Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Most people would be open to that thought, but I think we should also be willing to say that there are clear cut examples - King and Willis (the most central intersection in uptown Waterloo) and University at Hazel (the main entrance to a sizable post-secondary institution on one side, and the beginnings of the densest area (Northdale) in all of Waterloo on the other - where the dangers of encouraging unsafe behaviour at major pedestrian crossings vastly outweighs the occasional fractional trip time savings for cars.

The thing is, the main thing which encourages unsafe behaviour is delay.  Nobody will mind waiting 5 seconds for a walk signal.  The problem is, this is counter to throughput (the longer you leave it green, the more traffic can flow).  I'd be willing to accept beg buttons in return for shorter delay, and if we're willing to trade shorter walk times for it, then that makes perfect sense.

In the Netherlands, many intersections are actually split with a middle island, which makes phases much more complicated, but basically lets you turn only one direction red at a time, to let a pedestrian cross, further shortening the red times.