedestrian crossings in a row), and the cost to install an extra crossing was too high (peace bridge budget was a political hot potato). Likely there were some community flyers that were sent out as well, and the rich people of Sunnyside on the river didn't want the extra traffic.
So the planners were fine, the politicians were not.
Edit: Just chatting with my buddy. After the crosswalk was removed from the design, he wrote a memo to the team to build rocks or trees in order to prevent jaywalkers. However, as mentioned above, the budget for the Peace Bridge project was already so tight so they didn't do it. Of course, a year later, the City planners are being blasted again all over the media for all the jaywalkers and suddenly there was room in the budget for what you see today.