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"Pedestrian crossing presents one of the greatest challenges for the traffic and safety engineering communities. The challenge is created by the two modes of travel that share the road. The issues associated with pedestrian crossing activities generally create considerable emotional concern within the community, especially when the community is reacting to an incident involving pedestrian injury."
"Pedestrian crossing safety relies on the judgement exercised by pedestrians and drivers."
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25th at Lonsdale, West ahead
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West side of bridge, looking north
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South side of highway off ramp, looking East
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25th west of Lonsdale
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| North East corner of 25th looking south |
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| 25th, North West corner, looking South |
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| South West Corner looking East |
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Lonsdale North is up there
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Looking North East towards corner park
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| Ramp too narrow, too steep for wheelchairs |
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South side off ramp to Lonsdale, or East to Lions Gate Hospital
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To interact safely requires an exchange of information between the pedestrian and the motorist. Although traffic control devices can help to promote an exchange of information, educating pedestrians and drivers is paramount to providing for a safe operation.
Since pedestrians involved in traffic accidents are inevitably injured, safety must receive a high priority in analyzing pedestrian crossing issues.
Crosswalk safety is usually evaluated using engineering factors, since no reliable method exists to forecast pedestrian accident trends and accident rates are usually very low. Pedestrian accident history is generally categorized by age but seldom does it consider all variables such as level of use by population or age group.
The school-age group experiences, on a proportional basis, a higher accident rate. Because of this it has received additional attention in the form of specific signs and legislation governing school pedestrian activities. Concern has also been focused on the group aged 65 and over, due mainly to the general reduction in their crossing skills.
As with other forms of traffic control, the uniform application of traffic control devices for pedestrian crossings promotes the orderly and predictable movement of traffic. When traffic is operating in an orderly and predictable manner, the probability of accidents occurring decreases significantly.
Since there is no practical means of communicating with pedestrians, information about traffic flow is generally directed at drivers. Hence, information is directed primarily at the individual with the lower risk of injury. Ideally, information should be communicated to the individual who is at higher risk of injury during a crossing situation - the pedestrian.
As pedestrian control issues are often emotionally charged, there can be a tendency to assume that using more traffic control devices will resolve pedestrian safety problems.
More importantly, from my perspective as a pedestrian, there's no lights over the crosswalks at night
The lights are there, solely for the safety of the motorists interactions
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