Bad driving or poor design? A downtown Edmonton intersection is a case study
CBC
In 2020, many Edmontonians drove less as they began working from home and avoiding social gatherings. Fewer cars on the road led to far fewer collisions, injuries and fatalities, including for pedestrians and cyclists.
As vehicular traffic returned, those numbers shot back up — to higher levels than before, in some cases.
"Unsafe street design really tends to prioritize the speed and volume of vehicle traffic over minimizing risk of injury or collision to pedestrians, cyclists and other road users," says Shannon Lohner, chair of Paths for People, a local transportation advocacy group.
Edmonton is designed to be navigated by automobile, but that design has safety implications for all road users — particularly those who aren't cocooned in a 1,000-kilogram steel frame.
Pedestrians and cyclists often face challenges — or outright danger — while navigating an urban environment built with the needs of motorists top of mind, such as wide streets and intersections with high speed limits, few or distant safe crossings and narrow or missing sidewalks.
Edmonton is a physically large city with a low population density, so making it less car-centric is a slow and expensive process. But even newer road designs may not be as safe for non-drivers as advertised.
CBC News surveilled one downtown Edmonton intersection to see how road design can affect safety.
The intersection of 100th Street and 102nd Avenue features a multi-modal design, meaning it accounts for different types of transportation. The Valley Line LRT shares 102nd Avenue with pedestrians, a two-way bike lane and a single one-way lane for cars, all largely without physical barriers.
CBC News recorded a 48-hour timelapse video of the intersection from Thursday, Feb. 29 to Saturday, March 2, then counted several types of driving infractions that were caught on tape. (Scroll to the bottom for the full methodology.)
In all, CBC News counted 381 infractions, almost half of which were instances when automobiles blocked the crosswalk or bike box.
"These numbers are surprising," says Coun. Anne Stevenson, who represents Ward O-day'min, where the intersection is located.
"They're very high. They certainly validate a lot of the feedback that I hear more anecdotally."
Several design factors may contribute to the findings.
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This First Person column is the experience of Mehdi M. Kashani, who lives in Toronto. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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