Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

There are real limits to how short the crossing time can be on a wide road. It has to accommodate the slowest people who will be using it- people with mobility issues, older people, children.

I agree that cycle times should be shorter than unfortunately they are in many places around the Region. The longer a person waits for traffic, the more likely he is to take risks when finally deciding to cross. Perceived time can be very long when a person has no real idea when the light will change, and a two minute wait may well mean that the crossing does not decrease jaywalking that much, and maybe even increase the riskiest instances of it.

The crossing time with the flashing hand should already accommodate the slowest people (I'm aware this is possibly not the case now), the walk sign doesn't have to be on for more than the 1-2 seconds it would take the group to start walking.

Additionally, the time can be broken up using a centre median...this was quite common in the Netherlands where crossings were staged, and could easily be done on University (at least if our traffic signal system is up to the task, from what I've seen we're living in the dark ages here).