Northern Light
Superstar
Sadly, a serious injury this afternoon, with a pedestrian hit by a train.
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Steve X
Senior Member
If you look at the article on cp24: https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/...red-after-being-struck-by-lrt-in-scarborough/
You can see the train is stopped in the middle of the grassy medium. People have been casually jaywalking like trains don’t exist. This would be the first of many future incidents if this behaviour continues. Hopefully the TTC won’t implement a 30 km/h zone for this behaviour.
PL1
Senior Member
Agreed. Similarly, I hope they don't erect a barrier to pedestrians crossing
Northern Light
Superstar
Eglinton is generally no wider than Spadina or St. Clair West, both of which see lots of pedestrians crossing mid-block, one of whom is me, from time to time.
In general, the vast majority manage this without endangering themselves or others.
There is a skill and an awareness required when doing such a thing, and you have to know your own abilities or decide to cross at a light, just as with any road.
You also need to judge your ability to have a plan B or fallback, because the best of us sometimes misjudge an approach speed or our own crossing time............so where will you stand and wait if that happens.
For all of that, I don't want to victim blame here, there is one person clinging to life in a trauma hospital and an operator who is likely badly shaken.
My sympathy and best wishes to both.
Thaboss
Active Member
At worst they could add barriers but they better not "slow down" the thing.
Northern Light
Superstar
That is not Vision Zero logic at all.
Why do you post things like this? Its really obnoxious and you can do way better.
I'll defend you against the everyone must take transit set; but only if I don't have to defend others from nonsense your making up.
What roads have a 6km/ph speed limit? None.
The limit on side streets in 30km/ph by default, 40 on major roads, and some major roads remain as high as 60km/ph.
Just really not funny; and rather tasteless give that someone is at risk of dying today.
Northern Light
Superstar
VisionZero logic believe that even one death is too many.
Therefore we must do EVERYTHING possible to reduce the speed of cars to make sure there isn't even a single death.
Which is ludicrous.
Because no matter how much you slow cars down people wills till jaywalk and cyclists will still swerve into traffic without warning.
But VisionZero doesn't care and therefore we have speedbumps on almost every side street.
We have childishly lows speed limits. 60km/h roads are 40km/h. 50km/h roads are 30km/h.
And then we have speed camera handing out tickets for as little as 9 km/h over.
So no, I can't do better. It's nuts.
And I'm merely poking fun at that by saying, what if we applied similiar logic to LRTs!
Good day sir!
I will not carry this on indefinitely.
But I will state two things clearly.
Your 'facts' are simply wrong.
And there are times you shouldn't tell a joke...
That person clinging to life is someone's son or daughter, someone's mother or father, someone's sibling or best friend or spouse.
If that person were your wife or your child .....and someone else was poking fun .....how would you feel about it? Right..
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toronto647
Active Member
This will add an extra 2-4 weeks in investigating why this happened at least by Metrolinx and TTC. More delays
crs1026
Superstar
The Eglinton line has very long stretches between pedestrian crossovers. If this were a road, we would be increasing the number of crosswalks and ensuring no long stretches between them. And building refuge islands.
Vision Zero blames the road design, not the driver or the pedestrian. We have designed an LRT as if there is no need for pedestrians to cross it safely. Maybe that's the problem.
- Paul
Vision Zero blames the road design, not the driver or the pedestrian. We have designed an LRT as if there is no need for pedestrians to cross it safely. Maybe that's the problem.
- Paul
Northern Light
Superstar
I agree w/the sentiment Paul.....
But I would point out Eglinton IS a road.
Not meaning to be silly, just saying.
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I would also note, the nearest traffic light west of Pharmacy is only 222m away, meaning maximum walking distance to a traffic light of 111m
It is further if this was to the east of Pharmacy with a gap of ~460m, or max. walk of 230m to a light.
But as there are no intervening blocks, I'm not sure another light would be justified.
For sure, Eglinton here should have been designed better from a pedestrian and cycling point of view, and would be today. A painted bike lane does not cut it. and providing some standing space next to the tracks would make a world of sense.
Still, I would point out, Eglinton was previously 3 lanes each way, plus a turning lane in many spots. So its far safer post-LRT than it was previously. (its now 2 lanes + LRT, + left turn lanes at lights)
There is an intention to make improvements here, relatively soon. though they won't be as robust as one would like, but there is money budgeted. Some improvements will occur with redevelopment over time as well.
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cateran
New Member
Assuming the LRV didn't move much afterwards, based on the image from CP24 and from using Google Street View the collision seems to have happened at the eastern edge of the intersection of Eglinton Square and Eglinton Avenue
This intersection currently has pedestrian crossings at all edges except for the eastern one
(Had to use Google Earth because Google Maps is very out of date)
Obviously we need to wait for more details to confirm but it seems possible to me that they were crossing along this edge when they were hit
The solution to me would then be to add a pedestrian crossing to this side of the intersection
I also feel in general it is silly to leave one side of an intersection without a crossing though
This intersection currently has pedestrian crossings at all edges except for the eastern one
(Had to use Google Earth because Google Maps is very out of date)
Obviously we need to wait for more details to confirm but it seems possible to me that they were crossing along this edge when they were hit
The solution to me would then be to add a pedestrian crossing to this side of the intersection
I also feel in general it is silly to leave one side of an intersection without a crossing though
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Steve X
Senior Member
Thanks for the imagery. See there is no place to stand between the roadway and the tracks. The grass and concrete mixed ROW does add confusion.
There are fencing along some parts of the ROW where elevation differs between the tracks and roadway. They should extend that to the entire golden miles stretch where jaywalking is common.
The 30 km/h limit has been imposed on Queens Quay and parts of Spadina near Chinatown where jaywalking is common. As far as we all hate it, the TTC seems to love doing this. Hence why I mention it.
thettctransitfanatic
Senior Member
On the CP24 coverage of the incident, they mentioned that in the time the police were there, several pedestrians appeared to be crossing across the tracks and the police had to tell them not to go near the LRV or on the tracks.
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Admiral Beez
Superstar
Just wait until there are thousands of residents living on either side wanting or even being encouraged to walk across Eglinton.
The very term is akin to victim blaming. People will cross where they want to, and the road and LRV should be designed to reasonable accommodate those who want to cross the road. It’s not realistic to expect anyone to deviate more than a few minutes from their preferred straight A to B line.
T3G
Senior Member
I would much rather we discouraged jaywalking by designing the infrastructure correctly, i.e. with an appropriate amount of crosswalks, and safety zones to prevent people from blindly walking forward:
Or even what they do in Kitchener-Waterloo, where there are gates and audible warning signals that sound when a train approaches. Putting up a wall would just make an already pedestrian hostile landscape more unpleasant to traverse.