Trails

[Markster]

There is a difference, that makes the sidewalk marginally safer.

   

Here's a diagram of Weber St, a bit further north.  
I've added in an imaginary pedestrian island.  
The two green dots represent people, one on the sidewalk and one on the island.  
The red rectangles the path of cars, drifting the same slight angle out of their lane.

The pedestrian on the sidewalk has one additional safety feature that the one on the island does not have, and that is the sidewalk curb. Curbs are designed specifically to prevent cars from mounting the sidewalk at these slight angles.  The car will graze the curb and correct.  The person on the island is almost certainly going to be killed because the car will have no feedback from the road design until they are driving straight over the island.

So, to bring this back up.

Meanwhile, in Guelph...
https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story...an-island/

   

Pedestrian Islands are better than nothing, but they are the lowest increment better than nothing.