Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
I disagree with crosswalks as traffic calming. Unmarked crosswalks should be the norm. Too many marked crosswalks and drivers will stop recognizing the unmarked ones.
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Drivers ignore the unmarked ones anyway. But proper crosswalks should absolutely be traffic calming.
Proper bump-outs, speed tables on high volume pedestrian crossings would actually reduce speed and increase pedestrian safety far more than putting up a sign and hoping drivers slow down. On the streets with the biggest concerns, the correct move would be to prioritize the pedestrian and active transport realm over the car realm.
As an example, Elbow Drive's infamously long playground zone. If the pedestrian crossing at the Rideau Bridge/32nd ave was also a speed table, it would slow vehicles down much more effectively than the playground zone sign and the threat of a speed camera one direction.
5th Street W between Elbow Drive and 17th Ave is in desperate need of traffic calming, and while lots of money has been spent on painting crosswalks and adding the cheap pedestrian lights because a couple of the unmarked spots were such problem zones, but a little more money would have made things a lot safer (bumpouts specifically would help avoid the need to step out into the street so that drivers could actually see that a pedestrian crossing, playing chicken with people trying to go 50.
Changing speed limits is a cash grab and 'safety theatre' to pretend like they're doing something, without addressing the actual problems with the streets, which that they're designed to prioritize making it easier for vehicles to go faster, rather than making people safer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
Painting lines on residential streets would get crazy expensive.
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Overbuilding roads and prioritizing cars as a transport mode is also crazy expensive, but we keep doing it. Painting lines is a drop in the bucket.