Perth Ontario is located 83 kilometers from Ottawa and is an old town established after the War of 1812 in 1816. The Tay River runs through it, and it has a historical core of stone buildings and antique storefronts that are a visual delight to pedestrians. It is a perfect place to stroll and window shop, with many great restaurants and the wonder of the Gore Street Antique Market which is a huge store full of different antique vendors and some museum quality antiques. A hand painted scroll presented to one of Vancouver’s original steamship captains was found here and is now heading to the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
With all of this interest, it made sense for the Town of Perth to make some pedestrian “courtesy” crossings for visitors and others to cross the street. But “courtesy” takes on a whole new meaning here because in Ontario cars are not legally required to stop for them. You read that right. The use of the cross walk is at the users’ risk, and Police “would likely not lay a charge against a driver if the driver does not yield to a pedestrian. It is the responsibility of the pedestrian crossing at the ‘courtesy’ locations to ensure vehicles have stopped before they cross.”
Because the pedestrian crossings are really not safe pedestrian crossings where cars stop for pedestrians, the Town of Perth laid out additional signage on the poles letting pedestrians know they are liable if hit. The safe alternative under the Ontario Highway Act is a pedestrian activated light signal which would cost in the six figures. In this case, if the motorist hit the pedestrian while the pedestrian was crossing with a walk light the motorist would be liable.
Ontario has now amended their Highway Act to allow for “pedestrian crossovers” with a painted cross walk and overhead lights and pedestrian activated flashers. These however are generally for four lane roads with a minimum speed of 60 kilometers per hour and are a major expenditure. For those folks walking around Ontario’s small towns, those technology light, simple “courtesy” crossings are not pedestrian friendly, reinforcing that in Ontario, the “car is still king”.
If any of these people mattered, they’d be driving.
That is flippant as hell, but is sadly the fundamental credo behind laws such as these. The logic of this is at least internally consistent. If moving cars supersedes human safety, then all of this makes perfect sense.
When I was growing up in Toronto the standard practice for pedestrians was to stand at the curb, hold up their arm to point across the street, and wait for traffic to stop. I always thought that was a brilliant idea because it made the pedestrian’s intentions completely clear – especially after learning to drive and discovering that stopping for every pedestrian who happened to be standing at the curb of an intersection was a non-starter.
Decades ago you used to be able to tell new arrivals to Vancouver from Hogtown when you’d see the occasional person do this, but I haven’t seen it in quite some time now – so I wonder if the practice has fallen out of use? Shame if it has.
When I was in Toronto in the early 90s, pedestrians basically played a game of chicken with cars. To cross a street (probably not a really major one though), even with lots of cars, one simply headed out into traffic. The goal was to convince the cars that you were not going to stop – or, even better, that you did not see them. Their goal was exactly the same. One would often be arms’ length from a moving car before it yielded.
As I recall, this was the standard way to cross through traffic, night or day, rain or shine. At the time, it didn’t feel unsafe. Perhaps it wasn’t. Everyone knew the rules. As with those traffic-sign-free naked streets, everyone had to be alert at all times, because sometimes the other person would not stop.
In BC, the pedestrian has the right-of-way even at unmarked corners.
That’s one fundamental difference between BC and Ontario vehicle laws.
… does Ontario still use a flashing green light to signal advance left turns?
Editor’s note: flashing green light still used to signal advance left turns.
“BC MVA: (Chapter 318, Part 3)
179 Rights of way between vehicle and pedestrian
(1) Subject to section 180, the driver of a vehicle must yield the right of way to a pedestrian where traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation when the pedestrian is crossing the highway in a crosswalk and the pedestrian is on the half of the highway on which the vehicle is travelling, or is approaching so closely from the other half of the highway that he or she is in danger.
(2) A pedestrian must not leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close it is impracticable for the driver to yield the right of way.
(3) If a vehicle is slowing down or stopped at a crosswalk or at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the highway, the driver of a vehicle approaching from the rear must not overtake and pass the vehicle that is slowing down or stopped.”
So the pedestrian has the right of way (in a marked, or unmarked crosswalk) but only once they are crossing the highway. They shouldn’t assume a ROW while standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross, but rather ensure that vehicles have come to a stop to permit a safe crossing.
http://imgur.com/U0LsO5Q
From the ICBC Learn to Drive Smart chapter entitled “Sharing the Road”
http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing/driving-guides/Pages/Learn-to-Drive-Smart.aspx
I think that says the same thing. Pedestrians have the ROW once they are crossing, but not while they are on the sidewalk wanting to cross.
Agreed, but the section of the Act uses the words “in a crosswalk” so it might be ambiguous if that’s both marked and unmarked.
The ICBC materials expressly say “unmarked” as well.
The MVA defines crosswalks (marked and unmarked) so it isn’t ambiguous IMO.
119 Definitions
“crosswalk” means
(a) a portion of the roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by signs or by lines or other markings on the surface, or
(b) the portion of a highway at an intersection that is included within the connection of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on the opposite sides of the highway, or within the extension of the lateral lines of the sidewalk on one side of the highway, measured from the curbs, or in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway;
Author
Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
Technology will help. Like the light at Midlothian at Hiilcrest Centre. An exiting vehicle will trip the sensor, initiating a countdown, but if it turns right, the light goes back to green. The countdown should be a bit longer though.
As criminally murderously motoristly irresponsible as the crosswalk situation is as posted above, the ability of peds and cyclists to bring multiple lanes of traffic to an immediate halt at the press of a button is wrong. It’s wrong ecologically. It’s wrong rationally. We need sensors. I feel like a jackass when I push the button to scoot across Boundary or Knight in seconds forcing 20-40 vehicles stop.
How many times have you seen motorists, or their passengers, jump out of their vehicles and push the cyclist crossing button? Happens all the time. One cagey old builder I know carries a long stick in his truck and pushes the button by reaching it through the window. Oh, oh, just gave the rat running motorists an idea.
Arnie Carnegie wrote: “I feel like a jackass when I push the button…”
On most major streets the pedestrian crosswalk signals are synchronized with the timed lights at the other intersections along the street. So if you push the pedestrian button it will not trigger the light immediately, but will rather wait until the appropriate time when the flow of traffic from the closest intersection has been stopped by that intersection’s red light.
It’s not a perfect system, because you can’t synchronize the lights for both directions of traffic at once – so they’re synchronized for the prevailing direction depending on the time of day. But it’s better than a completely unsynchronized light.
IMHO the only thing worse than a motorist using the pedestrian crossing button is a pedestrian or cyclist who pushes the button but doesn’t bother waiting for the signal and crosses on the red anyway. Then traffic ends up having to stop at the light with nobody around to benefit from it. That’s why I always try to cross without pressing the button if traffic permits and I can do so without any conflicts.
I have no qualms at all about stopping lines of cars with a crossing button. Our cities have been over-run by MVs and we’ve been born into motorists’ ridiculous sense of entitlement and their dream of the “open road”.
Even if we claim to want a better transportation balance, most don’t see how much our biases favour motordom. Many still call transportation without a car “alternative”! Most of us probably did at some point. We still bow to the car more than we’d like to admit.
Even if it is a good strategy, pricing our roads does not affect the outcome evenly or fairly for all motorists, But everyone has to stop at a red light. If that makes driving less convenient – Good.
We need every tool.