{"id":5292,"date":"2014-10-14T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?p=5292"},"modified":"2014-11-07T11:38:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T18:38:10","slug":"downtown-people-isnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn&#8217;t it?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Edmonton has been making great strides in downtown lately. The Arena District has been stealing many of the headlines, but it is just\u00a0one of many exciting projects contributing to huge changes in the core of the city. From\u00a0the Valley Line LRT<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmonton.ca\/transportation\/ets\/lrt_projects\/southeast-to-west-lrt-mill-woods-to-lewis-farms.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">,<\/a> new streetscaping on Jasper Avenue and Capital Boulevard, the continually-growing 104 Street Farmer&#8217;s Market, regular new restaurant openings and burgeoning condo development, downtown is developing a critical mass of activities and environments that help to support significant pedestrian activity. Recent City Council discussions about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/metronews.ca\/news\/edmonton\/1170589\/city-looking-for-new-rules-on-construction-hoardings-in-downtown-edmonton\/?utm_content=buffer37644&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\" target=\"_blank\">pedestrian access around construction sites<\/a>, and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmontonjournal.com\/news\/edmonton\/Walk%2Bthis%2Bwith%2Bconfidence\/10264708\/story.html?utm_content=buffer0f7cb&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer\" target=\"_blank\">momentum behind the Edmonton Wayfinding Project<\/a> show we are giving increasing attention to the finer details of how to make downtown comfortable and navigable for pedestrians too.<\/p>\n<p>In light of all this positive change towards a more walkable downtown, why are our downtown traffic lights so terrible\u00a0for pedestrians?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/iframewidth=853height=480src=\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XV9Oy60bPX0?rel=0frameborder=0allowfullscreen\/iframe\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XV9Oy60bPX0?rel=0\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I took this time-lapse video on a weekday afternoon, a walking trip on Jasper Avenue from 100 Street to 109 Street. Walking at a moderate pace, I managed to hit every single light. In total, the trip took 18 minutes (the video is at 10x speed).\u00a0It&#8217;s difficult to estimate how long the trip might have taken if the lights were better timed for walking speeds, but there is no doubt that I spent a substantial amount of time waiting at lights, almost\u00a0one third of the total travel time. Another test on a weekday morning resulted in similar intersection frustration.<\/p>\n<p>An inquiry to the City of Edmonton Transportation Services Department about signal cycle lengths revealed\u00a0that all downtown signals utilize the same timing. During the AM Peak and Off Peak hours, traffic lights take 100 seconds for a full cycle (i.e. 50 seconds green and 50 seconds red in the same direction). During the PM Peak, this cycle is a little bit longer at 110 seconds. At night, the cycles shorten to 75 seconds. My experience suggests that some intersections actually have longer cycles than this. 100 Street and 109 Street, for instance, with complex advance green turning cycles, both seem to be longer than others in the downtown. But regardless, it would appear that the current signal lengths downtown could be adding as much as 55 seconds a block to walking times.<\/p>\n<p>This hardly seems like a pedestrian friendly operations strategy. The reason for these lengthy cycles, of course, is vehicular traffic flow. Longer cycle lengths allow automobile traffic to more efficiently clear intersections and keep traffic moving freely. While this is a desirable outcome, the problem in the downtown is that it is\u00a0coming at the expense of pedestrian movement in our busiest pedestrian district and the place we have been making the biggest investments in to improve pedestrian comfort.<\/p>\n<p>So, is downtown for people?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Edmonton has been making great strides in downtown lately. The Arena District has been stealing many of the headlines, but it is just\u00a0one of many exciting projects contributing to huge changes in the core of the city. From\u00a0the Valley Line LRT, new streetscaping on Jasper Avenue and Capital Boulevard, the continually-growing 104 Street Farmer&#8217;s Market,<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn&#8217;t it?)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8125,"featured_media":5308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,25,27,30],"tags":[227,76,226,230,229,136,56,228],"class_list":["post-5292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-film-video","category-spacing","category-traffic","category-walking","tag-downtown","tag-edmonton","tag-jasper-avenue","tag-pedestrians","tag-signal-timing","tag-spacing-3","tag-walkability","tag-walking-2","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn&#039;t it?) - Spacing Edmonton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/\",\"name\":\"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn't it?) - Spacing Edmonton\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-14T18:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-07T18:38:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5901e4314ddea756acba6fe2eddee56b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg\",\"width\":968,\"height\":663,\"caption\":\"Photo by Kevin Kim on Flickr\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn&#8217;t it?)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Edmonton\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Edmonton Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5901e4314ddea756acba6fe2eddee56b\",\"name\":\"Tom Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef231873e138b394ab0f6618d9a30647?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef231873e138b394ab0f6618d9a30647?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tom Young\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/author\/tomyoung\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn't it?) - Spacing Edmonton","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Young","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/","name":"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn't it?) - Spacing Edmonton","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-14T18:00:33+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-07T18:38:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5901e4314ddea756acba6fe2eddee56b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2014\/10\/kevin-kim-pedestrian-sign.jpg","width":968,"height":663,"caption":"Photo by Kevin Kim on Flickr"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2014\/10\/14\/downtown-people-isnt\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"VIDEO: Downtown is for people! (Isn&#8217;t it?)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/","name":"Spacing Edmonton","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Edmonton Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/5901e4314ddea756acba6fe2eddee56b","name":"Tom Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef231873e138b394ab0f6618d9a30647?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef231873e138b394ab0f6618d9a30647?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Tom Young"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/author\/tomyoung\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5292"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5314,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5292\/revisions\/5314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}