Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[danbrotherston]

It doesn't matter if you consider it a slur, it *IS* a slur...the term "jay" is like hillbilly or redneck, and the car industry usurped it to described pedestrians in their successful 1920's campaign to steal our streets.

And mid-block crossings are 100% legal in Ontario, this is something most people don't seem to know, even the police have improperly given people tickets for perfectly legal behaviour, but outside of a midblock crossing (and court precedents have this at around 100 m, IIRC) you are allowed to cross the road anywhere.

And I agree, that in some places, our intersections are so poorly designed, that crossing mid-block may be safer.

As for pedestrians, I think the number of people jumping into traffic with their backs turned is smaller than you think. Most of the time people do look, but drivers being focused on scanning the road (or worse, their twitter feed), probably do not happen to be looking at the exact moment pedestrians are also looking.  If pedestrians didn't look, they'd be run over.

Interesting, I never knew that history of ‘jaywalking’. By some, it seems that ‘jaywalking’ is described by people crossing the road without regard to traffic (and this is what I see sometimes). One of the articles I read, though, said that crossing the road that is not marked for pedestrians is 28% safer. Which was my point, that I feel safer crossing the road wherever rather than at the proper location. As I said, I have more control of the situation if I cross where I want, rather than designated spots. Pedestrians have right of way, obviously, but you might be dealing with traffic from 3 different ways, possibly four (as was the case when I nearly got run over), rather than just 2 ways.

Fair enough, and I shouldn't have assumed that people...even here....know about the history--I didn't until a few years ago.

I do agree entirely though, that crossing the road not at an intersection can be safer, for any number of reasons.