If memory serves me correctly, it was just over a year ago that I was in Edmonton’s Northern Chicken restaurant on 124th street. I had placed my order and there was construction entertainment outside as the food was being prepared. Several of us were looking curiously out the big front window at the work being done on the nearby intersection.
People were wondering why city hall was making the pedestrian crossings a red colour using fake bricks. Was it to make the city pretty? Was it for safety? Was it just to make the city more colourful? Maybe with the green colour of other intersections we’d be all ready for Christmas.
Completed, the intersection for some would be a treat for the eye, but it would not be a winter wonderland. Something in the red thermal plastic made it feel slippery to the treads on your tires and your boots.
So, the city is busy now ripping several red intersections out.
The city hopes you won’t be ticked at this latest expense.
I don’t understand why they didn’t just solve this problem with an anti-slip solution. An actual liquid anti-icing solution, say, calcium chloride?
Let me know what you think.
Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations.
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