Emily Sanregret Surrey
Pedestrian killed had complained about feeling 'invisible' in crossw alk before
Surrey is not alone.
Most British Columbian municipalities are included.
Their association UBCM, should be involved except that their
focus is on speeding motorist, not motorist seeing pedestrians.
District of North Vancouver's action on this front is to put up more signs alerting motorists that there are pedestrians at the curbs. The problem with their signage is that most motorists are not interested in reading signs, even if they come with a
YELLOW background,
BLACK printing of
NEW.
The problem is that the expectant Green light that the motorist is waiting for, to proceed through, and/or turning left or right, happens at EXACTLY the same time that the Pedestrian light indicates its SAFE to WAL K.
The answer:
Changing the intervals between the Motorists Green light and the Pedestrian's White light is far less expensive in material and time resources than putting up signs that are ignored.
A
BC Liberal government December 8, 2016 document was published to alleviate the pain but they only went one third of the way on a promise of Three modules.
"Community Road Safety Toolkit Module Protecting people who wal k and cycle"
Leading Pedestrian Intervals
(Page 7 of 32)
-
Leading pedestrian intervals, aka advanced green for
pedestrians, are re-programmed intersection signal phases that
provide pedestrians a head start of 3 to 7 seconds (or longer)
over drivers, reducing the potential for driver-pedestrian
conflicts and crashes.
Given this is a proven and low-cost safety design, it should
be strongly considered for widespread implementation.
- http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs2016_2/604183/community_road_safety_toolkit_module1.pdf
Document Properties:
- This module is the first of what will ultimately be three
modules of the BC Community Road Safety Toolkit. This first
module focuses on road designs that work to better protect
pedestrians and cyclists from motor vehicle-related injury.
This module also contains information on strategies that
encourage more people to wal k, cycle and use public transit
since shifting to these methods of transport decreases private
car use and that, in turn, generates better road safety
benefits.
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BC Community Road Safety Toolkit