Raise the Hammer

what can we do - good question. Needs a plan. What about attacking the green wave? I think the green wave is at the heart of the one-way madness. As long as the incentive is so clearly there I and everyone else will drive these things. If the green wave could be cut to a reasonable speed, or even below, that would be a start. The purpose should not be that you can speed up to catch it, but that you will always get cut off after a few lights. Right now the system creates a huge incentive for those in the back to go way too fast and those in the middle to go too fast. This would be achievable because it could be an easy incremental change. I also don't think there can be any basis for creating an incentive to drive too fast.

Another angle is to frame the issue around liability. Where the green wave is especially dangerous is at busy intersections. Try timing the lights at Queen or Dundurn - once the flashing hand starts you need to bust a move to get across. This is added to the fact that drivers get a huge head start if there are no cars stopped in front of them. So where on a normal intersection you can count on getting 3-5 seconds of flashing hand before you need to worry, PLUS a second or two of solid hand, at these intersections if you're not across exactly by the time the hand stops, then you're in massive danger - because people are flying in. What needs to happen then is empirical evidence to be amassed of this phenomenon - standards of street crossing, how long people take normally, how long it takes on Queen v Dundurn v James v Wellington - and this to be presented to the city as a sort of business case for the danger they are knowingly putting people in. This will at least make a personal injury lawyer happy but it could also raise the issue to one of greater importance.

Another option might be to demand that the areas around schools be reduced to 30 or 40. This might also be achievable since the issue becomes children's safety and not just these more amorphous concerns raised here.