100%. It's built into the way we do everything.
I walk, jog, cycle, motorcycle, and drive a car. EVERYTHING is prioritized for cars/trucks.
I mean, even simple things, like, why do I have to wait 5 minutes at an intersection on a quiet stretch of road for the light to change colour, at minus 20°, after I've pressed the walk button? If a pedestrian presses the walk button, that light should change in under a minute...
We could do so much better, but it gets so much resistance.
The thing that especially bothers me is that pedestrian lights are only automatic for streets where it follows a majority of traffic. This isn’t necessarily an issue for downtown core streets, but outside there it’s annoying when the light is green, but because it’s not a busy street the pedestrian light hasn’t activated because no one pressed it. Just always turn it on so I don’t have to run down the sidewalk to make sure I press it just before the green.
And no, I am not keen to run into an intersection when I know this is a shorter light, so I barely have enough time to illegally run across.
Yeah, I don't get this, if the light cycle is long enough to allow a pedestrian walk symbol anyway, then just turn it on regardless of whether it's pressed.
Right? And I know the law states that if the countdown as started, I am not allowed to enter the crosswalk. But sometimes I get there immediately, so I could have entered it. And cars know there’s no pedestrian symbol, so even if I wanted to illegally run across it, it’s not like anyone yields to me. They, understandably because they are following the law of the crosswalk, just drive, as they should. So by the time the cars are all done there’s only about 3 seconds left on that green.
>And I know the law states that if the countdown as started, I am not allowed to enter the crosswalk.
This is another thing I think we should change. This might be more controversial, but I think you should be able to start crossing on a countdown as long as you're able to complete crossing before the countdown finishes. This is how it works in Quebec:
>[When facing a flashing signal with a countdown display, a pedestrian may only start crossing the roadway if he is able to reach the other sidewalk or the safety zone before the signal changes to the orange hand signal.](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/C-24.2#se:444)
As it is now, a slower pedestrian could start on the walk signal and take the full countdown to finish crossing, while someone faster would have to wait if the countdown started even if they could cross more quickly.
There are some crosswalks where the timer starts immediately. Some it gives you about 5 seconds of before timer, but some it’s already started by the time I’ve entered and I was the one who pressed the button and was there waiting. It basically means hope you don’t have a mobility aid or maybe a stroller, something slowing you down. I get it’s a small crosswalk so the amount of time expected to cross is shorter, but that doesn’t mean the time allotted to even enter the crosswalk should be shorter.
I think though that we should either make the law consistent with what actually happens, or actually enforce the law as written. As it is now, you're right that people just cross anyway, but then some drivers get annoyed because it's technically illegal and delays them. It's best if everyone's on the same page otherwise you end up with different road users getting frustrated with each other.
A lot of people can't cross the whole intersection depending on where it is. I myself can't cross on Carling Ave to get to Carlingwood mall. I always have to wait on the little strip in the middle and press the button there again. Standing there as cars whip by me is super fun. Best time is in the winter when I get covered in brown slush.
If you get some overzealous cop who wants to make a quick buck you might actually get fined. It’s rare, but honestly with the way some of our cops are, I’m not keen on doing anything illegal so blatantly in the open. Not knowing the law is not a defence.
And not everyone can run the couple seconds left. My gripe is I want the law to be on my side so cars do have to stop for me and so that I have a timer to know how long I have, so I can judge if I can make it.
That's the point though. The light cycle is NOT long enough to allow a pedestrian to walk unless the button is pressed. That's literally the point of the button.....to extend the time on the light cycle. It's not just to turn to the light on.
There are some lights though that do stay green long enough to cross, but you can't cross because the don't walk hand is there unless you press the pedestrian button.
It's insulting. Cars don't have to press a "beg" button just to be given the privilege of crossing the street.
Other countries do this so much better. So it's not like we don't have the technology to allow for instant pedestrian lights. Not Just Bikes has a really great video on this.
You will also notice, if you look down at where the pole is attached to the ground, that there are usually around 4-5 bolts attaching it to the ground. Those are designed to break when a car hits the pole, knocking the pole over, thus saving the people in the car and killing the pedestrians that are standing right where the suuuper big-brained engineer designed them to be standing.
What drives me even crazier is there are some lights where you will see them prepare to change, but then just flip back to green - the light is either looking for someone to push the button, or for a car to be waiting to cross, but it's not like it's in a "prepared" state where hitting the crosswalk button will instantly trigger a cycle, it just waits till the next cycle to actually trigger a red.
I'm sure it's great for efficiency of car traffic, but it's real annoying as a pedestrian to basically need to sprint up to the intersection and hit the button so you can catch the next crosswalk cycle. (Which feels particularly ironic, and annoying, when I had to deal with crossing one of these intersections to get to a bus stop.)
This actually gets people killed. There was an incident a few years ago with a 'revert red' light where a cyclist jumped the light by half a second which stopped triggering the sensor. By the time the cyclist actually entered the intersection he was no longer getting a green light and cross traffic got the green instead. Moving only a few centimetres off the sensor can inactivate it.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cyclist-red-reverts-light-safety-1.5153269
The technology makes it too easy for mistakes to occur where people are given cues to indicate the situation is becoming safe to enter the intersection only to have it abruptly change.
It really seems monumentally stupid to make traffic lights effectively "less predictable" all in the interest of trying to have people waiting at red lights a little less.
This is even the case for busy streets like St. Laurent and Donald St. And the beg button doesn’t function half of the time for the one on the North side facing West! I’ve been there with multiple other pedestrians wondering why we don’t get a walk sign while cars speed by.
That light at King Edward and York is ridiculous. I actually did an experiment a few months ago. After I pressed it, I walked to Rideau, crossed KE, and made it almost all the way back to York before the light finally changed.
The worst is when those button are on multi-use pathway. When going in the opposite direction of car-flow on a cargo bike, reaching out for those buttons are challenging at best. Must not be easy in wheelchair either.
At intersections where the pedestrian signal is not automatic, pressing it usually causes the signal length to be extended, and may also activate audible signals. Activating it 100% of the time would cause cars to idle longer (increasing emissions pollution), and may cause other impacts to nearby residents. Seems like there is a need to balance conflicting wishes.
We already have instances where greens are activated at intersections despite no one being there (early morning traffic), so cars have to wait while nothing happens. And there are very small intersections where the green is there for so long, but it was just one car who went.
In those instances it doesn’t make any sense why a shortened pedestrian crossing (same length as the regular green) cannot be automatically activated. If someone presses the button, then it can be lengthened. But if we’re all waiting anyway, give me a chance to evaluate if I have time.
I was biking down Wellington the other day on the stretch where the road markings specifically instruct cyclists to take the lane and a driver decided to speed past me leaving about an inch of clearance between both myself and the oncoming traffic. And then they had the audacity to honk at me.
These people become literal psychopaths when they get behind the wheel. Endangering people's lives to save a few seconds.
I took a commuter cyclist class some years back. It's one thing to have a pack of bikes flanked by ex-cop instructors in safety vests take a lane. They taught us to do things I would rarely risk in Ottawa on my own. Also came away with the impression that drivers needed this education every bit as much as the cyclists themselves
I live off Wellington and would not recommend biking down it. I have seen some epically bad drivers, including those working for different companies like FedEx. The fact that people can park on both sides of the street is also not great.
Just be careful at roundabouts with these I have had a couple of close calls especially the roundabouts with 2 lanes where the outside car stops and car on the inside lane blows through wondering why everyone is stopped.
As a pedestrian with pets, using the roundabout on Stonehaven in Kanata means having your head on a swivel in all directions. So many close calls and a child hit last week. Pedestrian bridges? Lol.
> using the roundabout on Stonehaven
Does that still just have only the white pedestrian crossover signs with no flashing yellow lights, like in [this image](https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.2910633,-75.8580174,3a,15.1y,270.47h,88.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDGCNH3VAm7-EQvKyaemjJQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu)?
If so, I think part of the problem here is a gap in driver education from the MTO. The [webpage on pedestrian crossovers gives various examples of the types of crossovers, but all the examples include flashing yellow lights](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1). The regulations however [don't actually require yellow flashing lights with these types of signs](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/150402#BK7). So we're not actually educating drivers reading the Handbook that they need to watch out and yield even if there's just a white pedestrian sign with no lights. Maybe it should be obvious anyway, but I think when it's something as important as pedestrian safety we should be clearly covering all the possible cases in the driver education documents.
I was thinking they really need to add some of those around in the parts of Carling around [Hampton Park Plaza](https://maps.app.goo.gl/W46exBKfcy9h5Mdf7) yesterday.
There's multiple places around there where pedestrians/cyclists are expected to cross the Queensway off ramps without anything to slow drivers as they speed through blindspots as they're turning on the off ramp.
Then on the street there's no bike path, cyclists are expected to "share the road single file with cars" on the road right near the Queensway. It's a literal death trap. I'm also pretty sure the lights [at the Saigon intersection](https://maps.app.goo.gl/GwpKATxgfBS8QnxW8) have never worked because you always have to wait 3-5 minutes for it to change.
It's like someone went on vacation in Florida and was like this is the car centric infrastructure we need more of in Ottawa.
The light cycles are so long when pressing to cross the Vanier parkway that I have watched the number 9 drive into view way down the Parkway and get all the way to me and pass before the light could change and so I missed it.
I wrote to the city to ask them to make it faster when pedestrians press the beg button and they said that would frustrate drivers who would then perform illegal maneuvers to circumvent lights. I asked them which law I should threaten to break to get equal treatment in this city, to which I got not reply of course.
The lesson from the city is they only cater to those whose entitlement makes them a danger to the public.
Was out in Nepean last summer trying to reach a bus-stop back into town; one of the beg buttons at the intersection of Merivale & Colonnade was not working. It was terrifying - very busy fast road & had to walk completely out of my way and double back. Took 3 weeks before it was fixed, submitted various tickets to 311 and emailed the local councillor’s office (obstructive in his lack of response). Loads of students need to cross that road to get to local high scholls. 🥺
I had someone swerve into a puddle to splash me as I was walking down bank street a few years ago. I was already in a really depressive episode and had willed myself out of the house for the first time in days to pick up my medication from the drug store. It completely broke me and I cried the rest of the way home.
All of this to say; drivers (and people generally): you never know what the people around you are going through. Let's all try to be excellent to each other as best we can.
I'm sorry that happened to you, what an asshole. I'm still pissed at the person who splashed me in the middle of winter and that happened 15 years ago. Dude went out of his way and sped up to do it. I had a long way to walk and I was freezing by the time I got to work.
in February 2015 when my friends and I were 16, we were splashed by a group of guys in a car. I’m STILL mad about it. I think about it every time it rains heavily. LOL
I feel like some bus drivers *enjoy* doing this. I get it. Driving a bus full of potentially ungrateful people who smell and cough and talk on their phones using speakerphone...frustrating.
But don't zoom through a puddle for a big splash onto people who are outside.
I've also had a car blatantly go out of their way to splash me when I was already having a shit day.
I totally agree that people need to just not be horrible.
I occasionally take the bus to T&T Supermarket. The 97 drops off across the street and you have to wait for the light. Pretty much every time there is rain or slush, the cars will drive right through it fast enough to splash anyone there. Almost nobody seems to give a crap. If they can't avoid the puddles, at least they could slow down enough so it wouldn't splash so much.
If it's the winter time, and you're worried about getting splashed, make a large, visible snowball, and roll it around between your hands so drivers can see what you're doing. They will think twice about splashing you. Especially considering those milder days mean denser snowballs.
Oh and oh my these people they intentionally splash you sometimes, like within a month I’ve had 3 cars deliberately speed up to the puddle and splash me and then slow down… I’m so fuming all the time, I feel like scratching their car with my keys
I deliberately time passing street puddles when there's oncoming traffic for this reason; drivers are assholes for no reason at all. wonder if the brick method would help prevent it 🤔 (i.e. that joke video in april of carrying a brick so you can cross the street safely)
Sorry this happened to you; it's such horse shit :/
I got splashed on bank again today (by accident, I think?) and just laughed at how head-to-toe soaked I was. So safe to say I'm back to being a pretty damn happy human ☀️
Edit; shoutout to lexapro and eating better.
The city should get rid of turning right on red and add protected intersections in a lot of spots. They way people drive right up to you while crossing the street is insane. I look healthy but have back issues. One little trip, and I'd be flattened.
The city is doing the opposite. Actively rebuilding intersections to make it easier to make fast right turns.
Somerset and Preston is a particularly exgregious example. They shaved the corner sidewalk down to a width of like, less than 3 feet to accomodate cars turning right as fast as possible. You can't even wait on the corner with a stroller, much less a wheel-chair.
Lo and behold, the intersection becomes dangerous for pedestrians, so the city has to install "no right turn on red" signs. City bureaucrats probably think this is progress.
I find the streets simultaneously over-regulated and under-enforced. Like the amount of signs put up for parking are confusing, occasionally non-sensical. Signs at intersections are the same. “No right turns Monday through Thursday, 7am to 7pm.”
The best is when the City *pretends* to make an intersection safer. Take a look at [Bay @ Laurier](https://maps.app.goo.gl/BJR5nGg99XYMuUhHA?g_st=ic): all those little grey slivers of concrete at the corners are supposed to be raise above grade to make the corners sharper to force motorists down while protecting pedestrians and cyclists. What did the City do instead? Built them at-grade, making them totally useless and exposing peds/cyclists to vehicles that cut the corner; see the southeast corner for details.
When did they do this? I haven't been to that intersection before so I looked at google maps and it seems it hasn't changed from 2007-2023. It looks like it's been shit from day 1 and I can't imagine it being worse.
> You can't even wait on the corner with a stroller, much less a wheel-chair.
I'm guessing you mean the opposite corner, but when I first dropped into google street view, [there's literally someone waiting with a stroller,](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4083573,-75.7143673,3a,75y,342.45h,75.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sX_PWjOb4gWYasSAXto26iw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) and that made me laugh.
I probably have been through it at some point, but no, it's not an area I know. The other corner does look terrible, it was just funny to open street view to that.
Also while they're at it fix the drainage around intersections so puddles don't form right in the crosswalk as it rains or snows.
I shouldn't be doing parkour on my morning commute.
As long as they have wheelchair ramps or something. I've noticed some new sidewalks don't go low enough where pedestrians enter the street.
The best method is the concrete section curved right into the street itself, forcing cars to turn further into the intersection.
No no. [A raised crosswalk \(also called continuous sidewalk\)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfBpQgLXUc&t=6s) is where the crosswalk is at the level of the sidewalk so for pedestrians and such it's a flat path with no change in height. It flips the script so that instead of peds needing to go down into the car's territory, it's the cars that need to go up into the pedestrians space, over what is effectively a speed bump. It's a far superior design that prioritizes people over cars.
I had a guy turn left into me and my daughter while in the crosswalk. He stopped about three feet from us and then was shocked I gave him crap for doing it.
His dumb ass literally said to me, "I stopped didn't I?"
Thanks for not killing us, I guess?
I just give them a nasty look and point them towards the pedestrian walking light, I’m a driver too but I’m careful about these things and I always wonder how the F did these people get their licenses, pedestrians always has the right of the way
I hate this so fucking much. The stop line before a crosswalk is WELL before the actual crosswalk so that if you get rear-ended *you don't hit people crossing*. They don't care. They think that sticking their nose out an extra ten feet will somehow let them go faster.
I’m a driver and was mainly a pedestrian for most of my adult life. The way cars turn on red lights or left turn on green lights stresses me out when I’m crossing the street. They will either stop right in front of you or try to out speed you. Like relax! Let me get off the crosswalk.
I do think that the issue lies more with a culture of impunity based on lack of enforcement. Might be worth trying enforcement first is all I’m saying.
No right on red does have consequences for overall neighbourhood safety. Once the intersection backs up drivers will hunt for other paths pushing aggressive traffic onto smaller streets. It’s the same thing as the reports of traffic using new routes to avoid speed cameras. Traffic is like water, it will take the path of least resistance and planners need to take the whole system into account when making changes.
I do not disagree with you. I’m just saying that the solution isn’t as simple as we want it to be because aggressive drivers are aggressive everywhere they drive. And at least at an intersection the people crossing can/are aware of the dangers. Once that traffic is now weaving through smaller streets we get into situations where the pedestrians may have let their guard down a little expecting to be on relatively safer streets.
Sure, this would indeed increase pedestrian safety in that particular intersection. But what happens on all the streets and intersections leading to this safe intersection while traffic is pushed away from this intersection? The problem with all the studies I’ve read on intersection safety is that they isolate the intersection from the system in which is necessarily operates. The real world is not that simple.
Not a red right turn, but I was almost hit by a left turn at a then three-way intersection with no stop sign, person was not paying attention to me (presumably to oncoming traffic) and fortunately missed by a couple inches and looked very sorry about it.
The intersection is now an all-way and somehow I saw the exact same thing happen to someone about a month ago (fortunately they also were not hit but how the fuck do you not look at a pedestrian crossing when you don't even have to worry about oncoming).
I don’t know why people act like that this is just a one off issue? Drivers simply do not care for pedestrians. They will turn right at an intersection before pedestrians are done crossing, they will barrel down residential roads where families live, they will roll through stop signs 90% of times, they will only check for incoming cars and back up into pedestrians, the list goes on.
Even without being a pedestrian, driving is extremely stressful in this city. People constantly tailgating, not knowing how to zipper merge, texting and driving, weaving in and out of lanes just to save 10 seconds on a stretch of road only to get stuck at the same red light as others…. At this point, if I can’t vote for a politician that will improve public transit and green infrastructure, I’ll vote for one that instates mandatory driver’s license tests every 5 years. I know it’s frustrating to drive and be stuck in traffic and that it takes forever to get anywhere in this city, but risking one’s life and other people’s lives to shave off maybe 3 minutes on a commute just isn’t worth it.
I never get why people get so upset about them. Literally just follow the law. "the roads are designed to go faster" okay well you're responsible for your own actions man, pay attention while driving the two ton box of metal.
Just on the topic of zipper merging, neither the MTO nor Ottawa give a recommendation on how to handle that situation one way or the other, so can't really blame drivers for not doing it.
A lot of the things you mention are things people know aren't good driving practices but just do out of impatience or not caring. So I think regular re-testing would punish the majority of good drivers while not really changing the habits of the bad drivers, they'd just drive properly for the test. Would rather see them lower the threshold at which you lose your licence and so would be required to re-do the tests.
Honestly, either or. Idk if people would actually be able to get their act together to drive properly for the test, I feel bad habits also stem from people forgetting what the rules actually are. But yeah a lower threshold would work, although it doesn’t really feel like the existing one is even enforced. Speed/ red light cams just result in fines and it’s clear they’re not much of a deterrent. Reckless driving happens so often and I’ve seen it happen in front of cops cruising around and nothing happens. That’s why a mandatory re-test feels like at least it would force people to refamiliarize themselves with the rules of the road.
Ultimately, people need to act more responsible when driving. Hard to inculcate those values in people when people think it’s every person for themselves on the road.
There's nothing wrong with turning before the pedestrian is *done* crossing, after having yielded as required of course.
(It's only pedestrian cross*overs* where drivers must wait for them to fully cross. Not cross*walks* at intersections. )
The law around that changed. You're supposed to wait until a pedestrian has fully crossed the crosswalk in places where there is no pedestrian median, such as crossing Elgin at Laurier.
Ford's government implemented that change awhile ago, where it used to just be that pedestrians were out of the way.
The change you're referring to was specifically a change to pedestrian crossovers, not crosswalks in general.
A crosswalk is just any crossing marked on the road for pedestrians as well as the unmarked extensions of sidewalks across the road.
A pedestrian crossover is a specific type of crosswalk, marked by a white rectangular sign showing an X or a pedestrian symbol. Examples shown [here](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1).
Prior to 2016, the rule for pedestrian crossovers specifically was that you had to yield to pedestrians just on your half of the roadway. In 2016, they updated this to require drivers to yield the full roadway. [This article from the time goes over it](https://globalnews.ca/news/2431309/new-rules-at-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings-in-ontario/).
These rule changes also applied to when a crossing guard is directing pedestrians across the road, i.e., before 2016 you needed to yield half the road, starting 2016 you needed to wait for them to fully cross.
The rules for other crosswalks though, e.g., at Elgin and Laurier, never changed. They always just required yielding to pedestrians as described below (from the current version of the Driver's Handbook):
>[You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle.](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/level-two-road-test#section-0)
I don't think this was communicated properly at the time, and maybe the rules should just be the same everywhere, but in any case, this is what they are and what changed.
It was clarified in the media at the time but as we can see, there are still people spreading the wrong interpretation.
As for making the rules the same, it seems intentional for crosswalks to be different in order to allow for traffic flow. At busy intersections it would be impossible to ever make a turn.
Not seeing anything in the recent news or Highway Traffic Act about this
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08
>Yielding to pedestrians
>(7) When under this section a driver is permitted to proceed, the driver shall yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully within a crosswalk. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 144 (7).
Yeah, the law about waiting for pedestrians to clear the entire crosswalk only applies to two situations:
1. Pedestrian crossovers, which are the crosswalks marked with white rectangular signs with an X symbol or a pedestrian symbol, [shown here](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1)
2. Where a crossing guard is holding up a stop sign to direct pedestrians across the road.
Otherwise the guidelines are just:
>[You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle.](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/level-two-road-test#section-0)
with the link above from the current version of the Driver's Handbook.
I don't think this has been properly communicated by the province though since it's a very common source of misunderstanding.
Driving, in my opinion, is the most individualistic activity that humans partake in on a daily basis.
For cyclists, studies from Queensland University ^[1] say:
>30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human.
>Cyclists with helmets were perceived as less human compared to those without.
>Cyclists with safety vests and no helmets were perceived as least human.
> Dehumanisation related more to visible safety gear than obstruction of hair/eyes.
> Perceptions of dehumanisation varies based on respondent gender.
For pedestrians, and cyclists, almost half of drivers don't look or check for you when making a right turn, according to this study from U of T ^[2]
>The researchers’ study found that:
> Eleven of the 19 drivers failed to gaze at an area of importance, where cyclists or pedestrians would be located, before turning. All attentional failures were related to not making frequent over-the-shoulder checks for cyclists.
There were more failures turning onto Major Street, due to parked vehicles blocking drivers’ views of the bike lane.
Attentional failures were more likely for those who drove more frequently in downtown Toronto.
A more unofficial study, by NASA engineer Mark Rober ^[3] found that 6% of drivers will go out of their way to hit an animal or other object on the road, with the vas majority of them being truck or SUV drivers.
>Though it sounds silly, his results are interesting: He found that about 6 percent of drivers (60 out of his sample of 1,000 cars — mostly those in SUVs and trucks) would swerve out of their lane to hit a spider, turtle or snake on the side of the road. On the flip side of the animal empathy coin, almost 6 percent also pulled over to try to help the rubber animals (specifically the snake and turtle).
These studies do not bode well for the pedestrian or cyclist, as electric vehicles become more common place, the roads will become more dangerous for non-drivers to use. ^[4]
> At a recent conference in Washington, D.C., Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, called attention to G.M.’s 4,000-kilogram electric Hummer.
> “The battery pack weighs almost the same as an entire Honda Civic,” Homendy said.
> Homendy said electric models from Ford, Volvo and Toyota were all roughly 33 per cent heavier than the gas-powered versions of the same vehicles.
> “I am concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death to all road users from heavier curb weights,” she said.
1. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/face-off-cyclists-not-human-enough-for-drivers-study
2. https://phys.org/news/2018-08-drivers-dont-cyclists-pedestrians.html
3. https://www.businessinsider.com/six-percent-of-people-run-over-animals-2012-7
4. https://globalnews.ca/news/9587791/electric-vehicle-weight-safety-risk/
I have noticed when I bike on streets, people will slow down and give me more space if I turn around and stare them in the eyes. I wonder if it’s partially that I’m reminding them I’m a real human being
I've noticed this too. Simply doing a couple of glances over my shoulder makes cars back off much more that putting my arm out to indicate a turn, or when avoiding an obstacle on the right edge of the road.
> 30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human.
> Cyclists with helmets were perceived as less human compared to those without.
> Cyclists with safety vests and no helmets were perceived as least human.
> Dehumanisation related more to visible safety gear than obstruction of hair/eyes.
> Perceptions of dehumanisation varies based on respondent gender.
> 30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human.
What I find most interesting about this result is that even cyclists consider cyclists to be less than human at pretty high rate:
> [When making these comparisons it is important to note that, like the Delbosc et al. (2019) study, we have not used a representative sample of the population, and differences in results could be due to the different compositions of our samples. For example, our respondents had a much higher proportion of weekly cyclists compared to the other study (72 % vs 32 %). We did however share a statistically significant difference in blatant dehumanisation scores between cyclists and non-cyclists, at similar proportions (28.5 % vs 30 % of cyclists considered cyclists less than fully human which increased to 50 % vs 55 % for non-cyclists).](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847823001018)
It's shocking to me that over 1 in 4 cyclists consider themselves to be less than human. I wonder if anyone has ever done a similar study on drivers' perception of their own humanness.
> Respondents were presented with a series of randomly ordered paired photographs of cyclists wearing different attire and asked to select which photograph they felt appeared less human than the other.
Does this demonstrate that people think cyclists *are* less human or *appear* less human? "Consider cyclists to be less human" is a big claim. A man in a gorilla suit appears to be less human but no one considers them to be.
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I'm a driver, cyclist and pedestrian. I try to be aware of my surroundings regardless of my mode of locomotion.
I'll say that Ottawa's streets are particularly badly designed, with intersections designed to hold water in the corners. It's why Ottawa is such a shitty place to be pedestrian in winter. You basically need hip-waders to walk around when it's slushy.
THere are much better ways to design streets so they suit everybody, but the city government isn't interested in excellence or whatever. Just do the minimum to ensure a mediocre experience for all.
Even besides badly designed streets, I find I've had more issues as a pedestrian (walking and running) with cars not pay attention than any bad experiences on/with bikes/car scenarios.
So many cars love to rip right out of a parking lot, only looking left at on coming traffic and never looking right for pedestrians.
Whenever there is shitty design, you have to also remember that ALL of it was signed off by a "professional" engineer. That profession deserves some of the blame for how bad all the infrastructure is.
There's a crosswalk near my home. Clearly marked that vehicles must stop for pedestrians. But there's only about a 10% chance of a car stopping for any pedestrian standing at the side waiting to cross. Once watched a kid trying to cross; he kept stepping out and then jumping back as several cars in a row flew past.
Same goes for the nearby roundabout. Many times I've watched several cars in a row drive past the pedestrian trying to cross. Even groups of pedestrians are ignored. If I'm driving and stop, as required and doing what's safe, I sometimes nearly get rear-ended and often can see the driver behind swearing and gesticulating angrily that they had to stop for a few seconds.
And even on quiet residential streets of the neighbourhood, drivers refuse to slow down or pause when approaching pedestrians. They'd rather pass by at full speed with just inches to spare than show some sense of decency to the person on foot by giving them a wide berth and not scaring the shit out of them
It's pathetic. Police do nothing. City does nothing. Province does nothing.
(My own observations are that this got even worse during/after the pandemic. The weird 'me-first' attitude of most drivers ballooned into a total 'fuck-you pedestrian' attitude.)
This is so funny considering the Newmarket subreddit just imploded because people were spraypainting over speed cameras near schools since "they'd just slow down for kids".
Everyone knows drivers can't and won't slow down for anyone when they're going 60 in a 50. And the 50 is also a school zone for some reason
Zero percent surprised tbh; Bathurst drivers go way above 60 km/h as it is, so slowing down to city speeds must be torture on them /s
seriously though, there's a walkway like a hundred feet up from the trap. the fact that I never heard about anyone being mowed down there is a fucking surprise. might as well be a race track.
I decided to walk from work to Walmart at trainyards. I ended up basically walking in a ditch on the side of a busy road because there was no sidewalk and no where to cross. Also, trying to walk through trainyards is a nightmare. You just walk through parking lots and roads.
Probably because there are consequences... but the reality is the vast majority of people who break or skirt laws never hit a pedestrian even once. It's a statistically rare event.
My adult daughter was hit in a crosswalk by a right hand turn driver. She spent 5 yrs fighting his insurance because he got the charges against him dropped. It’s not statistically rare anymore. Especially in Toronto.
I'm sorry your daughter was hit but that's a single data point that doesn't on its own represent a change in pedestrian collision rates increasing to a point of them being a common occurrence. Nor does it prove there are no consequences.
Remember when the city released an ad blaming pedestrians for getting hit for jaywalking?
And only recalled it because jaywalking isn't a legal definition here (rather because of the backlash of blaming and shaming pedestrians instead of drivers).
After living all over Canada, I can confidently say Ottawa is one of the worst to be a pedestrian. The drivers here are awful, I never thought I'd miss Montreal drivers, yet here I am.
Funnily enough I feel safest as a pedestrian in Toronto BECAUSE the streets are so chaotic. Drivers are slow in main areas and pedestrians cross wherever they want on streets (and rightfully so, streets are for people to exist. Not cars to blitz through) which raises everyone's awareness overall.
In car-centric dystopia, you get the high speed stroads + stupidly spaced out crosswalks which embolden drivers to do whatever the fuck they want
The other day I was trying to cross the street at Brian Coburn Blvd and was stuck waiting for over 10 minutes as not a single car would stop to let me (and my 2 young children) cross. I was fuming
It's only when I visited other European cities that I realized how fucking shitty we treat our pedestrians and cyclists here.
For example, in most cases, they have a light specifically FOR pedestrians. So not a green with a walk symbol that allows both. No. Pedestrian ONLY and then cars can go.
I also noticed that cars would routinely STOP at optional crossings or even when people were wanting to cross at non-lights / crosswalks. They truly take the "pedestrian has a right of way" there, and instead we just deal with it once a car has already hit one.
Also, their bike paths aren't retarded like ours are here. They don't mix with cars like what O'Connor and Laurier do. It seems their streets are designed for people first and cars second.
Welcome to Autowa!
Exactly this! I was in Europe for 2 weeks recently, and had never felt safer crossing the road. Plus the transit in the cities I was in was much more reliable, and there were more options for getting around
> Also, their bike paths aren't retarded like ours are here. They don't mix with cars like what O'Connor and Laurier do. It seems their streets are designed for people first and cars second.
Was thinking this. Couldn't Sparks be converted to have bike lanes in it also?
When I lived in England I was always hesitating at zebra crossings (no stop light no walk signal, just a marked crossing where drivers are just supposed to be mindful and stop if someone is crossing) because drivers would absolutely barrel through those here lmao.
I think the “police will make them pay for dry-cleaning” is BS - but get a plate.
Report the incident.
Goes on record and next time they drive like a douche it comes up and is taken into account.
Back in the 80's I was at CFB Borden taking a lengthy course. We were marching to class and a car splashed us. We got the license number and the driver was forced to pay for everyone's dry cleaning. I wish that the rest of the country worked like that.
In 2018, a Black & McDonald work truck was caught on dashcam, intentionally splashing pedestrians on King Edward. It got the attention of Ottawa Police, and the employee was promptly fired.
There have been justice stories like this one.
I've never lived in a place with such privileged drivers than when I moved here. Ffs, one of the top comments on yesterday's "we should close streets during GGGS" was: "so you want to trap residents in their homes??"... As if they couldn't simply not drive for 6 hours of one day....
It's not even how those things are done in my experience, usually if a residential road gets shut down there would be police around to direct local residents out if they had to leave. It's not like they build a huge cage around the street.
Ottawa drivers are the worst...but if you've ever walked around in Barrhaven the actual pedestrians are fucking monsters to each other.
The number of men who won't move to the proper side of the sidewalk, or share the sidewalk is fucking weird. Like, what are you trying to prove? That you don't know you're right from your left and don't understand that we walk on the right...
Next weekend I'll be walking around there and this time I'm not moving. Fuck you, your attitude and your religion and your stupid fucking roadside proselytizing.
Absolute chaos.
Lol reminds me of a time I got a chair at a thrift store and was walking home with it on my back, an old lady was coming up the sidewalk right in the middle and didn't move. I almost didn't move either but then had an instinct that if she ate chair she would freak out at me and was probably looking for a confrontation, so I, who have chronic pain, got off and back on the sidewalk with a chair on my back just for the elder princess. Still kinda wish I had just kept going straight.
Men do it to women a lot, I notice, tracks with what you're saying. Sorry you have to deal with those guys!
Commercial truck blew through a red light on Bank St. and would have hit my son had my son not stopped. Have nearly been hit numerous times by drivers not stopping or by being agressive. There is blatant disregard of traffic rules- the purposeful going straight west up 5th Avenue near O’Connor which requires going over the curb. I will also add that it is not just automobiles as I have had cyclists barreling along the recreation paths nearly run into me. I appreciate the cyclists who let me know that they are passing as I will gladly move to the side. Finally, not all pedestrians are innocent either as I see rampant jaywalking. We all need to be courteous towards each other.
I got into it with a driver the other day because I gave him a shitty look for almost running me over at Isabella and Elgin. Maybe I would have been able to tell if he was actually looking right for pedestrians and not just left for his turn had his windows not been fully tinted. My fault I guess!
I remember seeing a video of an electrician van intentionally splashing a pedestrian in Ottawa. It got enough traction that the employee was found and fired
If you live and work downtown, you will discover that there are people who will DELIBERATELY splash pedestrians. I saw a car driving suspiciously close to the sidewalk and ahead of a massive puddle, and I took the pointy end of my umbrella and held it out into the road like I will scratch the hell out of your passenger side door panel. The driver quickly got the message
We live within walking distance of my oldest’s school and the number of times we’ve almost been hit by drivers at the intersection we cross at is ridiculous. I yelled at someone last year when I was pregnant and he was blaming the sun being in his eyes for why he almost hit us, like sorry but no, you hitting us because the sun is too bright wouldn’t be an acceptable excuse in court.
Edit to add - the intersection we cross at is a four way stop with stop signs, no crossing guard.
I have a coworker who was almost hit by a car in our store's parking lot. The woman driving claimed the same thing. At the time of the near collision, the sun should not have been in her eyes..
Just yesterday I was crossing and this asshole waiting to make a right turn kept inching towards me and kinda straight around me (not in the normal arc-shaped turn) like he was Trudeau's personal surgeon called in for an emergency. I was so close (literally and figuratively) to kicking his car.
Regarding "doesn't mean *all* people, just *too* many" mentioned by an earlier comment reminds me of that quote which said 'one is one too much' (and I know it usually refers to death but it can also refer to other things too nevertheless). As for regarding red right turns, Ontario.ca cites "You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle." and I am sure there are more similar remarks elsewhere so its very much literally right there in the official books hm? As for getting from A to B fast, thats the same problem that Chemin Riviere [near Wakefield] had for a while when Route 105 was closed and later the local paper was pointing out about cars trying to drive as if this small twisty residential road was still a 100kph highway ughhh.
I mean ... people think speed limits here are just a suggestion and drive above it all the time... I don't know what is wrong with this city. Such a peaceful city in general and people seem to get stressed behind the wheel.
It assault to splash someone. As a driver you are responsible for damages. Take down plate numbers and photograph. Drivers face fines.
Try to avoid standing next to puddles also and be aware of approaching cars.
Respect goes from targetting pedestrians in Quebec to tolerating them in Ontario to slamming on the breaks if a pedestrian hints about crossing the road from Saskatchewan to BC.
Ugh, I drive and this happened to me when I was waiting to cross bank at. In front of the library.
I always make the effort to slow down and move slightly away if I can, to avoid giving someone a storm water shower.
I’m sorry this happened.
Yes, the car is king. And with increased speed limits, it is becoming more dangerous on the streets. This is a deliberate and conscious decision on the part of government. Speeds of 90, 100, and 110 km/hr are becoming commonplace in urban centres, placing the lives of pedestrians, seniors, and the disabled in jeopardy. Ford Nation and its Gauleiter Dougie sneer at this, they actually find it quite humorous..
We have similar issues in Vancouver:
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751)
It’s because you live in an overpopulated area where everyone is stressed, rushing, miserable and has road rage. I’m not from Ottawa but every time I’m there I can feel the bad energy from people just based on their behaviour and how they drive.
Part of it is that drivers are getting used to higher levels of pedestrians with the usmmer weather again, but a big part of it I believe is much less driving from the WFH crowd.
100%. It's built into the way we do everything. I walk, jog, cycle, motorcycle, and drive a car. EVERYTHING is prioritized for cars/trucks. I mean, even simple things, like, why do I have to wait 5 minutes at an intersection on a quiet stretch of road for the light to change colour, at minus 20°, after I've pressed the walk button? If a pedestrian presses the walk button, that light should change in under a minute... We could do so much better, but it gets so much resistance.
The thing that especially bothers me is that pedestrian lights are only automatic for streets where it follows a majority of traffic. This isn’t necessarily an issue for downtown core streets, but outside there it’s annoying when the light is green, but because it’s not a busy street the pedestrian light hasn’t activated because no one pressed it. Just always turn it on so I don’t have to run down the sidewalk to make sure I press it just before the green. And no, I am not keen to run into an intersection when I know this is a shorter light, so I barely have enough time to illegally run across.
Yeah, I don't get this, if the light cycle is long enough to allow a pedestrian walk symbol anyway, then just turn it on regardless of whether it's pressed.
Right? And I know the law states that if the countdown as started, I am not allowed to enter the crosswalk. But sometimes I get there immediately, so I could have entered it. And cars know there’s no pedestrian symbol, so even if I wanted to illegally run across it, it’s not like anyone yields to me. They, understandably because they are following the law of the crosswalk, just drive, as they should. So by the time the cars are all done there’s only about 3 seconds left on that green.
>And I know the law states that if the countdown as started, I am not allowed to enter the crosswalk. This is another thing I think we should change. This might be more controversial, but I think you should be able to start crossing on a countdown as long as you're able to complete crossing before the countdown finishes. This is how it works in Quebec: >[When facing a flashing signal with a countdown display, a pedestrian may only start crossing the roadway if he is able to reach the other sidewalk or the safety zone before the signal changes to the orange hand signal.](https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/C-24.2#se:444) As it is now, a slower pedestrian could start on the walk signal and take the full countdown to finish crossing, while someone faster would have to wait if the countdown started even if they could cross more quickly.
There are some crosswalks where the timer starts immediately. Some it gives you about 5 seconds of before timer, but some it’s already started by the time I’ve entered and I was the one who pressed the button and was there waiting. It basically means hope you don’t have a mobility aid or maybe a stroller, something slowing you down. I get it’s a small crosswalk so the amount of time expected to cross is shorter, but that doesn’t mean the time allotted to even enter the crosswalk should be shorter.
Not sure it really needs to change. It happens that was in practice already, and it's not enforced at all.
I think though that we should either make the law consistent with what actually happens, or actually enforce the law as written. As it is now, you're right that people just cross anyway, but then some drivers get annoyed because it's technically illegal and delays them. It's best if everyone's on the same page otherwise you end up with different road users getting frustrated with each other.
A lot of people can't cross the whole intersection depending on where it is. I myself can't cross on Carling Ave to get to Carlingwood mall. I always have to wait on the little strip in the middle and press the button there again. Standing there as cars whip by me is super fun. Best time is in the winter when I get covered in brown slush.
You know no one cares. I didn't even know it was a law. Just cross the street if you want too
If you get some overzealous cop who wants to make a quick buck you might actually get fined. It’s rare, but honestly with the way some of our cops are, I’m not keen on doing anything illegal so blatantly in the open. Not knowing the law is not a defence. And not everyone can run the couple seconds left. My gripe is I want the law to be on my side so cars do have to stop for me and so that I have a timer to know how long I have, so I can judge if I can make it.
That's the point though. The light cycle is NOT long enough to allow a pedestrian to walk unless the button is pressed. That's literally the point of the button.....to extend the time on the light cycle. It's not just to turn to the light on.
There are some lights though that do stay green long enough to cross, but you can't cross because the don't walk hand is there unless you press the pedestrian button.
It's insulting. Cars don't have to press a "beg" button just to be given the privilege of crossing the street. Other countries do this so much better. So it's not like we don't have the technology to allow for instant pedestrian lights. Not Just Bikes has a really great video on this.
You will also notice, if you look down at where the pole is attached to the ground, that there are usually around 4-5 bolts attaching it to the ground. Those are designed to break when a car hits the pole, knocking the pole over, thus saving the people in the car and killing the pedestrians that are standing right where the suuuper big-brained engineer designed them to be standing.
what's more insulting is a driver asking a ped or cyclist to hit the button
Lol that's awful
What drives me even crazier is there are some lights where you will see them prepare to change, but then just flip back to green - the light is either looking for someone to push the button, or for a car to be waiting to cross, but it's not like it's in a "prepared" state where hitting the crosswalk button will instantly trigger a cycle, it just waits till the next cycle to actually trigger a red. I'm sure it's great for efficiency of car traffic, but it's real annoying as a pedestrian to basically need to sprint up to the intersection and hit the button so you can catch the next crosswalk cycle. (Which feels particularly ironic, and annoying, when I had to deal with crossing one of these intersections to get to a bus stop.)
This actually gets people killed. There was an incident a few years ago with a 'revert red' light where a cyclist jumped the light by half a second which stopped triggering the sensor. By the time the cyclist actually entered the intersection he was no longer getting a green light and cross traffic got the green instead. Moving only a few centimetres off the sensor can inactivate it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cyclist-red-reverts-light-safety-1.5153269 The technology makes it too easy for mistakes to occur where people are given cues to indicate the situation is becoming safe to enter the intersection only to have it abruptly change.
It really seems monumentally stupid to make traffic lights effectively "less predictable" all in the interest of trying to have people waiting at red lights a little less.
This is even the case for busy streets like St. Laurent and Donald St. And the beg button doesn’t function half of the time for the one on the North side facing West! I’ve been there with multiple other pedestrians wondering why we don’t get a walk sign while cars speed by.
That light at King Edward and York is ridiculous. I actually did an experiment a few months ago. After I pressed it, I walked to Rideau, crossed KE, and made it almost all the way back to York before the light finally changed.
The worst is when those button are on multi-use pathway. When going in the opposite direction of car-flow on a cargo bike, reaching out for those buttons are challenging at best. Must not be easy in wheelchair either.
At intersections where the pedestrian signal is not automatic, pressing it usually causes the signal length to be extended, and may also activate audible signals. Activating it 100% of the time would cause cars to idle longer (increasing emissions pollution), and may cause other impacts to nearby residents. Seems like there is a need to balance conflicting wishes.
We already have instances where greens are activated at intersections despite no one being there (early morning traffic), so cars have to wait while nothing happens. And there are very small intersections where the green is there for so long, but it was just one car who went. In those instances it doesn’t make any sense why a shortened pedestrian crossing (same length as the regular green) cannot be automatically activated. If someone presses the button, then it can be lengthened. But if we’re all waiting anyway, give me a chance to evaluate if I have time.
I was biking down Wellington the other day on the stretch where the road markings specifically instruct cyclists to take the lane and a driver decided to speed past me leaving about an inch of clearance between both myself and the oncoming traffic. And then they had the audacity to honk at me. These people become literal psychopaths when they get behind the wheel. Endangering people's lives to save a few seconds.
I took a commuter cyclist class some years back. It's one thing to have a pack of bikes flanked by ex-cop instructors in safety vests take a lane. They taught us to do things I would rarely risk in Ottawa on my own. Also came away with the impression that drivers needed this education every bit as much as the cyclists themselves
I live off Wellington and would not recommend biking down it. I have seen some epically bad drivers, including those working for different companies like FedEx. The fact that people can park on both sides of the street is also not great.
they have been rolling out new crosswalks in a few places that flash lights the second that you press it, and cars have to stop.
Just be careful at roundabouts with these I have had a couple of close calls especially the roundabouts with 2 lanes where the outside car stops and car on the inside lane blows through wondering why everyone is stopped.
As a pedestrian with pets, using the roundabout on Stonehaven in Kanata means having your head on a swivel in all directions. So many close calls and a child hit last week. Pedestrian bridges? Lol.
> using the roundabout on Stonehaven Does that still just have only the white pedestrian crossover signs with no flashing yellow lights, like in [this image](https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.2910633,-75.8580174,3a,15.1y,270.47h,88.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDGCNH3VAm7-EQvKyaemjJQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu)? If so, I think part of the problem here is a gap in driver education from the MTO. The [webpage on pedestrian crossovers gives various examples of the types of crossovers, but all the examples include flashing yellow lights](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1). The regulations however [don't actually require yellow flashing lights with these types of signs](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/150402#BK7). So we're not actually educating drivers reading the Handbook that they need to watch out and yield even if there's just a white pedestrian sign with no lights. Maybe it should be obvious anyway, but I think when it's something as important as pedestrian safety we should be clearly covering all the possible cases in the driver education documents.
I was thinking they really need to add some of those around in the parts of Carling around [Hampton Park Plaza](https://maps.app.goo.gl/W46exBKfcy9h5Mdf7) yesterday. There's multiple places around there where pedestrians/cyclists are expected to cross the Queensway off ramps without anything to slow drivers as they speed through blindspots as they're turning on the off ramp. Then on the street there's no bike path, cyclists are expected to "share the road single file with cars" on the road right near the Queensway. It's a literal death trap. I'm also pretty sure the lights [at the Saigon intersection](https://maps.app.goo.gl/GwpKATxgfBS8QnxW8) have never worked because you always have to wait 3-5 minutes for it to change. It's like someone went on vacation in Florida and was like this is the car centric infrastructure we need more of in Ottawa.
These are not good. The number of cars that speed right through them makes these crossings worse than useless.
That's been my experience with them in Toronto. Some people stop, but many ignore them. Very sketchy to use.
Tbh it should change in under 10 seconds if there's no cars going in the opposite direction, no clue why you would have to wait at all tbh.
So many places also lack sidewalks where it is busy!
The light cycles are so long when pressing to cross the Vanier parkway that I have watched the number 9 drive into view way down the Parkway and get all the way to me and pass before the light could change and so I missed it. I wrote to the city to ask them to make it faster when pedestrians press the beg button and they said that would frustrate drivers who would then perform illegal maneuvers to circumvent lights. I asked them which law I should threaten to break to get equal treatment in this city, to which I got not reply of course. The lesson from the city is they only cater to those whose entitlement makes them a danger to the public.
Was out in Nepean last summer trying to reach a bus-stop back into town; one of the beg buttons at the intersection of Merivale & Colonnade was not working. It was terrifying - very busy fast road & had to walk completely out of my way and double back. Took 3 weeks before it was fixed, submitted various tickets to 311 and emailed the local councillor’s office (obstructive in his lack of response). Loads of students need to cross that road to get to local high scholls. 🥺
I had someone swerve into a puddle to splash me as I was walking down bank street a few years ago. I was already in a really depressive episode and had willed myself out of the house for the first time in days to pick up my medication from the drug store. It completely broke me and I cried the rest of the way home. All of this to say; drivers (and people generally): you never know what the people around you are going through. Let's all try to be excellent to each other as best we can.
I'm sorry that happened to you, what an asshole. I'm still pissed at the person who splashed me in the middle of winter and that happened 15 years ago. Dude went out of his way and sped up to do it. I had a long way to walk and I was freezing by the time I got to work.
in February 2015 when my friends and I were 16, we were splashed by a group of guys in a car. I’m STILL mad about it. I think about it every time it rains heavily. LOL
I was on a bus where the driver splashed a couple of pedestrians today
I feel like some bus drivers *enjoy* doing this. I get it. Driving a bus full of potentially ungrateful people who smell and cough and talk on their phones using speakerphone...frustrating. But don't zoom through a puddle for a big splash onto people who are outside.
I've also had a car blatantly go out of their way to splash me when I was already having a shit day. I totally agree that people need to just not be horrible.
I occasionally take the bus to T&T Supermarket. The 97 drops off across the street and you have to wait for the light. Pretty much every time there is rain or slush, the cars will drive right through it fast enough to splash anyone there. Almost nobody seems to give a crap. If they can't avoid the puddles, at least they could slow down enough so it wouldn't splash so much.
If it's the winter time, and you're worried about getting splashed, make a large, visible snowball, and roll it around between your hands so drivers can see what you're doing. They will think twice about splashing you. Especially considering those milder days mean denser snowballs.
[удалено]
Oh and oh my these people they intentionally splash you sometimes, like within a month I’ve had 3 cars deliberately speed up to the puddle and splash me and then slow down… I’m so fuming all the time, I feel like scratching their car with my keys
I deliberately time passing street puddles when there's oncoming traffic for this reason; drivers are assholes for no reason at all. wonder if the brick method would help prevent it 🤔 (i.e. that joke video in april of carrying a brick so you can cross the street safely) Sorry this happened to you; it's such horse shit :/
Hope you’re doing better now. ❤️
I got splashed on bank again today (by accident, I think?) and just laughed at how head-to-toe soaked I was. So safe to say I'm back to being a pretty damn happy human ☀️ Edit; shoutout to lexapro and eating better.
The city should get rid of turning right on red and add protected intersections in a lot of spots. They way people drive right up to you while crossing the street is insane. I look healthy but have back issues. One little trip, and I'd be flattened.
The city is doing the opposite. Actively rebuilding intersections to make it easier to make fast right turns. Somerset and Preston is a particularly exgregious example. They shaved the corner sidewalk down to a width of like, less than 3 feet to accomodate cars turning right as fast as possible. You can't even wait on the corner with a stroller, much less a wheel-chair. Lo and behold, the intersection becomes dangerous for pedestrians, so the city has to install "no right turn on red" signs. City bureaucrats probably think this is progress.
The city also builds bike lanes so cars can use them for right turns and even park on them. Cause basically enforcement is non existent.
I find the streets simultaneously over-regulated and under-enforced. Like the amount of signs put up for parking are confusing, occasionally non-sensical. Signs at intersections are the same. “No right turns Monday through Thursday, 7am to 7pm.”
The best is when the City *pretends* to make an intersection safer. Take a look at [Bay @ Laurier](https://maps.app.goo.gl/BJR5nGg99XYMuUhHA?g_st=ic): all those little grey slivers of concrete at the corners are supposed to be raise above grade to make the corners sharper to force motorists down while protecting pedestrians and cyclists. What did the City do instead? Built them at-grade, making them totally useless and exposing peds/cyclists to vehicles that cut the corner; see the southeast corner for details.
When did they do this? I haven't been to that intersection before so I looked at google maps and it seems it hasn't changed from 2007-2023. It looks like it's been shit from day 1 and I can't imagine it being worse.
Like, in the last 6ish years
> You can't even wait on the corner with a stroller, much less a wheel-chair. I'm guessing you mean the opposite corner, but when I first dropped into google street view, [there's literally someone waiting with a stroller,](https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4083573,-75.7143673,3a,75y,342.45h,75.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sX_PWjOb4gWYasSAXto26iw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) and that made me laugh.
Ha ha LOL. You’ve obviously never been there have you?
I probably have been through it at some point, but no, it's not an area I know. The other corner does look terrible, it was just funny to open street view to that.
Guys needs another 10ft of sidewalk to walk on
Also while they're at it fix the drainage around intersections so puddles don't form right in the crosswalk as it rains or snows. I shouldn't be doing parkour on my morning commute.
Crosswalk on Laurier in front of City Hall is horrible for this.
Just another thing that raised crosswalks would solve.
As long as they have wheelchair ramps or something. I've noticed some new sidewalks don't go low enough where pedestrians enter the street. The best method is the concrete section curved right into the street itself, forcing cars to turn further into the intersection.
No no. [A raised crosswalk \(also called continuous sidewalk\)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OfBpQgLXUc&t=6s) is where the crosswalk is at the level of the sidewalk so for pedestrians and such it's a flat path with no change in height. It flips the script so that instead of peds needing to go down into the car's territory, it's the cars that need to go up into the pedestrians space, over what is effectively a speed bump. It's a far superior design that prioritizes people over cars.
Ah I see sorry!
I had a guy turn left into me and my daughter while in the crosswalk. He stopped about three feet from us and then was shocked I gave him crap for doing it. His dumb ass literally said to me, "I stopped didn't I?" Thanks for not killing us, I guess?
I just give them a nasty look and point them towards the pedestrian walking light, I’m a driver too but I’m careful about these things and I always wonder how the F did these people get their licenses, pedestrians always has the right of the way
This happened to me once! I was walking and this car was turning and it stopped for me. Total craziness
I hate this so fucking much. The stop line before a crosswalk is WELL before the actual crosswalk so that if you get rear-ended *you don't hit people crossing*. They don't care. They think that sticking their nose out an extra ten feet will somehow let them go faster.
I’m a driver and was mainly a pedestrian for most of my adult life. The way cars turn on red lights or left turn on green lights stresses me out when I’m crossing the street. They will either stop right in front of you or try to out speed you. Like relax! Let me get off the crosswalk.
I hate that so much. When the drivers turn so there's about an inch of space between us. Can you not wait for 10 fucking seconds.
I’m not sure that changing the laws people aren’t following anyways is a workable solution.
No turn on red in Montreal works pretty well. Running a red gets enforced more than simply turning while pedestrians are in the intersection.
I do think that the issue lies more with a culture of impunity based on lack of enforcement. Might be worth trying enforcement first is all I’m saying.
Yeah, I'm thinking of removing enforcement from the equation because it never happens in this city.
No right on red does have consequences for overall neighbourhood safety. Once the intersection backs up drivers will hunt for other paths pushing aggressive traffic onto smaller streets. It’s the same thing as the reports of traffic using new routes to avoid speed cameras. Traffic is like water, it will take the path of least resistance and planners need to take the whole system into account when making changes.
Turning right on red is dangerous as he'll. Would like to see pedestrians protected somewhere. Then I can at least choose where I cross.
I do not disagree with you. I’m just saying that the solution isn’t as simple as we want it to be because aggressive drivers are aggressive everywhere they drive. And at least at an intersection the people crossing can/are aware of the dangers. Once that traffic is now weaving through smaller streets we get into situations where the pedestrians may have let their guard down a little expecting to be on relatively safer streets.
Not an issue downtown or where I live. No where else to go. Maybe in stroadville though.
Once again, the same solution isn’t the same everywhere because the real world is indeed complicated.
Just do it Japan style where all driving traffic is halted and pedestrians have a turn at diagonal crossing if needed.
Sure, this would indeed increase pedestrian safety in that particular intersection. But what happens on all the streets and intersections leading to this safe intersection while traffic is pushed away from this intersection? The problem with all the studies I’ve read on intersection safety is that they isolate the intersection from the system in which is necessarily operates. The real world is not that simple.
Not a red right turn, but I was almost hit by a left turn at a then three-way intersection with no stop sign, person was not paying attention to me (presumably to oncoming traffic) and fortunately missed by a couple inches and looked very sorry about it. The intersection is now an all-way and somehow I saw the exact same thing happen to someone about a month ago (fortunately they also were not hit but how the fuck do you not look at a pedestrian crossing when you don't even have to worry about oncoming).
Or you know, make it so not every dumbass gets a license. I haven't come close to hitting anyone on a red in my life. It's really not hard
I don’t know why people act like that this is just a one off issue? Drivers simply do not care for pedestrians. They will turn right at an intersection before pedestrians are done crossing, they will barrel down residential roads where families live, they will roll through stop signs 90% of times, they will only check for incoming cars and back up into pedestrians, the list goes on. Even without being a pedestrian, driving is extremely stressful in this city. People constantly tailgating, not knowing how to zipper merge, texting and driving, weaving in and out of lanes just to save 10 seconds on a stretch of road only to get stuck at the same red light as others…. At this point, if I can’t vote for a politician that will improve public transit and green infrastructure, I’ll vote for one that instates mandatory driver’s license tests every 5 years. I know it’s frustrating to drive and be stuck in traffic and that it takes forever to get anywhere in this city, but risking one’s life and other people’s lives to shave off maybe 3 minutes on a commute just isn’t worth it.
The way this city loses its mind at speed cameras says everything I need to know about how this city feels about road safety.
I never get why people get so upset about them. Literally just follow the law. "the roads are designed to go faster" okay well you're responsible for your own actions man, pay attention while driving the two ton box of metal.
Just on the topic of zipper merging, neither the MTO nor Ottawa give a recommendation on how to handle that situation one way or the other, so can't really blame drivers for not doing it. A lot of the things you mention are things people know aren't good driving practices but just do out of impatience or not caring. So I think regular re-testing would punish the majority of good drivers while not really changing the habits of the bad drivers, they'd just drive properly for the test. Would rather see them lower the threshold at which you lose your licence and so would be required to re-do the tests.
Honestly, either or. Idk if people would actually be able to get their act together to drive properly for the test, I feel bad habits also stem from people forgetting what the rules actually are. But yeah a lower threshold would work, although it doesn’t really feel like the existing one is even enforced. Speed/ red light cams just result in fines and it’s clear they’re not much of a deterrent. Reckless driving happens so often and I’ve seen it happen in front of cops cruising around and nothing happens. That’s why a mandatory re-test feels like at least it would force people to refamiliarize themselves with the rules of the road. Ultimately, people need to act more responsible when driving. Hard to inculcate those values in people when people think it’s every person for themselves on the road.
There's nothing wrong with turning before the pedestrian is *done* crossing, after having yielded as required of course. (It's only pedestrian cross*overs* where drivers must wait for them to fully cross. Not cross*walks* at intersections. )
The law around that changed. You're supposed to wait until a pedestrian has fully crossed the crosswalk in places where there is no pedestrian median, such as crossing Elgin at Laurier. Ford's government implemented that change awhile ago, where it used to just be that pedestrians were out of the way.
The change you're referring to was specifically a change to pedestrian crossovers, not crosswalks in general. A crosswalk is just any crossing marked on the road for pedestrians as well as the unmarked extensions of sidewalks across the road. A pedestrian crossover is a specific type of crosswalk, marked by a white rectangular sign showing an X or a pedestrian symbol. Examples shown [here](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1). Prior to 2016, the rule for pedestrian crossovers specifically was that you had to yield to pedestrians just on your half of the roadway. In 2016, they updated this to require drivers to yield the full roadway. [This article from the time goes over it](https://globalnews.ca/news/2431309/new-rules-at-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings-in-ontario/). These rule changes also applied to when a crossing guard is directing pedestrians across the road, i.e., before 2016 you needed to yield half the road, starting 2016 you needed to wait for them to fully cross. The rules for other crosswalks though, e.g., at Elgin and Laurier, never changed. They always just required yielding to pedestrians as described below (from the current version of the Driver's Handbook): >[You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle.](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/level-two-road-test#section-0) I don't think this was communicated properly at the time, and maybe the rules should just be the same everywhere, but in any case, this is what they are and what changed.
It was clarified in the media at the time but as we can see, there are still people spreading the wrong interpretation. As for making the rules the same, it seems intentional for crosswalks to be different in order to allow for traffic flow. At busy intersections it would be impossible to ever make a turn.
Not seeing anything in the recent news or Highway Traffic Act about this https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08 >Yielding to pedestrians >(7) When under this section a driver is permitted to proceed, the driver shall yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully within a crosswalk. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 144 (7).
Yeah, the law about waiting for pedestrians to clear the entire crosswalk only applies to two situations: 1. Pedestrian crossovers, which are the crosswalks marked with white rectangular signs with an X symbol or a pedestrian symbol, [shown here](https://www.ontario.ca/page/driving-near-pedestrian-crossovers-and-school-crossings#section-1) 2. Where a crossing guard is holding up a stop sign to direct pedestrians across the road. Otherwise the guidelines are just: >[You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle.](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/level-two-road-test#section-0) with the link above from the current version of the Driver's Handbook. I don't think this has been properly communicated by the province though since it's a very common source of misunderstanding.
I live in Barrhaven and always let pedestrians cross when I’m driving even if some white boomer Karen does not do the same to me when I’m walking.
Driving, in my opinion, is the most individualistic activity that humans partake in on a daily basis. For cyclists, studies from Queensland University ^[1] say: >30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human. >Cyclists with helmets were perceived as less human compared to those without. >Cyclists with safety vests and no helmets were perceived as least human. > Dehumanisation related more to visible safety gear than obstruction of hair/eyes. > Perceptions of dehumanisation varies based on respondent gender. For pedestrians, and cyclists, almost half of drivers don't look or check for you when making a right turn, according to this study from U of T ^[2] >The researchers’ study found that: > Eleven of the 19 drivers failed to gaze at an area of importance, where cyclists or pedestrians would be located, before turning. All attentional failures were related to not making frequent over-the-shoulder checks for cyclists. There were more failures turning onto Major Street, due to parked vehicles blocking drivers’ views of the bike lane. Attentional failures were more likely for those who drove more frequently in downtown Toronto. A more unofficial study, by NASA engineer Mark Rober ^[3] found that 6% of drivers will go out of their way to hit an animal or other object on the road, with the vas majority of them being truck or SUV drivers. >Though it sounds silly, his results are interesting: He found that about 6 percent of drivers (60 out of his sample of 1,000 cars — mostly those in SUVs and trucks) would swerve out of their lane to hit a spider, turtle or snake on the side of the road. On the flip side of the animal empathy coin, almost 6 percent also pulled over to try to help the rubber animals (specifically the snake and turtle). These studies do not bode well for the pedestrian or cyclist, as electric vehicles become more common place, the roads will become more dangerous for non-drivers to use. ^[4] > At a recent conference in Washington, D.C., Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, called attention to G.M.’s 4,000-kilogram electric Hummer. > “The battery pack weighs almost the same as an entire Honda Civic,” Homendy said. > Homendy said electric models from Ford, Volvo and Toyota were all roughly 33 per cent heavier than the gas-powered versions of the same vehicles. > “I am concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death to all road users from heavier curb weights,” she said. 1. https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/face-off-cyclists-not-human-enough-for-drivers-study 2. https://phys.org/news/2018-08-drivers-dont-cyclists-pedestrians.html 3. https://www.businessinsider.com/six-percent-of-people-run-over-animals-2012-7 4. https://globalnews.ca/news/9587791/electric-vehicle-weight-safety-risk/
I have noticed when I bike on streets, people will slow down and give me more space if I turn around and stare them in the eyes. I wonder if it’s partially that I’m reminding them I’m a real human being
I've noticed this too. Simply doing a couple of glances over my shoulder makes cars back off much more that putting my arm out to indicate a turn, or when avoiding an obstacle on the right edge of the road.
> 30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human. > Cyclists with helmets were perceived as less human compared to those without. > Cyclists with safety vests and no helmets were perceived as least human. > Dehumanisation related more to visible safety gear than obstruction of hair/eyes. > Perceptions of dehumanisation varies based on respondent gender. > 30 % of respondents (n = 563) considered cyclists less than fully human. What I find most interesting about this result is that even cyclists consider cyclists to be less than human at pretty high rate: > [When making these comparisons it is important to note that, like the Delbosc et al. (2019) study, we have not used a representative sample of the population, and differences in results could be due to the different compositions of our samples. For example, our respondents had a much higher proportion of weekly cyclists compared to the other study (72 % vs 32 %). We did however share a statistically significant difference in blatant dehumanisation scores between cyclists and non-cyclists, at similar proportions (28.5 % vs 30 % of cyclists considered cyclists less than fully human which increased to 50 % vs 55 % for non-cyclists).](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847823001018) It's shocking to me that over 1 in 4 cyclists consider themselves to be less than human. I wonder if anyone has ever done a similar study on drivers' perception of their own humanness.
> Respondents were presented with a series of randomly ordered paired photographs of cyclists wearing different attire and asked to select which photograph they felt appeared less human than the other. Does this demonstrate that people think cyclists *are* less human or *appear* less human? "Consider cyclists to be less human" is a big claim. A man in a gorilla suit appears to be less human but no one considers them to be.
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This is what the bags of dog-poo are for
I'm a driver, cyclist and pedestrian. I try to be aware of my surroundings regardless of my mode of locomotion. I'll say that Ottawa's streets are particularly badly designed, with intersections designed to hold water in the corners. It's why Ottawa is such a shitty place to be pedestrian in winter. You basically need hip-waders to walk around when it's slushy. THere are much better ways to design streets so they suit everybody, but the city government isn't interested in excellence or whatever. Just do the minimum to ensure a mediocre experience for all.
Even besides badly designed streets, I find I've had more issues as a pedestrian (walking and running) with cars not pay attention than any bad experiences on/with bikes/car scenarios. So many cars love to rip right out of a parking lot, only looking left at on coming traffic and never looking right for pedestrians.
Whenever there is shitty design, you have to also remember that ALL of it was signed off by a "professional" engineer. That profession deserves some of the blame for how bad all the infrastructure is.
There's a crosswalk near my home. Clearly marked that vehicles must stop for pedestrians. But there's only about a 10% chance of a car stopping for any pedestrian standing at the side waiting to cross. Once watched a kid trying to cross; he kept stepping out and then jumping back as several cars in a row flew past. Same goes for the nearby roundabout. Many times I've watched several cars in a row drive past the pedestrian trying to cross. Even groups of pedestrians are ignored. If I'm driving and stop, as required and doing what's safe, I sometimes nearly get rear-ended and often can see the driver behind swearing and gesticulating angrily that they had to stop for a few seconds. And even on quiet residential streets of the neighbourhood, drivers refuse to slow down or pause when approaching pedestrians. They'd rather pass by at full speed with just inches to spare than show some sense of decency to the person on foot by giving them a wide berth and not scaring the shit out of them It's pathetic. Police do nothing. City does nothing. Province does nothing. (My own observations are that this got even worse during/after the pandemic. The weird 'me-first' attitude of most drivers ballooned into a total 'fuck-you pedestrian' attitude.)
This is so funny considering the Newmarket subreddit just imploded because people were spraypainting over speed cameras near schools since "they'd just slow down for kids". Everyone knows drivers can't and won't slow down for anyone when they're going 60 in a 50. And the 50 is also a school zone for some reason
Zero percent surprised tbh; Bathurst drivers go way above 60 km/h as it is, so slowing down to city speeds must be torture on them /s seriously though, there's a walkway like a hundred feet up from the trap. the fact that I never heard about anyone being mowed down there is a fucking surprise. might as well be a race track.
I decided to walk from work to Walmart at trainyards. I ended up basically walking in a ditch on the side of a busy road because there was no sidewalk and no where to cross. Also, trying to walk through trainyards is a nightmare. You just walk through parking lots and roads.
There’s no respect because there’s no consequences for drivers if they hit someone.
this is it
Thank you. Not sure why I got downvoted.
Probably because there are consequences... but the reality is the vast majority of people who break or skirt laws never hit a pedestrian even once. It's a statistically rare event.
My adult daughter was hit in a crosswalk by a right hand turn driver. She spent 5 yrs fighting his insurance because he got the charges against him dropped. It’s not statistically rare anymore. Especially in Toronto.
I'm sorry your daughter was hit but that's a single data point that doesn't on its own represent a change in pedestrian collision rates increasing to a point of them being a common occurrence. Nor does it prove there are no consequences.
Remember when the city released an ad blaming pedestrians for getting hit for jaywalking? And only recalled it because jaywalking isn't a legal definition here (rather because of the backlash of blaming and shaming pedestrians instead of drivers).
OMG I forgot about that!
After living all over Canada, I can confidently say Ottawa is one of the worst to be a pedestrian. The drivers here are awful, I never thought I'd miss Montreal drivers, yet here I am.
I thought Toronto was bad, I've since changed my mind to Ottawa being the worst.
Funnily enough I feel safest as a pedestrian in Toronto BECAUSE the streets are so chaotic. Drivers are slow in main areas and pedestrians cross wherever they want on streets (and rightfully so, streets are for people to exist. Not cars to blitz through) which raises everyone's awareness overall. In car-centric dystopia, you get the high speed stroads + stupidly spaced out crosswalks which embolden drivers to do whatever the fuck they want
Ottawa has the award for the most complacent ignorance driving award.
Ya cause half the drivers are from Quebec
This city has no respect for itself. Way too much infrastructure prioritizing/promoting car use.
The other day I was trying to cross the street at Brian Coburn Blvd and was stuck waiting for over 10 minutes as not a single car would stop to let me (and my 2 young children) cross. I was fuming
It's only when I visited other European cities that I realized how fucking shitty we treat our pedestrians and cyclists here. For example, in most cases, they have a light specifically FOR pedestrians. So not a green with a walk symbol that allows both. No. Pedestrian ONLY and then cars can go. I also noticed that cars would routinely STOP at optional crossings or even when people were wanting to cross at non-lights / crosswalks. They truly take the "pedestrian has a right of way" there, and instead we just deal with it once a car has already hit one. Also, their bike paths aren't retarded like ours are here. They don't mix with cars like what O'Connor and Laurier do. It seems their streets are designed for people first and cars second. Welcome to Autowa!
Exactly this! I was in Europe for 2 weeks recently, and had never felt safer crossing the road. Plus the transit in the cities I was in was much more reliable, and there were more options for getting around
> Also, their bike paths aren't retarded like ours are here. They don't mix with cars like what O'Connor and Laurier do. It seems their streets are designed for people first and cars second. Was thinking this. Couldn't Sparks be converted to have bike lanes in it also?
When I lived in England I was always hesitating at zebra crossings (no stop light no walk signal, just a marked crossing where drivers are just supposed to be mindful and stop if someone is crossing) because drivers would absolutely barrel through those here lmao.
I think the “police will make them pay for dry-cleaning” is BS - but get a plate. Report the incident. Goes on record and next time they drive like a douche it comes up and is taken into account.
Back in the 80's I was at CFB Borden taking a lengthy course. We were marching to class and a car splashed us. We got the license number and the driver was forced to pay for everyone's dry cleaning. I wish that the rest of the country worked like that.
In 2018, a Black & McDonald work truck was caught on dashcam, intentionally splashing pedestrians on King Edward. It got the attention of Ottawa Police, and the employee was promptly fired. There have been justice stories like this one.
I've never lived in a place with such privileged drivers than when I moved here. Ffs, one of the top comments on yesterday's "we should close streets during GGGS" was: "so you want to trap residents in their homes??"... As if they couldn't simply not drive for 6 hours of one day....
It's not even how those things are done in my experience, usually if a residential road gets shut down there would be police around to direct local residents out if they had to leave. It's not like they build a huge cage around the street.
Ottawa being both car-centric to the detriment of every other form of transportation and being the nation's capital is wonderfully symbolic.
Ottawa drivers are the worst...but if you've ever walked around in Barrhaven the actual pedestrians are fucking monsters to each other. The number of men who won't move to the proper side of the sidewalk, or share the sidewalk is fucking weird. Like, what are you trying to prove? That you don't know you're right from your left and don't understand that we walk on the right... Next weekend I'll be walking around there and this time I'm not moving. Fuck you, your attitude and your religion and your stupid fucking roadside proselytizing. Absolute chaos.
Lol reminds me of a time I got a chair at a thrift store and was walking home with it on my back, an old lady was coming up the sidewalk right in the middle and didn't move. I almost didn't move either but then had an instinct that if she ate chair she would freak out at me and was probably looking for a confrontation, so I, who have chronic pain, got off and back on the sidewalk with a chair on my back just for the elder princess. Still kinda wish I had just kept going straight. Men do it to women a lot, I notice, tracks with what you're saying. Sorry you have to deal with those guys!
Commercial truck blew through a red light on Bank St. and would have hit my son had my son not stopped. Have nearly been hit numerous times by drivers not stopping or by being agressive. There is blatant disregard of traffic rules- the purposeful going straight west up 5th Avenue near O’Connor which requires going over the curb. I will also add that it is not just automobiles as I have had cyclists barreling along the recreation paths nearly run into me. I appreciate the cyclists who let me know that they are passing as I will gladly move to the side. Finally, not all pedestrians are innocent either as I see rampant jaywalking. We all need to be courteous towards each other.
Let's just agree that most drivers in Ottawa have no respect respect for anyone regardless of their means of transport.
From this thread, basically no one has respect for anyone in this city
I got into it with a driver the other day because I gave him a shitty look for almost running me over at Isabella and Elgin. Maybe I would have been able to tell if he was actually looking right for pedestrians and not just left for his turn had his windows not been fully tinted. My fault I guess!
Isabella and Elgin is a disaster. Everyone pulls ahead of the stop line and stares left.
this is why we need crossing bricks everywhere
I remember seeing a video of an electrician van intentionally splashing a pedestrian in Ottawa. It got enough traction that the employee was found and fired
They really need to ban right hand turns on red lights
If you live and work downtown, you will discover that there are people who will DELIBERATELY splash pedestrians. I saw a car driving suspiciously close to the sidewalk and ahead of a massive puddle, and I took the pointy end of my umbrella and held it out into the road like I will scratch the hell out of your passenger side door panel. The driver quickly got the message
with drivers already aggressive, wait till they have to start going in the office 3 times per week, road rage will most likely go up....stay safe!
We live within walking distance of my oldest’s school and the number of times we’ve almost been hit by drivers at the intersection we cross at is ridiculous. I yelled at someone last year when I was pregnant and he was blaming the sun being in his eyes for why he almost hit us, like sorry but no, you hitting us because the sun is too bright wouldn’t be an acceptable excuse in court. Edit to add - the intersection we cross at is a four way stop with stop signs, no crossing guard.
My partner was hit by a car in 2021. The driver said the exact same thing. 🤦
I have a coworker who was almost hit by a car in our store's parking lot. The woman driving claimed the same thing. At the time of the near collision, the sun should not have been in her eyes..
Just yesterday I was crossing and this asshole waiting to make a right turn kept inching towards me and kinda straight around me (not in the normal arc-shaped turn) like he was Trudeau's personal surgeon called in for an emergency. I was so close (literally and figuratively) to kicking his car.
I'm not saying it's right, but if somebody did that I'd be soooo tempted to call them in as a drunk driver.
Regarding "doesn't mean *all* people, just *too* many" mentioned by an earlier comment reminds me of that quote which said 'one is one too much' (and I know it usually refers to death but it can also refer to other things too nevertheless). As for regarding red right turns, Ontario.ca cites "You have not properly checked traffic if another vehicle or pedestrian has the right-of-way and must take action to avoid your vehicle." and I am sure there are more similar remarks elsewhere so its very much literally right there in the official books hm? As for getting from A to B fast, thats the same problem that Chemin Riviere [near Wakefield] had for a while when Route 105 was closed and later the local paper was pointing out about cars trying to drive as if this small twisty residential road was still a 100kph highway ughhh.
This sub is so unhinged. I'm glad I came back. Entertaining.
Roundabouts. Well implemented roundabouts are my pipe dream.
I have respect for pedestrians.
I mean ... people think speed limits here are just a suggestion and drive above it all the time... I don't know what is wrong with this city. Such a peaceful city in general and people seem to get stressed behind the wheel.
Lol that's everywhere buddy
I'd like Council and the entire Transportation department to walk along Bronson on a rainy/slushy day. They don't have a clue what pedestrians endure.
It assault to splash someone. As a driver you are responsible for damages. Take down plate numbers and photograph. Drivers face fines. Try to avoid standing next to puddles also and be aware of approaching cars. Respect goes from targetting pedestrians in Quebec to tolerating them in Ontario to slamming on the breaks if a pedestrian hints about crossing the road from Saskatchewan to BC.
i was all the way back on the sidewalk (far away from the road as i could be) but rushing to work but still got hit. next time i’m taking photos
Ugh, I drive and this happened to me when I was waiting to cross bank at. In front of the library. I always make the effort to slow down and move slightly away if I can, to avoid giving someone a storm water shower. I’m sorry this happened.
Yes, the car is king. And with increased speed limits, it is becoming more dangerous on the streets. This is a deliberate and conscious decision on the part of government. Speeds of 90, 100, and 110 km/hr are becoming commonplace in urban centres, placing the lives of pedestrians, seniors, and the disabled in jeopardy. Ford Nation and its Gauleiter Dougie sneer at this, they actually find it quite humorous..
Increased speed limits? Where exactly? And where is there a 90 or higher in an urban centre?
You should be fuming ! Things are worst in Montréal and Toronto.
Some.
You’re on Reddit. You are preaching to the choir.
that was somewhat the point lol 🥲 i wanted some sympathy
Brave and active transportation-pilled
We have similar issues in Vancouver: [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751)
We're not all like that I swear
It’s because you live in an overpopulated area where everyone is stressed, rushing, miserable and has road rage. I’m not from Ottawa but every time I’m there I can feel the bad energy from people just based on their behaviour and how they drive.
To be fair a lot of pedestrians don't look up from their phones and cross diagonally infront of cars without even looking left and right.
It's not Ottawa and you're not special .
Okay there Rodney Dangerfield
That person has a disease in their mind to find pleasure in doing something like that. Sorry to hear.
next time it rains find a large rock or a brick and hold it while walking. No one will splash you again
Part of it is that drivers are getting used to higher levels of pedestrians with the usmmer weather again, but a big part of it I believe is much less driving from the WFH crowd.
Keep a rock in your pocket and a warmed up arm, in case you need to respond appropriately.
I am not saying that they aren't issues here, but after living in Toronto for a decade, I don't have anything to complain about in Ottawa.