Pedestrians

Recently the Comox Valley Regional District purchased some land – the former railway grade from Royston to Cumberland. It has been used as an unofficial trail in the past, however I wasn’t aware of it. The trail is approximately 5.5 km long. However, part of this trail is on the Cumberland side of the Inland Island Hwy.

Question: Last week on my daily walk, my friend and I were crossing the old Island Highway at the bottom of Bay Street. It looked like we had a lot of time but oddly a younger aggressive driver actually sped up as we were crossing. It was no where a near miss (or hit depending on perspective) but it made me question that there are no crosswalks for close to a kilometre.

A reader observes "I was crossing West Mall at UBC over a speed hump towards the bus stop. A car was driving on West Mall and did not stop. When I showed the driver the white arrows on the pavement, he said that these were speed hump marks, not a crosswalk. I recognize that I might have been wrong assuming it was a pedestrian crosswalk, but then I started thinking, who should have the right of way?"

The School Safety Patrol Program is a public service provided free of charge to elementary schools by the BCAA. Part of the CAA's School Safety Patrol Program it is recognized as an outstanding initiative for reducing injuries and deaths among 5-12 year olds.

Over the five years ending with 2012 B.C. saw an average of 2,300 pedestrian involved collisions with 2,400 injuries and 60 fatalities. Almost 42% of these were aged 61 or over. Males tend to be involved more often with 35 deaths each year compared to 25 female deaths.

Older pedestrians are less likely to survive a collision than younger people. It is also a fact of life that aging brings with it a reduction in perceptual abilities such as poorer vision, depth perception and increased chance of confusion. Add bad walking habits to the mix and an already risky situation becomes worse. All of the things that we teach our children to survive in traffic are equally applicable to older pedestrians.

Pedestrian Injury and Human Behaviour: Observing Road-Rule Violations at High-Incident Intersections is a study conducted by researchers from Simon Fraser University. They examined seven intersections in Vancouver known for the high incidence of pedestrian collisions.

This incident took place at the intersection of Hillside Avenue and Gosworth Road in Victoria. Lisa MacKnight was crossing in the crosswalk following the directions of the pedestrian controlled signals as Ryan Nast approached riding a bicycle. Mr. Nast passed stopped traffic on the right hand side and intended to go through the intersection on the red until he saw Ms. MacKnight step into the crosswalk. He tried to brake but was not successful and struck her causing significant injury to her.

A lot of people don't follow the so called rules when walking or riding bicycles. The rule of ride with traffic ....ride on the right side of the road. The real bad one I see is of all ages. People not walking toward traffic.

They walk on the right and have no chance to get out of the way of on coming dangers.

At the beginning of last December I wrote about my experiences as a pedestrian at night in the lower mainland of BC and how dangerous it can be. This time I'm going to admire my neighbour who goes out in all weather to walk her dogs. When it's dark she wears a white LED headlight with a reflective vest and she puts a red LED light on the collar of each dog. There's no mistaking them as they walk along the road edge!