Bizarro Week continues

First, we had oilsands companies advocating a carbon tax, and now this: Kerry Diotte and I agree on something.

The man who attributed Don Iveson's win in the recent Edmonton municipal election to a socialist conspiracy and I are united -- albeit for fairly different reasons -- in our strong distaste of the city's new jaywalking bylaw, which increases the fine for inappropriate street crossing in our city from $40 to a truly ridiculous $250 (see the story here; I never thought I'd link to the Sun three times in two paragraphs, but for some reason no one else has covered this -- and, after all, it is Bizarro Week).

The reason for this increase? "There has to be a greater incentive for people to play safer," according to traffic safety office official Gerry Shimko, who refers to Edmonton's 13 pedestrian fatalities last year. Right off the bat, I question if this will really accomplish anything because as Diotte points out in his column, jaywalking is responsible for only 4 of these 13 fatalities. That said, I do agree that the city should be working to reduce the number of these fatalities, but as is all-too-common in our city, this problem is being looked at from the slightly elevated and air-conditioned perspective of the driver.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the majority of jaywalking in the city -- and the majority of jaywalking enforcement -- takes place downtown and in the University/Whyte Ave area (when I say "jaywalking," I don't include crossing cul-de-sacs and similar trivialities). Because these are pretty much the only two places in the city where one can walk anywhere, I feel reasonably confident making this assertion. Taking this into account and using the city's logic, one would think that most of the traffic fatalities that this bylaw is aiming to fix would have occurred in these areas.

However, taking a look at this map reveals that this isn't the case. 10 or 11 (depending on your figuring) of 2007's 13 pedestrian fatalities took place within what I would call the peripheral areas, where  my contention is that jaywalking (and pedestrian travel in general) is less frequent but made much more dangerous when it does occur by the inadequate pedestrian facilities in these areas. My point: jaywalking, at least when it's done in pedestrian-friendly areas, isn't the problem -- the problem is people attempting to navigate on foot a city that is designed for cars.

I'm certainly not saying that the city should go to say, Argyll, widen the sidewalks, and build pedestrian overpasses at every intersection; this would be an ultimately superficial measure that would do little to change the habits engendered by 50 years of designing for the automobile. What I am saying is that this yet another example of the car-centric mindframe that still permeates City of Edmonton decision-making, and one more thing to add to the extensive and growing list of reasons for the city to make a fundamental shift to its design philosophy and priorities.

As well, as a resident of a "core" area in the city it frankly pisses me off  that my street-crossing privileges are going to be restricted essentially so non-core residents drive 60 through my neighbourhood with impunity. Could you imagine the furor if a bunch of fellow core residents and I decided to go rip around Riverbend and then, after smashing a few kids, suggested that the solution would be to give the kids tickets?

I'll close by conceding probably the best argument of all to Diotte, who contends that the effectiveness of this bylaw will ultimately be compromised by the scads of irate, fine-contesting people there will be if bylaw officers start writing $250 tickets for jaywalking.

Portions of this post were inspired by conversations with friend BD. I have to give credit where credit is due, particularly since I think he's starting to get suspicious of me appropriating his intellectual property for the purposes of this blog.

Comments

[DMFB]

I agree with your point entirely, and it's a totally ludicrous raise, for an obviously facetious reason, but just speaking from my own experience, which involves an average of 10-12 jaywalks through downtown on my to/from work, I doubt it will effectively do much: there still have to be cops around to give the ticket to you, and the high-jaywalking areas are generally pretty light on cops wandering around (save Whyte Ave on a summer weekend evening).

The other thing that really strikes on that map is how the fatalities are clustered around less well-off or industrial areas: I'd be curious to find how many, if any, of the killed pedestrians had cars.

[Trevor]

Man, this sure is bizzaro week. I agree with you on this issue.

[Brian Dell]

I got a jay-walking ticket a few years ago downtown. I was in a cross-walk, but when I got to the other side a cop jumped out of an unmarked vehicle and said I'd stepped into the cross-walk after "the hand" had started flashing.