[wyliepoon]

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.

*****

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.

 

[nfitz]

9) Gerrard St E / Main St
10) Bloor St W / Lansdowne Ave

Hmm, the last two kind of stick out. I'm not familiar with the latter, the former is very poorly designed, with the way streetcars have to cut across a straight-through traffic lane.

 

[ShonTron]

Dundas and Spadina is one of the city's safest intersections for pedestrians. They never did a rate. The City of Toronto Transportation and Works counts pedestrian movements at many intersections, Dundas/Spadina included.

It looks high because of the number of pedestrians in the intersection!

I can confirm that #4, #6 and #8 are indeed high-risk when a better statistic, rate of pedestrian injury and death per pedestrians in the intersection, is used.

 

[marcus_a_j]

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).

Because there are so many more pedestrians in the downtown core than the burbs is the reason why there are fewer intersections in core on the list. Drivers are more aware of pedestrians downtown because of how many people are walking the streets. In the suburbs drivers are less aware of pedestrians because most often there are very little pedestrians around the grab drivers attention. Drivers are not looking for pedestrians because they don't expect anyone to be crossing the intersection.

 

[BobBob]

Dundas and Spadina is one of the city's safest intersections for pedestrians. They never did a rate. The City of Toronto Transportation and Works counts pedestrian movements at many intersections, Dundas/Spadina included.

It looks high because of the number of pedestrians in the intersection!

I can confirm that #4, #6 and #8 are indeed high-risk when a better statistic, rate of pedestrian injury and death per pedestrians in the intersection, is used.

Agreed. If this list is based on absolute numbers, it's kind of meaningless and it makes the title ("most dangerous for pedestrians") plain incorrect.

 

[UserNameToronto]

Dundas and Spadina is one of the city's safest intersections for pedestrians. They never did a rate. The City of Toronto Transportation and Works counts pedestrian movements at many intersections, Dundas/Spadina included.

It looks high because of the number of pedestrians in the intersection!

If that was the case, wouldn't you expect King/Bay, Front/Bay, Front/York to be the top (given higher levels of pedestrian traffic)?

 

[benii]

I can see yonge and finch being dangerous, but bathurst and finch?!? Do people even walk around at that intersection?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I can see yonge and finch being dangerous, but bathurst and finch?!? Do people even walk around at that intersection?

Yes, many do. Wyliepoon is right when he notes the increased danger of having people dart around an intersection trying to catch buses, or people trying to catch green lights after leaving buses. This is especially true for intersections that have busy bus routes in all 4 directions and many cars making turns in every direction.

Yonge & Finch's pedestrian count would probably be lowered by 1/3 if Finch station had an entrance on the south side of Finch.

 

[ShonTron]

If that was the case, wouldn't you expect King/Bay, Front/Bay, Front/York to be the top (given higher levels of pedestrian traffic)?

Dundas and Spadina has lots of pedestrians, including elderly pedestrians at almost all hours. Front and Bay and Front and York, while yes, have more pedestrians, have peak flows - to and from the GO Trains, and to a lesser extent, after special events. They also have a younger crowds of commuters and sports attendees.

The safest intersection, in terms of collisions per pedestrian, is Yonge and Dundas. Think about it: a ban on all turning movements, the safety in numbers, the slow speeds and narrow ROWs for both streets.

 

[doady]

Dundas and Spadina is one of the city's safest intersections for pedestrians. They never did a rate. The City of Toronto Transportation and Works counts pedestrian movements at many intersections, Dundas/Spadina included.

It looks high because of the number of pedestrians in the intersection!

I can confirm that #4, #6 and #8 are indeed high-risk when a better statistic, rate of pedestrian injury and death per pedestrians in the intersection, is used.

Shouldn't more pedestrians reduce the amount of accidents though?

 

[kettal]

1) Bathurst St / Finch Ave W

Good thing there's a hospital nearby.

 

[ShonTron]

Shouldn't more pedestrians reduce the amount of accidents though?

Not necessarily. Though there is a "safety in numbers" that helps to reduce the rate in most cases.

Good thing there's a hospital nearby.

Too bad it's (Branson) only a part-time "urgent care" centre.

 

[kettal]

I had stitches done in that emergency room a few years ago. I didn't realize it was part time.

 

[cdr108]

IMO, some main things contribute to the lower rates dt vs. the outer burbs:

• more left/right turn restrictions for cars dt so less chance of a driver not missing a person in the blindspot or possibly not looking;
• more pedestrians/cyclists in dt core make some drivers more aware that they need to be alert of their surroundings;
• less surface usage of TTC vehicles where you have pedestrians dashing infront of vehicles or running across red lights to catch the bus/streetcar

 

[lead82]

Yonge and Finch can be fixed simply by adding a subway entrance on both south corners. I am not sure bathurst and finch made it.