The recent changes to pinch intersections in Old Strathcona has made a big improvement in safety, and the amount of car noise has decreased due to clampdown on modified vehicles.* So thanks for that.
But if we want safer conditions for pedestrians, we have to address safety conerns along Whyte Avenue itself.
We must make drivers be less cavalier about their right turns at red lights and stops at stop signs.
For some reason many drivers go east on 83 Avenue then turn right on 104th then right on Whyte Avenue. Short-cutting? Maybe. I don't know why they do this and end up going back the direction the came from. But I do know that too many of them when stopped by a red light do not stop for their right turn properly and block the pedestrian crossings.
Perhaps right turns on red lights should be regarded as a privilege and not a right. Take the privilege away once in a while totally, or in high-pedestrian areas in high-pedestrian times/seasons, and it might be recognized as a privilege once again.
Convenience stores and gasoline stations located at corners should have their parking lots set up in such a way that they cannot be used as short-cuts. One such is the NW corner of 91 Street and Whyte Avenue.
New construction should prohibit buildings with parking lots on corners. Put the gas station in the middle of the block,for example. We will have more difficult time encouraging walking and pedestrian traffic if we can't find courage to clamp down on drivers' "freedom of the road," their feeling they should be allowed to drive anywhere their vehicle will go.
Cars should be confined to roads as much as possible. I have noticed recently barriers being built at many parking lots to prevent cars from being parked or driven on sidewalks. That is good.
The interruption of sidewalks caused by driveways should be discouraged, perhaps taxed.
There is no proper sidewalk on east side on 103 near 36 Avenue. And the pedestrian crossings across 103rd are few and far between, forcing people to make perilous runs across traffic.
There is no proper sidewalk on east side on 104th south of Argyll.
In Old Strathcona,
barriers should be put along curb in NW corner of 103 and Whyte. This would muffle car noises and give pedestrians higher degree of comfort as the multiple lanes of traffic roar north on 103.
The cattle chutes that push pedestrians out on to streets inches away from roaring traffic should be stopped. If a business wants a patio, they can tear down their building and put up a patio. Just kidding.
But seriously sidewalks should be preserved for pedestrians as a public space. At least a eight-foot wide (2.6 metres) sidewalk is minimum for convenient safe pedestrian use, especially with invading scooters, skaters, skateboarders, and occasional bicyclists.
The parked cars that would otherwise go where the cattle chutes are sited act as sound mufflers and help give pedestrians a feeling of safety and privacy. Pedestrians benefit from the presence of the parked cars.
Scooters are a bad idea. What is wrong with walking? Good healthy exercise. The streets and sidewalks and crossings were crazy enough with bicyclists, cars and pedestrians, without a new layer added.
83rd and 101 Street
Bicyclists do not take proper care at this intersection. Pedestrians almost take their lives in their hands due to hard-pedalling bicyclists barely yielding to pedestrians. I would prefer return to four-way stop there for all traffic.
102 Street south side of Whyte Avenue
Crossing 102 Street was much safer when there was only south-bound traffic. Now north-bound left-turning traffic often blocks the pedestrian crossing while holding up right-turning traffic behind them. You can stand there and watch, and I bet you in less than three minutes you will see at least one car stop in such a way as to block the pedestrian crossing of 102 Street.
North-bound traffic on 103rd turning right on to Whyte Avenue seldom stop appropriately. A scramble crossing would help pedestrians there, especially if there are going to be many people embarking and disembarking from the new streetcar end of steel at Whyte Avenue east of 103rd. (Since I wrote this, the City has installed a scramble crossing. However, still many motorists do not stop at the red light but try to make illegal right turns onto Whyte Avenue during gthe pedestrian scrabmle lperiod,. intruding on pedestrlians crossing during their alloted period. If right lane was to go straight or to turn right, then a car waiting to go styraight but stoped by red light wold lstop right=turing vehicles behind it. not 100 percent guarantee of safety for pedestrians crossing but better than having no impediment at all to right-turning vehicles breaking law and endangering pedestrians.
81 Avenue and 101 Street -- cars seldom stop at the stop signs if they stop at all.
81 Avenue between 103 and 104 Street should have pedestrian crossing in line with storefronts, counterpart to the crossing on 80th Avenue.
Cars northbound on 101st Street turning left on to Whyte Avenue, most of which have short-cutted through the Ritchie area, are ongoing threat to pedestrian crossing Whyte on west side of intersection. They are crossing as per walk signals but are always harried by cars turning left on to Whyte and by cars southbound on 101st turning right. A person was killed there in just that situation not long ago, and the City does not seem to have changed anything about the signal operation or signage since then.
Scramble crossings allow safe pedestrian crossing. The city should have more of them
But the one at 105th right now does not work well for north-bound traffic on 105th. The City should direct straight traffic and right-turning traffic to the right lane, and only left-turning traffic should be in the left lane. Of course this cannot be done because (temporarily?) there is only one lane of traffic open. But that is a mistake. For the sake of three tables, which seldom have people sitting at them, traffic north-bound is insanely slowed. Is the City trying on purpose to make the scramble crossing fail so it can get rid of it? It seems like that.
103rd Street north of Whyte Avenue
left lane often is blocked by parked cars just as you get over the railway embankment. this creates a blind closure of lane with no notice.
103rd Street approaching Whyte Avenue
cars in left lane may be turning on to Whyte or going straight. How about a barrier north of the intersection with appropriate signage stating that left lane turns left? Then there would not be the uncertainty.
if driver wanted to turn left on 83th, he or she would stay in second lane from left until past the block then move over. Another barrier to close left lane north of 83rd not as important visa vise driver's confusion because lane ends anyway a little farther on, but may be useful to prevent traffic running into parked cars just over the hump.
If stunting cars and speeding on Whyte Avenue are problems late at night in summer evenings/nights/early mornings, then shut down Whyte Avenue to all but emergency vehicles after midnight.
Also late-night checkstops at main exits from Old Strathcona would grab many drunk drives and potentially save lives, their own and others. It is said after closing time, more than half the drivers on the road are over the limit.
Old Strathcona should be re-purposed to a mixed shopping district, even at expense of high rent paid by bars.
I doubt the taxes the bars pay covers the high cost of party-night law enforcement, fight suppression, crowd supervision, ambulance and hospital charges caused by mishaps, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and accidents incurred in the centralized late night party scene. Slowing it in Old Strathcona may spread it out to other parts of the city, but it may also dampen the flame-feeding-flame phenomena, decreasing the alcohol-caused damage overall. Meanwhile it would return Whyte Avenue to the shopping district it used to be, serving the local neighbourhood and County of Strathcona residents by selling more than just alcohol.
Whyte Avenue could have a mixture of businesses that would appeal to all generations of people and draw people at all phases of the day and all days of the week, not just predominantly evening and night hours on week-ends.
Sunny sidewalks are enjoyable in all seasons. Human-scale construction is also important. Buildings on southside of Whyte should be kept down to three stories
The setback of less than a metre at the three-storey level on the new building at SE corner of 105 and Whyte should fool no one. It is a multi-story building that completely dwarfs the scene. Setbacks that small are mere lies. If developers try to fool us like that, they must be held down to three-story limit. with no exception for pretend setbacks.
Buildings on southside of Whyte should be kept down to three stories and 6 or 8 storeys a block away.
These types of things would encourage people to walk - good, healthful exercise that the city should be encouraging.
Thanks for reading.
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*when I wrote this blog, the City was clamping down on noisy vehicles. But now in 2024, the United Conservative government has ruled that Edmonton cannot used noise metres to monitor vehicle noises and thus the City is unable to clamp down on noisy vehicles as much as in recent years past.
Shame...
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