Raise the Hammer

I have to disagree with this comment.

Cootes is a divided 80km/h highway with a well-separated pedestrian and cycle path for most of its length. However, its character and the local environment change dramatically when it crosses the McMaster Campus.

It changes from an unpopulated conservation area to a densely populated urban area with a university campus on one side and a residential neighbourhood (with many student and faculty residences) on the other. Remember that McMaster has the population of a small town: about 30,000 students and staff.

Clearly, it is not appropriate to drive at 80km/h through an area with thousands of pedestrians crossing daily between their homes and the campus!

This is why the speed limit drops at that point and why there is a crosswalk to meet the needs of the pedestrians who need to cross back and forth (often several times a day).

The overpass is obviously not a substitute for the crosswalk (it is over 400m away, a 800m return trip, equivalent to a 10 minute walk, which in time is equivalent to driving 8km out of the way for a motorist going at 50km/h), and neither is the intersection (about 300m away, a 600m return trip).

What exactly is the problem with slowing down to 40km/h before approaching a crosswalk and major intersection in a densely populated urban area? I drive there all the time and it is no problem at all.

The difference in travel time between 50km/h and 40km/h for the roughly1km of the lower speed zone to the Main intersection, is about 15s. What's the rush?

In addition, it is not the crosswalk that caused the death, but the motorist who failed to obey the law, slow down and yield to the pedestrian crossing. Motorists are supposed to be in control of their vehicles at all times, and on the look out for pedestrians, especially in this sort of densely populated area. That is precisely why a lower speed limit is needed: to increase reaction times in areas with a lot of pedestrians crossing!

Finally, whenever the subject of improved conditions for cyclists comes up, there is an immediate chorus of motorists saying that cyclists don't deserve anything because they break the law (rolling through stop signs seems to be the favourite example).

Here's a deadly example of motorists breaking the law by exceeding the posted speed limit designed to protect vulnerable road users, and the response is "if the motorists don't obey the law, it should be changed."

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-05-05 15:39:13