People are the exception? Are you aware of the history of cars on the street? "Jaywalking" was an idea deliberately created by car manufacturers to criminalize pedestrians on the (then) mixed-use streets.
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As for pedestrian walk signals; I invite you to visit the intersection of Charles and Jarvis/Ted Rogers Way and observe the west side crosswalk.
To cross Charles, there's 7 seconds of "clear" walk phase, and 15 seconds of countdown. We've been told pedestrians aren't supposed to start walking during countdown. So you have 7 whole second window to cross the street. Except that the white walk light immediately follows an advanced left onto Charles, which I guarantee you is almost always run by someone who sees a yellowing advance light as "hit the gas". There's 1 minute and 35 seconds between those 7 seconds of clean walking time. I've almost been hit several times there (like, slam-on-the-brakes-screetching-leave-black-streaks level hit).
Because it's probably the least pedestrian friendly intersection in the city, you also can't cross directly from one side of Ted Rogers Way to the other. Workers from Rogers who want to get a coffee, a slice of pizza or hit up Rabba across the street often jaywalk, rather than make the (also dangerous)
four separate crosswalk-traversal required to make a "legal" crossing from one side of the street to the other. There's no viable reason there couldn't be a crosswalk on the south side of that intersection, except that it might slow down cars on the "Rosedale Expressway" (Jarvis/Mt. Pleasant).
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There are tens of thousands of people living within a handful of blocks; many who work literally across the street from where they live. Thousands just in the condos and apartments at the north end of Jarvis (with more being built every year). The priority here though, is being given to people who drive into the core from Rosedale, Leaside or further away.
Cars have had too much of the focus in our planning. That needs to stop.