You can’t get there from here

I’m considering whether this post should be the start of a series.  It would be categorized as “We need a bylaw” or “Gaps in logic” or something like that.  At any rate, it’s a brief rant about a specific situation I’ve faced daily for many months and which is also likely a common occurance in your life as well.  And it really ticks me off.  (Whether this becomes a series, only time will tell…)

I walk a lot.  My typical day (in cooperative weather) includes 15 minutes from home to the Aurora GO station, 15 minutes from Union Station to my office and 30 minutes to do the same in reverse, plus some walking during lunch hour.  For months now, I’ve been witness to the construction of the new Aurora GO parking facility as I walked by in the morning and afternoon.  This is not a comment on the facility itself as I’ve never actually parked at the GO station, choosing instead to walk most days or take the bus in bad weather.

For long stretches of time during the facility construction I’ve been faced with this sign:

Road Closed

You can’t read it, but the fallen down part says “Pedestrians Use Other Sidewalk.”

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why this particular thing would be cause for a rant. After all, the sidewalk is closed for my safety, right?  Shouldn’t I be grateful?  Well, to answer that you have to consider this map:

Aurora GO Station

The green circle is the GO station.  The red circle is the sign location.  The sidewalk which has been “closed” for months is on the south side of the street, the same side as the GO station which is the destination of a great number of pedestrians who might actually be walking there.

So in effect, this sign is essentially telling me to cross to the north side of the street and then take my life in my hands to cross back to reach the train station since there is no safe crosswalk.  If you’ve ever been to this part of Aurora you know what a risky venture that would be!

In my professional career I’ve been around a lot of construction, including work along public roadways.  The Highway Traffic Act and other safety legislation is quite specific about safe signage and passage for vehicles.  Under no circumstances would a contractor get away with not providing a safe route for cars past a construction area.

So why do pedestrians not deserve equal consideration?

To add insult to injury (actually, this is about avoiding injury), this is only one of three identical situations on my walk from home to the GO station.  There were/are others for the new condos on John West Way and the new Catholic High School just east of this map.  The High School, incidentally, is on the north side, so to navigate according to the signs and closed walks I would have had to cross Wellington Street three times.

The point of this is that pedestrians deserve safe passage past construction zones, and contractors should be obligated to provide it rather than just closing sidewalks and letting pedestrians fend for themselves.