City council to decide fate of Bay/Bloor pedestrian scramble

TORONTO – The pedestrian scramble at the corner of Bay and Bloor Streets could soon be removed.

The city’s Public Works Committee voted in favour of a staff report to remove the scramble, eliminating the all-way stop for cars, which lets pedestrians cross whichever way they choose.

A staff report on the efficacy of the scramble found slight positive benefits for pedestrians were outweighed by the negative impacts to vehicle traffic.  The report found more pedestrians than cars pass through the intersection and the scramble reduced pedestrian delay.

But traffic accidents at the intersection increased in the four years since the scramble was installed and increased travel times between 30 seconds and a minute and 44 seconds during the morning rush hour. Travel times during the evening rush hour increased between 19 seconds and over four minutes.

There are two other pedestrian scramble intersections in the city: Yonge and Bloor, and Yonge and Dundas.

The report now goes before full city council, which will decide whether to scrap the scramble.