Raise the Hammer

First of all, the comment stating that if lights synchronized for 60 they're also synchronized for 120 is correct. the distance is a fixed distance so math takes that part of the equation out. I don't feel that having a 7km stretch of road travelling at 30-40km/h is the answer. Two way streets will be an advantage because the lights will no longer be synchronized. The only problem with any solution posted is that you can lower speeds or reduce traffic flow ONLY IF THERE'S A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE INTO THE CITY... i.e. better public transportation. Not to mention that I used to live squarely in the middle of this (Grant St) and drove to and from work on Grays Road for about 6 months. A speed of between 62 and 64 will get green lights all the way along. Having said that, I've seen many many times when pedestrians either cross the road where there is no cross walk or cross when the little hand is showing. They're there for a reason. Changing the intergreen (the time between red in one direction and the green on the other) will only make the pedestrians more bold. Whether we like it or not, there will be vehicles travelling into the city to and from work for a long time to come. They need to be facilitated and stop and go along king/main isn't the answer. As long as the two streets are the main corridors into the city, changing anything about them will cause DIFFERENT accidents to occur. I say, let's put up some red light cameras at every intersection. That'll get people jumping the light as well as those who ignore them completely - a circumstance i've seen quite often. If motorist know there's no one to catch them flying through downtown, they're going to do it regardless of the colour of the lights. I've travelled through Cambridge at 11 o'clock at night. Highway 8 through the northern part Cambridge is a 2 way, 2 lane roadway with parking on both sides of the road, wide sidewalks and trees and non-synchronized continuously cycling lights. Despite all of these "safe" characteristics, I was passed by an idiotic individual travelling through downtown at breakneck speeds disregarding the lights at every intersection until he came to the part where the police frequent.

As a final statement, we can do as much as we want to make our roads safe, but the bottom line is, it's not what the roads look like, it's the attitudes of the people using (both driving and walking) them that makes the difference.