Removal of scramble intersections along Whyte Avenue meant to improve bus times

As part of efforts to speed up public transit on Whyte Avenue, the city is removing three scramble crosswalks. CTV news Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson has more.

Improvements are coming to intersections along Whyte Avenue this summer at the expense of ‘scramble’ pedestrian crossings.

The change is part of an effort to speed up public transit along the major east-west corridor, which is used heavily by both commuters and pedestrians alike.

The three scramble intersections were introduced less than a decade ago in the name of pedestrian safety, the first at 105 Street in 2018 followed by the crossings at Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard five years ago. Seven other city intersections are pedestrian scramble crossings, six of them downtown and one at Stony Plain Road and 152 Street in the west end. The scramble concept allows pedestrians to exclusively cross the roads in any direction for a light cycle.

But the scramble also slows down buses, which is why the City of Edmonton is removing the Whyte Avenue ones. Routes 4 and 8, two major cross-city loops that run along Whyte, are among the most popular buses in the Edmonton transit system, and future Bus Rapid Transit plans include dedicated bus lanes along the thoroughfare featuring so-called queue jumps for buses and extended curbs for faster passenger loading.

While Old Strathcona’s main thoroughfare is popular among pedestrians, it’s also a well-used road funnelling people to the University of Alberta and its hospital – and in the case of workers and students, back to the bergs from where they came, including the far-flung reaches of Sherwood Park 15 kilometres to the east.

Michael Janz, the city councillor whose ward includes the Whyte Avenue intersections, said the pressures on the road are only increasing with time and that, at some point, it will undergo a major revamp.

“Part of the problem here is that these are piecemeal measures, whether we’re talking about the scrambles or we’re talking about the transit priority measures,” Janz told CTV News Edmonton on Monday. “Ultimately, Whyte needs a whole (makeover). We need to rip it up and redo it.”

But even though the messaging from the city over scramble crossings is changing – just a few short years ago, it centred around pedestrian safety – its head of transportation planning says safety is still top of mind.

Natalie Lazurko, the City of Edmonton’s director of transportation planning and design, told CTV News Edmonton on Monday that pedestrians can expect extended curbs that shorten one’s walk across the road by up to five metres and provide better sightlines, and adjusted signal times to reduce delays. As well, drivers won’t be able to turn right on red, and left turns will only be allowed on an advanced arrow.

“We’ve tried to mimic some of the benefits that you get with a scramble crossing with these other measures that we’re putting in place,” Lazurko said.

Brandon Kwong, the board chair for Paths for People, a local active transportation advocate, said while some of the measures being taken for the Whyte Avenue intersections are positive moves, he feels ditching the scramble at them will be confusing and dangerous for both pedestrians and drivers who’ve adapted to them.

“Not only is that going to be unsafe for the many, many people who use Whyte Avenue, it doesn’t instill a lot of confidence or inspiration or goodwill from the people of Edmonton who are looking at our infrastructure designs and the state of our budget and where we’re needing to find efficiencies and work together in order to get the most that we can out of the resources we’ve got,” Kwong told CTV News Edmonton.

“IWhen it comes to vehicle and pedestrian conflict points or interactions, everything that we’ve heard both statistically and anecdotally about how scrabble crosswalks make an area feel like it is designed for people ... we see, especially in a location like Whyte Avenue, a really good solution that that we think makes a lot of sense in those spots,” Kwong said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson