Manager of transportation services responds to Star readers
of our intersections to provide additional crossing time for pedestrians.
Road maintenance, traffic signage and pedestrian safety all fall under the jurisdiction of Steve Buckley, Toronto’s manager of transportation services. He spent time with the Star answering questions from the public about the state of the city’s roads. Here are some of the most pressing inquiries asked during the Star’s live blog with Buckley.
Why don’t more lights use the left turn arrow to clear those lanes more safely?
While using protected left turn arrows can greatly benefit turning traffic, it is necessary to balance all of the demands at an intersection. Adding protected turns has to come at the expense of other movements such as time for traffic going straight through the intersection and/or pedestrian crossing time. When not applied properly, “protected” left turns can greatly cut the capacity of the intersection and add to the overall delay and congestion of the intersection.
Why don’t we install more reflective paint or cats eyes on our roads to make it easier for drivers?
Their use in urban environments is challenging. They can be expensive — 100k to 300k, plus land acquisition costs. These are recognized provincial and national standards. I agree that lane-marking visibility does become a challenge during winter months. In-pavement reflectors are prone to being popped out by plows, and embedded ones often fill up with dirt and debris, greatly reducing their effectiveness.
As a pedestrian, cyclist and runner who has been injured on the streets during all three activities, I would like to know what the city is doing to make these activities safer on the streets?
First, I think it is important to point out that Toronto’s collision — and particularly fatalities — are low compared to most major cities. That said, we always need to be striving to improve safety. We’re continuing to improve the visual quality of our intersections, through better pavement markings, enhancements to our pedestrian crossovers, providing more crossing time for pedestrians at intersections, and expanding and enhancing our cycling infrastructure. We’ve recently been asked to report back on a comprehensive Road Safety
Do you have any plans to better accommodate the majority of downtown intersection users (i.e. pedestrians) vis-a-vis car riders?
Roughly 50 to 60 per cent of pedestrian collisions are at intersections. We’ve performed intersection safety audits at those intersections with the highest number and rate of collisions. We’re looking at low-cost tactical improvements such as enhanced signage and striping, but also look at “large” improvements such as intersection “normalization,” where we remove high-speed turn bays at historically problematic intersections. We’ve also re-timed over 80 per cent
Does the city have any plans to reevaluate King and Queen to improve the priority and physical separation of streetcars from traffic?
We are working with TTC staff to improve the speed and reliability of the streetcars. We’ve modified peak hours, we’ve done detailed delay audits, and we’re revisiting many of our signal timings. In addition, TTC is looking at stop consolidation, better management of their operations and expanding all door boarding. Before we dive into solutions that presume that traffic is the “problem,” we want to be sure that we are doing everything in our power to make the system run well now.
Is there any way to limit the number of highway closures? Is it not possible to only have one closure at a time?
We do not close the freeways on the same weekend. We do co-ordinate the closures with other events — special events, sports events, TTC construction/busing and major construction staging changes, etc. — but unfortunately, there are very few weekends, if any, when there is not something else going on. Compiled by Katherine DeClerq