Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[danbrotherston]

Jay-walker is a slur, but the suggestion that people crossing legally, mid block or technically illegally on a countdown timer because our laws haven’t been updated or illegally against the light, are less intimidated by drivers is...is either playing into the toxic dominance belief on our roads (if you mean literally intimidated), which could be true—I don’t know for sure, or the common missbelief  that peds aren’t watching or don’t care to notice traffic which is almost always false in my experience.

To be clear, I said jay-walking, and no reference to people crossing legally. I don't consider jay-walking a slur either. I am intimidated to crossing roads legally, and actually feel safer jay-walking than crossing legally, as I have zero leverage when crossing legally. This was after a near-death experience when I was young, walking on a green light, with the white walking man still lite up, and some crazy woman drove through the red light, nor more than 2 feet from me. She nearly swerved off the road after she saw was she did. My brother-in-law was also driven over by some crazy lady turning right on a red, and my son go into an accident with his bike when a lady made a left on her green on HIS green (so she turned in front of him). That was the last time he biked to school.

From my personal experience, while driving, I have seen people walk into a live traffic lane mid-block. They have no right to be there, but I give it a pass if they can do it safely, as I "jay-walk" as well, as I already mentioned. However, if they jump into traffic especially with their back facing traffic, then it becomes as issue. While in the daylight you can see these people and slowdown, you can't always see them at night, especially if the roads are wet and the pedestrian is wearing low visibility clothing. This is not the fault of the driver if there is a collision.
Especially when they literally run into traffic.

I give anyone walking against a countdown timer as pass. If by chance I am turning left and I am already in traffic, we're all going to have to wait, and it is what it is. I would like to think that I am not a unique driver, and perhaps I am always thinking of the consequences of running over a person, even if I am not to blame, and it doesn't seem worth it, to save, maybe 5 seconds? But apparently not everyone has my thinking when it comes to our roads, that it's shared, and used, by everyone.

Also, folks, if you see geese, feel free to run right at them (at 10 kph -- that means slowly), they'll move 100% of the time. It's a qualified answer as I have worked with this horrible creatures over the past 10 years, and as arrogant as these birds are, they have the same proximity alert that flies have, only it's set to about 10 feet or so, and not 6 inches like a fly. While I can't guarantee that you'll not have to stop 5 feet from these buggers, I am very confident that they'll move, as they always have for me.

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.