03-09-2016, 08:10 PM
(03-09-2016, 11:51 AM)Canard Wrote: Waterloo has giant Danger/Don't cross here signs there but people just push past the fence anyway.
If it is NOT truly a danger, then it's problematic because it leads to a culture of feeling that it is ok to just ignore signs and do whatever the hell you want. Then someone gets killed by a train or falls down a pit where there really IS a danger, and the project is delayed and opening will get pushed back (which will really annoy me.).
GrandLinq has many times in the past responded rapidly when an issue is brought to their attention. They can't fix a problem if they don't know it's there!
I can see multiple perspectives on this.
On the one hand, I am sometimes amazed at how careless people are about signage and closures. I remember a photo you posted of people jogging across the tracks in the park right next to machinery rolling back and forth on the tracks, contrary to signage and probably fencing as well.
On the other hand, there are so many pointless or unnecessary closures, that it’s hard to blame people for not obeying all the signs. I can think of several closures of paths that have extended for months with absolutely no hazard in the closed area. I don’t mean areas where it’s closed for a week but no work happens on, say, Wednesday. I mean that there is a period of several months during which a closure is completely unneeded. I immediately think of the path beside the tracks between University and Seagram, and the track crossing to Father David Bauer just south of the Laurel Creek bridge.
There certainly were times when those areas needed to be closed (including when you took your photo), but only a small fraction of the time during which they actually were closed.
I think that people who encounter a sign should default to respecting it, only violating it after careful examination of the area, on the assumption that there could be hidden hazards. It is possible for an apparently useless closure to actually be legitimate. And those in charge of construction projects should do a much better job of minimizing closures to only the times that they are actually needed, especially for non-vehicular route users who are still second-class citizens compared to the drivers (can anybody name a pointless road closure that has gone on for months?).