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It is funny the amount of attention the scramble-removal is getting. I used to love them, but I find as a pedestrian I wait much longer just to go straight. Pedestrians often ignore them anyway and just go on the straight signal. The 104-104 one is the only one where pedestrian volumes warrant the scramble, yet that area is controlled by cops before and after hockey games. If scrambles were the safest and best option, they would be everywhere in places like Sweden and the Netherlands where they actually wholistically evaluate intersections for all road users. The Vison Zero/Sustainable Safety alternative is to utilize curb extensions and leading pedestrian signals (where peds get the walk light before other road users) so that pedstrians are in better view of drivers. Banning right-on-red at any intersection with a crosswalk would also do a lot for safety.
Even going diagonally, at a scramble you have to wait up to 2 cycles before crossing. Without the scramble you can cross WHILE the green is on in 2-phases. In my opinion, yes a scramble is safe, but highly inconvenient. Other methods can increase safety without sacrificing convencince for literally every road user.
Tangentially related, but if we are talking about traffic lights, we must consider that all road users wait longer than necessary at traffic lights because clearance times are stupidly calculated here in Canada.
This video explains it well.
Protected pedestrian crossings + no-right-on-red + dedicated turn lanes + more realistic clearance times = safer and more efficient intersections for ALL road users.
 
Colour me skeptical about banning no-right-on-red at certain intersections, as I regularly see vehicles disregard the ones that already exist around the downtown bike grid, several high-collision intersections, and construction zones. In theory it is a solution but until people start getting held accountable for blatantly violating these, pedestrians are still at risk of being hit (or worse). It often feels like people are not even looking for pedestrians before initiating their turn.
 
ntt1 said:
Colour me skeptical about banning no-right-on-red at certain intersections, as I regularly see vehicles disregard the ones that already exist around the downtown bike grid, several high-collision intersections, and construction zones. In theory it is a solution but until people start getting held accountable for blatantly violating these, pedestrians are still at risk of being hit (or worse). It often feels like people are not even looking for pedestrians before initiating their turn.
Click to expand...
Arguably that would happen less when the rule is the standard, rather than the exception.
 
ntt1 said:
Colour me skeptical about banning no-right-on-red at certain intersections, as I regularly see vehicles disregard the ones that already exist around the downtown bike grid, several high-collision intersections, and construction zones. In theory it is a solution but until people start getting held accountable for blatantly violating these, pedestrians are still at risk of being hit (or worse). It often feels like people are not even looking for pedestrians before initiating their turn.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I think they are actually more dangerous because it gives peds/bikes a false sense of security, they might not check for traffic before crossing.
 
riker said:
Arguably that would happen less when the rule is the standard, rather than the exception.
Click to expand...
True, but so many people drive on autopilot now that it's hard to knock old habits off. I think that having the red lights during the scramble and separate phases for motor vehicles/pedestrians is much safer, as the phases are pretty unambiguous for the most part. Almost everyone seems to creep past the line into crosswalks now to exclusively look for vehicles and make their turn, apparently forgetting that people on foot exist outside their bubble.

Not sure why the city seems intent on throwing everything out at once with the scrambles, where perhaps some adjustments could be made.
 
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Anecdotally, I've seen some ridiculously unsafe speeding around neighbourhoods a lot more in recent weeks. The worst being someone overtaking someone going 45 on a two-lane 40kmh collector, probably going 65+, only to get caught at a light 30 seconds later.

With how comfortable people seem to be speeding, cutting corners and rolling stop signs in neighbourhoods in their full-sized SUVs nowadays, it is no surprise that we continue to see pedestrian deaths in places where pedestrians should be the safest.
 
Running reds seems to have also become acceptable. I can't count how many vehicles cross the intersection seconds after it's turned red, and that includes ETS buses. As someone stated on another thread, wouldn't it be nice if we had a dedicated group of people whose job it was to enforce traffic laws?
 
UCP has essentially legalized speeding with their significant curtailment of automatic speed enforcement.

It was widely predicted (including by the Edmonton and Calgary police departments) that rates of speeding would increase and the number of people being killed on our roads would increase.

Both of these things have happened.

We are reaping what the UCP sowed.
 
This is pretty much why we can't trust other people's judgment when it comes to safe speeds, imo. I'm not extremely bothered if someone goes 10 over in a 70 zone or on the Anthony Henday, but extending that allowance to neighbourhoods/collector roads is straight up making pedestrian/cyclist fatalities an inevitability. And it is usually all for naught. I often wish that people would actually get somewhere after almost killing me to make it worth it, usually jokingly... but there is some truth to it.
 
I dream of a day when tiny transmitters are imbedded in the road, (alternatively a GPS signal) which communicate with every vehicle's EMC (computer) telling what the speed is(and this could change dynamically depending on weather, road conditions and traffic volume) and the vehicle has to abide by that. (emergency vehicles get a pass). My phone's GPS/Nav app already does part of this displaying the current speed limit beside my actual speed.. all we need is a connection to the vehicle's throttle.
 
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