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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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6 comments

  1. madness! and here we are in Toronto, mentioning infastructure challenges …

  2. I have often been impressed / frightened when travelling how no one seems to end up dead in the middle of the road. It’s intimidating at first, but after a while you learn the secret – it’s to not assume that you ever have the right of way and to make sure you look at everyone.

    If you are walking and a car is approaching, catch their eye – and you will often be able to figure out if they are going to stop or not. It’s very counter to our North American thinking, especially in places where there are traffic signals. In North America, if we have a green, we can go. We don’t think or even look to see what might be coming, because everyone acts the same. In Mongolia, a little white man on that pedestrian signal means “go as long as no cars are coming.”

    I recall reading about this a few years ago – and just googled to come up with some relevant articles. It’s called shared space – the theory that by removing all traffic controls and having people have to negotiate with each other for use of the road space, things are a lot safer.

    Follow this link, and it links to a few interesting sites and articles on the subject. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040520/0110225.shtml

  4. Insane! I did a Google search on traffic deaths in India and found this:
    “In this country of 1.1 billion people, an estimated 270 people die each day from road accidents, and specialists predict that will increase by roughly 5 percent a year.”

    That’s 99,850 people a year! In Canada, where 3,000 people die each year in vehicle accidents, or 8.2 a day.

    This, sadly, indicates that India and Canada share roughly the same death-to-population ratio, about 1 in every 1,000.

    I think I did my math right….

  5. In Peru half the traffic lights are not in working order and the ones that are, are considered ‘optional’. You get by, by honking, plowing your way through, and praying you come out in one piece at the end of it all.

  6. Wow… great video example of the concept of critical mass… cars, bikes and those 3-wheeled things waiting in groups until their accumulated number can cross an intersection forcing the other direction to stop and wait.