By Armchair Mayor

Here’s an answer to vehicle-pedestrian accidents

May 23, 2018 | 5:00 AM

ONE OF THE MOST dangerous places in town is any intersection when you’re a pedestrian trying to get across. You never know when a driver is going to be careless and hang a sharp right through a crosswalk just as you step into it.

It’s no fun for drivers, either, nervously negotiating their way through that crosswalk and wondering if a pedestrian will suddenly hop out.

There’s a better way of handling the driver-pedestrian tango — simply eliminate it.

A system called the pedestrian scramble, or Barnes Dance — after traffic engineer Henry Barnes who advocated for it back in the 1940s — is coming back into favour in Canada.

Boogie The Bridge

Boogie The Bridge Event Information

2h ago

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: 'Fairness' is not a word I would use to describe the federal budget

5h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: The NDP's mishandling of drug use in B.C. hospitals

19h ago

Under this system, traffic is stopped in all directions at an intersection as pedestrians cross in all directions, including diagonally. Vancouver was one of the first cities to try it out, and it’s now used in major cities around the world. One of the most famous pedestrian scrambles is in Shibuya, Tokyo, where as many as 3,000 pedestrians can cross in one scramble.

Toronto and Calgary have them, too.

I’ve known about the system for a long time but never thought much about it until it showed up recently on a local Facebook post. The advantage, of course, is that pedestrians don’t have to worry about drivers turning into them.

Anyone walking in the Kamloops downtown area with any frequency has probably had some close calls with turning vehicles. One study showed that vehicle-pedestrian collisions were reduced by 38 per cent.

Before we all start writing letters to City Hall demanding pedestrian scrambles at every intersection, though, they aren’t a solution in every case. Depending on surrounding traffic flow, they can cause traffic jams and even an increase in fender benders due to frustration on the part of drivers who are in a hurry.

But careful timing of traffic lights, and selection of the intersections, can make for an overall benefit. And anything that cuts down on pedestrian-vehicle accidents is worth considering.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.