Quote:
Originally Posted by casper
In BC a green flashing light means the intersection is controlled by a cross walk. In other words it is always green unless a pedestrian presses the cross walk button. It does not mean it is safe to make a left turn.
In Ontario and Quebec it means it is safe to make a left turns as the opposite flow of traffic is being held.
This regional variation is an accident waiting to happen.
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That's why Ontario is phasing them out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenote
I hate that about ontario, I have our Cottage on Lake of the Woods, and those stupid always green lights are great if you are the one who has the green, but if you are the other person, sometimes the wait is forever. Especially with road repairs when the crew has gone, they have those temp lights, those do not even work on traffic volume, they just go red for like 5 minutes straight. Even though all that is coming is a moth the entire 5 minutes. lol
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Yeah, there are a few here that don't respond to pedestrians at all so we just cross against the red.
This trick didn't work in Winnipeg, but at some intersections in Thunder Bay, if you hold a crosswalk button down for 10 seconds, no matter where it is in its cycle, it will turn green for you within 30 seconds. This is often the trick I use to get those stubborn lights to change. The one I need to use to get to Superstore has a 5 minute green cycle and 1 minute red cycle, only deviating if someone is turning left out of Superstore (and it's a back entrance so that rarely happens). The light is only there because once Superstore was built, it kept causing accidents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy6
The horizontal ones make me feel like I'm in some western frontier town. I always found Winnipeg's vertical ones a sign of classiness.
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That's kind of funny because I always associated the horizontal lights with a more developed and modern city, and I associated the boring vertical ones with places like Thunder Bay.
Pedestrian crosswalks in Thunder Bay simply use an entire array of traffic lights, with a full light cycle. I kind of wish we had the crosswalks Winnipeg has, since they respond faster. The one that connects our mall to a parking lot across the street doesn't work, it's just a superfluous set of traffic lights that is always green, and it's located between two actual intersections which themselves are only 300m apart.
You can see the idiocy for yourself
here. Kind of funny that the "stop for red light here" sign is on the wrong side of the crosswalk! They were too cheap to put up another pole so that it could be in the correct spot.
that's a common problem here, which is probably why we have so many bad drivers. The signs aren't in the correct spots and it is teaching them bad driving habits.