wyliepoon
Senior Member
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...-dangerous-intersections-for-pedestrians.aspx
The city's 10 most dangerous intersections for pedestrians
Posted: November 16, 2009, 4:10 PM by Rob Roberts
By Carmen Chai, National Post
The North York intersection of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue West is the city's most dangerous for pedestrians, Toronto police said today.
Toronto's top 10 intersections for car-pedestrian accidents in 2008, compiled by Traffic Services, included Birchmount Road and Sheppard Avenue, Bathurst Street and King Street West and McCowan Road and Sheppard Avenue East.
Police narrowed the list down to 10 from over 2,200 intersections in the GTA based on three criteria: vehicles making right turns, pedestrians crossing with and without the right of way and collisions that resulted in serious injury, hospitalization or death.
The list:
1) Bathurst St / Finch Ave W
2) Birchmount Rd / Sheppard Ave E
3) Bathurst St / King St W
4) McCowan Rd / Sheppard Ave E
5) Yonge St / Finch Ave E
6) Sheppard Ave E / Parkway Forrest Dr
7) Dundas St W / Spadina Ave
8) Weston Rd / Finch Ave W
9) Gerrard St E / Main St
10) Bloor St W / Lansdowne Ave
Sgt. Tim Burrows of Traffic Services said these locations topped the list because of the "sheer volume of a combination of vehicle and pedestrian traffic that goes through the intersections."
"I've never seen, in my career, an unavoidable collision," he said. "Whenever a collision occurs, there are only two things that could have happened: human error or dynamic malfunction within a vehicle, but we know that doesn't happen often so when it comes right down to it, it's human error.’’
So far, 39 traffic fatalities have been recorded in the city this year, 26 of them pedestrians. In 2008, 27 of 54 traffic fatalities were pedestrians.
Senior citizens usually account for 50% of the pedestrian injuries, but that percentage is rising, Sgt. Burrows said.
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What surprises me about this list is that most of the intersections are not in the downtown core where the pedestrian density is high, where we expect more conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles and where people jaywalk a lot more (or at least are tempted to more often).
I can offer up one reason why people are hit more at suburban intersections... they might be TTC passengers trying to dash across the street while transferring from one bus to another.
The city's 10 most dangerous intersections for pedestrians
Posted: November 16, 2009, 4:10 PM by Rob Roberts
By Carmen Chai, National Post
The North York intersection of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue West is the city's most dangerous for pedestrians, Toronto police said today.
Toronto's top 10 intersections for car-pedestrian accidents in 2008, compiled by Traffic Services, included Birchmount Road and Sheppard Avenue, Bathurst Street and King Street West and McCowan Road and Sheppard Avenue East.
Police narrowed the list down to 10 from over 2,200 intersections in the GTA based on three criteria: vehicles making right turns, pedestrians crossing with and without the right of way and collisions that resulted in serious injury, hospitalization or death.
The list:
1) Bathurst St / Finch Ave W
2) Birchmount Rd / Sheppard Ave E
3) Bathurst St / King St W
4) McCowan Rd / Sheppard Ave E
5) Yonge St / Finch Ave E
6) Sheppard Ave E / Parkway Forrest Dr
7) Dundas St W / Spadina Ave
8) Weston Rd / Finch Ave W
9) Gerrard St E / Main St
10) Bloor St W / Lansdowne Ave
Sgt. Tim Burrows of Traffic Services said these locations topped the list because of the "sheer volume of a combination of vehicle and pedestrian traffic that goes through the intersections."
"I've never seen, in my career, an unavoidable collision," he said. "Whenever a collision occurs, there are only two things that could have happened: human error or dynamic malfunction within a vehicle, but we know that doesn't happen often so when it comes right down to it, it's human error.’’
So far, 39 traffic fatalities have been recorded in the city this year, 26 of them pedestrians. In 2008, 27 of 54 traffic fatalities were pedestrians.
Senior citizens usually account for 50% of the pedestrian injuries, but that percentage is rising, Sgt. Burrows said.
*****
What surprises me about this list is that most of the intersections are not in the downtown core where the pedestrian density is high, where we expect more conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles and where people jaywalk a lot more (or at least are tempted to more often).
I can offer up one reason why people are hit more at suburban intersections... they might be TTC passengers trying to dash across the street while transferring from one bus to another.
