Q&A - More Signs and Safety Evaluations
I don't know where to start and thought this would be a good first step.
I live close to the intersection of Raynor and Craigflower rd. which has a marked crosswalk that is frequently used by young families, the elementary school, and a preschool to access Banfeild park. Today what happened was to close of a call from me to just let this incident slide.
My daughters 4yr, and 3 months (one on my hand the other in a baby carrier) were crossing at the crosswalk, we waited for traffic to stop traveling north on craigflower, and then the car was forced to stop the block before, which I felt was far enough for us to cross. However with him being distracted, and it being a downhill slope he came upon the crosswalk very quickly, so much so the opposite traffic honked their horn to get the cars attention, and I did pull myself and daughter back a few steps as he was unpredictable. He did stop before the cross walk thankfully.
This is not the first time this type of incident has happened, about 3 weeks I had cars stop for me at the cross walk but then the second car behind them didn't stop in time, and caused a fender bender.
What I would like is to know who and how to petition to get better signage that this area is 40km/h, or to even have this intersection evaluated for it the frequency of crosswalk vs. average speed of cars and proper implementation put into place.
Please respond to my query as I would like to campaign to make a change at this frequented intersection before the 'near misses' become more serious.
Comments
Answer
Here is the crosswalk in Street View:
At either 40 or 50 km/h there are plenty of signs warning of the crosswalk, not to mention the painted crosswalk itself. It also appears that there is no problem seeing into the intersection from all approaches. I even see a 30 km/h speed sign for northbound traffic south of the intersection and another one for southbound traffic north of the traffic lights. The photos are from June 2012 by the look of it. Has the speed zone changed since then?
It would depend on the amount of foot traffic I would think, but if it is high, then the only suggestion that I might make is to try and have the city install a pedestrian activated flashing amber lights at the crosswalk. They seem to work very well when I encounter them. Unfortunately, they are likely expensive and it may be hard to convince the city to act.
I glanced over the pedestrian master plan. At 247 pages it is a big document to go through but it is supposed to show how streets are prioritized for improvements. It does mention a database for public complaint information to drive change and does mention Craigflower in relation to Sunnyside.
You could contact Engineering and ask what might be done. Similarly you should also complain to the Victoria Police Department. If no one complains, it's easy to think that the problem doesn't exist.
The CRD Traffic Safety Commission is another possibility as well.
It's difficult to find good advice on how to deal with an issue like this yourself. I have managed to find:
There isn't much in them to help create a citizen's action plan.