afransen
Senior Member
Good video by Shifter featuring Paige Saunders about some of the infrastructure improvements being made in Montreal.
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Roads: Traffic Signals
- Thread starter reaperexpress
- Start date
Towered
Superstar
Just to go back to this one for a second, I took the picture below right from Bloor and Spadina, looking south. The new lights are literally 8 car lengths in distance, and it’s not even a road:
dullturtle06
Active Member
So I just visited halifax and saw how little traffics lights there are. Pedestrian crossing are used very often and allow safe mid block crossing. Traffic moves effectively and is only stopped when required. I am convinced a sizable amount of congestion in Toronto is due to city council and their traffic light spamming. Halifax also is implementing vision zero principles using flexy posts and concrete curbs. Oh and these are not the Toronto ones that are tossed around by a vehicle hitting them. They are bolted to the pavement and have standard height signage attached to the top. Gottingen street halifax is good example.
Towered
Superstar
Even Halifax has more balls 
Coolibop
Active Member
Winnipeg has similar, but they also seem to have better adherence to speed limits, probably in part due to speed cameras.
TRONto
Active Member
I wouldn't say 'safe mid-block crossing' for Toronto. I use the pedestrian crossings with the (many times correct) assumption that cars are not going to stop.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Just because Toronto's unsignalized crosswalks are poorly designed does not mean that unsignalized crosswalks are inherently unsafe.
TRONto
Active Member
agreed, hence the "for Toronto"
dullturtle06
Active Member
Ya toronto still has not switched to the rrfb signs that are installed all over ontario and North America. The lights are more "aggressive" which increases compliance and safety.
lenaitch
Senior Member
The problem I have with the 'new' (Level 2) crossover signage in Ontario is the flashing beacons are off to the side rather than overhead in the driver's field of view where they are in the older 'Level 1' configuration. In some cases, because of curb design, trees, or whatever, they can be quite a bit off to the side to the point of being obscured. In a couple of communities that I know of in Central Ontario that originally had this design of crossover (in both cases a built-up area reduced speed zone interrupting a highway speed zone), they have been replaced with full signals.
In my opinion, if they repeated both the signs and lights overhead the lane it would be much safer.
dullturtle06
Active Member
Yes so rrfb signals above the crosswalk with led lights lighting up the area underneath. But as far as I know thats not in the ontario standard. Should be though.
afransen
Senior Member
I would like for most of these crossings to be raised to make it easier for drivers to comply and yield to pedestrians.
dullturtle06
Active Member
Raised crosswalks and intersections are great but not for thru routes. They are used on local or service routes. Each is a tool in the tool box, which are is most effective when used properly. Raised crosswalks on thru routes will created unnecessary congestion thinking roads such as dundas or Jarvis. What toronto transportation should do is identify which roads are for vehicle movement and which are local/services. Then plan road safety and traffic flow to maximize the efficiency of each.
Monarch Butterfly
Superstar
Having raised sidewalks at entrances to side residential streets would nudge motorists to slow down. The main street would still be level. Consideration however should be looked at rainfall runoff and where the rainwater will flow. Hopefully not collect in ponds caused by the dams at the raised sidewalks or crosswalks.
afransen
Senior Member
Raised cross-walks are a good idea on 2 lane roads with low/moderate speeds and volumes (<50 kph). Studies show that driver compliance with yielding at cross-walks drops off dramatically at higher speeds. Encouraging people to use pedestrian cross-overs on wide, higher speed streets is a bad idea if you just have some flashing lights. Full traffic signals like you see on Spadina make more sense on wider streets.