"Walk like your life depends on it" campaign

[canadave]

Anyone else out there think this campaign is faintly ridiculous?

David Reevly posted about it here (http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/greaterottawa/archive/2009/06/18/pourquoi-on-n-a-pas-travers-233-au-coin.aspx), with a couple of links and a brief discussion of his own opinion.

As I commented over there, I think the city is going after the wrong target, here. Ticketing pedestrians for crossing midblock is silly, especially in those areas of the city where going to an intersection can cost you ten minutes of walking time... stretches of Montreal Road, Carling Ave., etc. are all examples of this. Instead, we should be working on targeting all the drivers out there that refuse to yield to pedestrians, which happens a lot, I find, even in places where pedestrians have an explicit right-of-way.

[Sens1992]

As for ticketing pedestrians, well that is going too far but I really think that everybody here needs to think about the way we share our roads and sidewalks. Ottawa is getting bigger and bigger and pedestrians, cyclists and motorists have to share the road more and more. In many occasions, the cars are to blame but as far as the downtown core, it is ridiculous how a lot of pedestrians cross where ever and when ever. I witnessed over and over again at intersections such as Wellington and Bank, people crossing non-stop even after the hand signal had started to flash and they drag it to the other side allowing just one car or even worst, one bus to turn right on one cycle of a red light. We all have to work together here. It make no sense that only one vehicule can make it thru on an entire green light. Vehicules have to respect the fact that pedestrians have the right of way when the ped light is on but as soon as the hand signal starts flashing, peds are to hurry up to the other side and others waiting accross can't enagage into the crossing until the next signal... how often do you see that?? Not too often. Let's work together!:)