New crosswalks in Perth

Pedestrian Traffic

Small towns can be tricky. We've had 'courtesy crosswalks' for ever. In one of the main intersections in town, there was a small sign that people in town mostly respected (see below). Pedestrians were not very good at it, though. You have to stake a claim, make eye contact with the driver and wait for them to stop. These are screen grabs from June, 2016.

The biggest difference is that there were two crosswalks right beside each other ( as pictured above). Pedestrians were hard to spot, beside illegally parked cars,
They have eliminated one, and I hope people will use just the one crosswalk. Drivers could be stopped on both sides of the intersection. There is another crosswalk a few blocks down. It's scary when a pedestrian pops out into traffic, however. The new, solar-powered signs (2 x $29,000)  I hope will make it easier to grab a driver's attention.

Truck Traffic

There are only two streets that connect highway #7 with parts beyond. There are many trucks that navigate from Ottawa (north east) to Kingston or Toronto (south west). Trucks use Highway #10, and get themselves on Gore St. It's a tough turn. They've talked for years about a ring road between Craig St. and Highway #7, but that's not where the trucks are going. They use Rideau Ferry Rd. to get to highway #15. I remember doing a traffic study in Toronto, when I was in Gr. 11 geography. This would be interesting.

Our old city of Perth (1816), has adapted to cars and trucks. Not well, though.

This is a problem across Ontario, we used to be stops on the way to the city, when traffic consisted of horses and buggies!

Perth Town Traffic & Crosswalks

Courtesy crosswalk sign

Small town traffic

As we drove home at 6:30 p.m. in the dusk, we were hard-pressed to see people crossing at the new crosswalks. It is very dark. It's a problem with this time of year.

There is some controversy around the crosswalks, as they are 'courtesy' crosswalks. They have changes planned, thankfully. They've repainted the crosswalks, but just on one side. They are reducing the crosswalks, but making them mandatory.

Devoy, who writes for our local small paper, writes that they have recommended two solar-powered automated pedestrian crossing systems along Gore St. They cost $29,000 each. They are considering it as part of the 2018 budget. This is a good thing. It's a brilliant idea! ('Scuse the pun!) Sadly, people are hard to spot, with cars parked on corners outside legal parking. This is something they need to monitor, as well.

The camera automatically lightens the photo, but you see where they aren't in our headlights.

They are pretty dark, all things considered. You cannot see people at the left side.
Perth Crosswalks from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Then there is this intersection.

Gore St & North where we nearly witnessed an accident. It is a two-way stop.  The car on the right doesn't have a stop sign, they have the right of way. We beat the truck to the stop sign but we let a pedestrian cross, then the truck began to move. The dark-coloured car had to put on its brakes.
I'm thinking this should be a 4-way stop to prevent many incidents.


It's pretty scary out there. We could use a ring road, but that's big bucks for a small town.
Education would be a good idea, but people are so distracted. There were two drivers in the truck, but pretty scary.