Toronto health chief recommends pedestrian head-start traffic lights

Chalk it up to the perils of city living. At almost any major traffic light during high volume hours, you'll find pedestrians and vehicles engaging in a game of high-stakes intersection chicken.

With walkers and drivers angling for the same "go" signal, sometimes a right turn can become a close call for drivers who don't anticipate or notice people crossing the street on foot.

And on the flip side of that equation, numerous pedestrians fail to obey their signals, creating a dangerous situation for any driver who happens to choose that moment to turn.

But as the Toronto Star reports, the head of the city's public health department says this risk can be avoided if pedestrians are given a three-to-five second head start at traffic lights.

Dr. David McKeown, the city's medical officer of health, proposed this week that at "leading pedestrian intervals (LPI)," where the walk sign flicks on a few seconds before the green light and delays drivers for several counts, pedestrians become easier to spot and drivers will be less likely to hit them.

Cambridge, Mass., has already applied the LPI route at almost all its intersections, while New York has started to follow suit.

Toronto counts one such light at downtown's busy University Ave. and Adelaide St. and so far it seems to be working.

"It has proven to be effective (at University and Adelaide), though we don't have real hard data to show just how effective they are. But just observationally — it is something we'd like to apply elsewhere," John Mende, the city's director of transportation infrastructure management, told the Star.

"Previously, the left-turning vehicles would turn in front of the pedestrians. But because of those few seconds, they are waiting, and allowing the pedestrians to cross first . . . We haven't had any incidents at that location."

Mende admitted to the paper that the city would have to be selective about where it chose to place these new lights. He said they would be most effective at junctures with the highest volume of turns, like the three-way "T" intersections.

McKeown also recommended reducing Toronto's speed limit, a motion that did not meet with as much favour in Mayor Rob Ford's circle (or outside it).

But Ford ally and public works committee chair Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said he'd be open to the health chief's head-start idea "[a]s long as it doesn't create confusion for pedestrians or the driver."