Crosswalk Visibility

When going for a walk to work or school or just for enjoyment, chances are you’ll need a place to cross the street or road. Most likely you will pick a spot where drivers will see you the best like a crosswalk or intersection where is safe. Intersections may not be close enough to where you have to go so you cross at a crosswalk ( if one is their) but not all crosswalks are safe. When it comes to good crosswalk visibility, it should be well indicated with signage and painted lines. Crosswalks with not so good visibility doesn’t have any of the indicators. Below are some of the crosswalks i’ve crossed over the years, some are not so good and some are good…

---

Crosswalks with good visibility:

(Dakota St is the winner here)

Meadowbrook Rd at Lakewood Blvd

Dakota St at Jonathan Toews Community Centre

Meadowood Dr at Victor H L Wyatt School

---

 Crosswalks with not so good visibility:

(Crosswalks I believe should be upgraded)

Royal Salinger Rd at Pebble Beach Rd

Farnham Rd at Beaverhill Blvd

Knightsbridge Dr at Meadowood Dr

Tyrone Bay at St Michael Rd

---

 Jubilee Ave is a great example of a crosswalk with high visibility because of the wide strips like on the Beatles cover with a controlled flashing light system. This makes it very safe for pedestrians but there is a hidden unsafe factor for people who can’t reach or press the button. For instance when I cross at one of these crosswalks I can’t push the button so when I do try to cross I have to wait a longer time because drivers are expecting the lights to go on and not really watching for someone to cross. Luckily lots of people cross here so chances are I can just cross at the  same time. If they had lower button I could just use my foot rest or part of my power wheelchair. One time on St. Mary’s Rd I was trying to cross at a controlled crosswalk and someone stopped for me so I’m thankful for that. Also I sometimes just wait 5 or 10 mins for someone that is also crossing but that doesn’t always work.

Jubilee Ave at Bridge Drive-in ( my favourite ice cream shop )

Crosswalks should be a safe and comfortable places to cross the roadway or street.

Nassau Street South

Nassau Street South is in Lord Roberts community between Day Street South and Osborne Street. Nassau Street South is split into two parts which gets disconnect just north of Kylemore Avenue but the sidewalk should continue but does not.

With the reduced traffic on this roadway combined with a built sidewalk all the way through would make a nice alternative to Osbrorne Street and would benefit walking in this area.

Where Cumberland Ave Meets Donald St

Donald Street is well-known to Downtown Winnipeg because it goes through the SHED district and past Broadway as well as Osborne Village. In the last few years Donald St has seen sidewalk upgrades South of Stradbrook Ave and around the MTS Centre. Overall most of Donald St is in decent shape but some key spots still need attention. One spot that I’ll be talking about today is where Cumberland Ave converts into Donald St which is just North of Ellice Ave. During busy times vehicle traffic gets congestion from yielding to Donald St traffic and pedestrians.

Line up of Cumberland Ave traffic yielding to merge with Donald St traffic

This part needs improvements not only for pedestrian but also for vehicles. For pedestrians you have a crosswalk that doesn’t have a proper slopes and the roadway is falling apart. It’s set up in an awkward way that people just cross the more direct path through the grass.

Approaching the yield at Donald St

I think if the crosswalk was realign a bit to the North and more direct and if the yield was turn into a duel yield that reduce the amount of inpatient drivers (not that all drivers are, just some are) from waiting in the line up to get on Donald St as well as added a crosswalk to get across Donald St. Hopefully one day this area will get fixed and improved for safer and more appealing intersection.

My design of Cumberland at Donald (using Google Earth): Red lines is  roadway and white lines is sidewalk

Sidewalk Needed for Dussault Ave

In the last few years i’ve been down Dussault Ave in Windsor Park many times and noticed that a sidewalk is needed here. Not only does Dussault Ave has a Church location and halfway is a sidewalk connection from on side of Windsor Park to the other which has a school and community centre along it. Quite enough people walk down this road that people should be separated from vehicle traffic. 

 

Sidewalk Condition of River Road

Today I will be talking about the good and the bad of River Rd which is the Westside of St. Vital. I’m going to start with the good: 2005 the city completed the section of sidewalk north of Parkville Dr to St. Vital Rd.  With this completion of section means the full length of the roadway is now connected one end to the other by sidewalk. River Road is beautify surround by trees like most places in Winnipeg and has nice places to visit such as the the Riel House or St. Vital Park. River Rd is also connected to Bishop Grandin Trail. The bad things I noticed about the sidewalk is only on one side for the most part. This may not be that bad for other roadways but this roadway has driveways with busy traffic and multiple crossing points. If River Road had sidewalks on the both sides would reduce the amount of crossing for people. These are things the city should consider when they decide to build an AT bridge to the U of M (that’s if they decide to connect it to River Rd) in the future.