Engineering and encouraging good behavior on the road

[andrepoiy]

Although a bit off-topic, I'd like to share what I think is a great example of turning a stroad into a lot more inviting pedestrian-oriented road. The place in question is Lakeshore Road in downtown Oakville, Ontario. What they did was convert what was a wide 4-lane road into a 2-lane road with larger sidewalks, more pedestrian crossings, narrower lanes, and streetscape such as benches. You can judge for yourself how you like it, but I certainly like it a lot more after the reconstruction, as it made it a lot more inviting to visitors. During the summer, downtown is packed with people now. One flaw of this I would say is the lack of redirection of through traffic. Car traffic going through often gets jammed, which perhaps might be to the benefit of pedestrians, but the planners really should have thought about rerouting through traffic a bit better, as Lakeshore outside downtown is still a thoroughfare.

The image of the reconstructed road in Streetview make it look kind of dead as it was taken in the winter, but trust me, in the summer there is a lot of people.

Before:



After:



Here's a streetview link if you'd like to explore yourself: https://goo.gl/maps/96uuBpmRgw2fnmsA8

[kalvado]

Although a bit off-topic, I'd like to share what I think is a great example of turning a stroad into a lot more inviting pedestrian-oriented road. The place in question is Lakeshore Road in downtown Oakville, Ontario. What they did was convert what was a wide 4-lane road into a 2-lane road with larger sidewalks, more pedestrian crossings, narrower lanes, and streetscape such as benches. You can judge for yourself how you like it, but I certainly like it a lot more after the reconstruction, as it made it a lot more inviting to visitors. During the summer, downtown is packed with people now. One flaw of this I would say is the lack of redirection of through traffic. Car traffic going through often gets jammed, which perhaps might be to the benefit of pedestrians, but the planners really should have thought about rerouting through traffic a bit better, as Lakeshore outside downtown is still a thoroughfare.

The image of the reconstructed road in Streetview make it look kind of dead as it was taken in the winter, but trust me, in the summer there is a lot of people.

Before:



After:



Here's a streetview link if you'd like to explore yourself: https://goo.gl/maps/96uuBpmRgw2fnmsA8

And a grand total of 1 (one) pedestrian in a second picture. A story of failed success?

[andrepoiy]

Although a bit off-topic, I'd like to share what I think is a great example of turning a stroad into a lot more inviting pedestrian-oriented road. The place in question is Lakeshore Road in downtown Oakville, Ontario. What they did was convert what was a wide 4-lane road into a 2-lane road with larger sidewalks, more pedestrian crossings, narrower lanes, and streetscape such as benches. You can judge for yourself how you like it, but I certainly like it a lot more after the reconstruction, as it made it a lot more inviting to visitors. During the summer, downtown is packed with people now. One flaw of this I would say is the lack of redirection of through traffic. Car traffic going through often gets jammed, which perhaps might be to the benefit of pedestrians, but the planners really should have thought about rerouting through traffic a bit better, as Lakeshore outside downtown is still a thoroughfare.

The image of the reconstructed road in Streetview make it look kind of dead as it was taken in the winter, but trust me, in the summer there is a lot of people.

Before:

redacted

After:

redacted

Here's a streetview link if you'd like to explore yourself: https://goo.gl/maps/96uuBpmRgw2fnmsA8

And a grand total of 1 (one) pedestrian in a second picture. A story of failed success?

Alright well I can't help you if you don't want to believe me, but I can upload some of my own pictures tomorrow that was taken during the summer.

[zachary_amaryllis]

There is one area of improvement - although it is more legislative (and good behavior)  than engineering.

Drunk pedestrians are a significant problem few people are willing to discuss.
2 out of 5 killed pedestrians are above 0.08 in 21-64 year olds. It is "just" 1 out of 5 in 16-20 year olds.
If anything, this is something to be aware of for college students...

i deliver pizza from a shop that's 5 blocks west of a college campus, and can attest to this. there's drunk kids that just stagger about the street all night. not so much taking my life into my hands, but they definitely are.