Eight pedestrians hit by vehicles in four days.
Sidewalks buried in snow, leaving pedestrians with few options.
The connection is, well, stupefyingly obvious.
The only real question is, with this being only January, how many more pedestrians are going to be mowed down this winter?
The answer is too many. Because certainly, more will be hit.
They’ll be hit by drivers going too fast for the road conditions. By drivers not paying enough attention. By drivers unable or unwilling to recognize that pedestrians also have to get to work, and also have a right to get there.
Is it a two-way street? Well, most of them are.
There are plenty of things that pedestrians can do to help prevent accidents: walk facing traffic, be constantly car-aware, wear reflective clothing, walk in single file rather than side by side. Have proper footwear for the weather conditions. Obey the “don’t walk” signs, even though it means extra time facing biting cold and wind.
But face it: in a car-pedestrian accident, the driver will always walk away physically unscathed. The same can’t be said for the pedestrian.
Municipalities have a role in this, too.
In St. John’s, delays in sidewalk plowing of up to a week, even on “Priority 1” sidewalk routes, after the last major storm, sidewalks filled in by street plows sometimes only hours after they’ve been cleared, intersection snow clearing that completely blocks sidewalk access: all of those are clear risks to pedestrians.
But face it: in a car-pedestrian accident, the driver will always walk away physically unscathed. The same can’t be said for the pedestrian.
Also of concern? Snowbanks cut so sharply on side streets that drivers can’t see pedestrians until the last moment, and the city’s inability or unwillingness to ticket businesses where private snowclearing contractors pile snow and block sidewalks, sometimes with mountains of packed snow. (Private citizens who industriously block plowed sidewalks with snow shovelled from their driveways should also get a visit from bylaw officers to at least point out the issue before having to resort to fines.)
But there’s more involved in the city’s part as well.
It’s a question of awareness: not only that there are sidewalk clearing targets, but that there has to be a functional knowledge of how and why sidewalks are used, where people are going and when, and why a “streets-come-first-second-and-always” system can put lives at risk.
Consistency is also paramount. You wouldn’t plow Prince Philip Parkway, for example, but simply stop at Clinch Crescent and leave traffic after that point to fend for itself. You wouldn’t plow the parkway during one storm and then leave it untouched for the next one. But both of those things happen, regularly, with the city’s “priority” sidewalk routes.
This is not a new issue. It’s not even a new discussion.
We’re all in this together.
But only some of us are getting injured, sometimes seriously. Sometimes fatally.
