Does the +15 system make Calgary a better winter city?

[freeweed]

Those planters are just pure evil, and what the city's done as a result is even worse. There's a spot on 3rd St (at 5th Ave) where the planters basically make you walk from one side of the sidewalk to the other - except the city in its infinite wisdom has decided to paint the crosswalk at the extreme edge which really suits neither. So what ends up happening is that pedestrians are sick of being choked up and tangled in those idiot planters, and once past, everyone spreads out and lines up at the curb.

Except whoops! The actual crosswalk is nowhere close to where you'd think it would be, so traffic stops immediately in front of where half of the pedestrians are waiting to cross. And hilarity ensues.

This is a recent thing as of this fall, I believe (it certainly wasn't like that before). With winter no one can see the lines anyway so it's less of an issue, but it's pretty comical to watch in action. Here we have these wonderfully wide sidewalks, insanely pedestrian friendly - and then we royally fuck it all up by a) cramming them with needless obstruction, and b) making crosswalks that are diametrically opposed to how any pedestrian actually walks.

It's one of those things you have to see to believe. I had a cow-orker ranting about this some months ago and then I finally experienced it. It's sheer stupidity.

On the planters themselves - if we have to do this, PUT THEM BY THE STREET. PERIOD. Forcing pedestrians to not only dodge around them, but actually move closer to traffic is one of the most hostile things I've seen in this city. Almost as bad as the "sidewalks" on the north side of 10th Ave.