Intersections are too dark and dangerous at night
I live not too far away from a major highway in the GTA — the 403. In fact, when I look out my front window, and see past the houses and trees in my neighbourhood, I can see one of the tall light standards that is so bright it turns night into day. If an animal runs across that road in the middle of the night, it is bright enough that the motorists will all see it.
And I also live not too far away from a GO station. The candlepower lighting up the parking lots over there is likewise enough to turn night into day.
It’s when you get away from the highways and the GO (and the TTC parking lots in Toronto are equally bright) that things start to go sideways when the sun is down.
In short, many of the intersections in the municipalities that make up the GTA are so poorly lit that it’s a miracle that more people aren’t killed. I mean, it’s bad enough, but it could be way worse because the pedestrian walkways are not well lit at all.
I can be on a major road in my area after dark, and look into the GO lot and be able to see everything, and yet when I turn my attention to the sidewalk where I know it’s likely that people are waiting to cross, it’s difficult to make them out because the intersection lighting is so dim.
One of the problems, of course, is that fashion dictates so much of our behaviour. In summer, when the sun is up by 7 a.m., and stays out till 8 p.m. or later, we dress in clothing you can see a mile away — yellows and light greens and blues and reds and all-white. Fall and winter come — and the clocks will roll back an hour in a couple of weeks, making things worse — and what do we do? We put away the bright colours and start wearing black and brown and charcoal — just about anything that pretty much makes us invisible in the dark. So, what to do?
In recent years, some police forces and service clubs have lobbied to have people attach something fluorescent to their clothing. And yet, despite these efforts, people seem very hesitant to accept these suggestions.
But every intersection (or just about every intersection) has a walk/don’t walk light. When the white walking figure is illuminated, we cross the road; if the orange/red hand is up, we don’t (or we’re not supposed to, anyway). To have these pedestrian signals at every corner means there is a power line already there.
I suggest that a bright spotlight be placed just above, or just under, the walk/don’t walk signal. That spotlight should be tilted down at a 45-degree (or so) angle and aimed directly at/on the pedestrian crossing. The light — it could be sunsensitive so that it doesn’t work in daylight — could be connected to the timer that regulates the walk/ don’t walk signal. When the sign says “walk,” the light would go on, brightening things up considerably. When the sign says “don’t walk,” the light would go off to save electricity.
It wouldn’t be a nuisance to drivers because those lights would be aimed at the ground. But they would be a boon to pedestrian safety because the additional illumination would make it easier to see someone walking across that road.
These lights would be add-ons in the short term but perhaps the next generation of walk/don’t walk signals could have such a light built in.
I’ll let you know if I get official reaction to what I think is an idea with merit.