I hope he recovers quickly and does not suffer too much!

Hopefully it did not happen in one of the many locations where pedestrian overpasses are sorely needed!

Nobody mentioned those at the all candidates forum.

None of the candidates are pedestrians who would be crossing in such locations. They walk from stores to cars, offices to cars, and in their neighbourhood to walk the dog. Why would a business person, social worker, truck driver, railway conductor, etc. ever think of such city planning issue?

That issue is one for administration. At the Council level that is micro managing.

That, of course, raises the issue, what is not micro managing?

potholes? - administration
dangerous goods route? - administration
downtown safety? - administration
air quality? - administration
crime? - police contract
low cost housing? - province

And what is the work council should be doing? setting policy.

Official Community Plan - no one talks about it
Tax levels - everyone says they need to lower taxes, but fail to address the balancing act.
Competitiveness with other cities to retain people and draw more in - no one talks about it
Evaluating the effectiveness of City administration, police and marketing arms - no one dares to talk about that.
Evaluating the effectiveness of Council - other than each one saying that they will imporve it by being on Council, they do not talk about that.

Final analysis - say as little as you can, smile, shake hands with the "right" people and you might have a chance to be just another Councillor.

I'm voting for Gus!

I too wonder if this happened in the new "kill zones" created by the placement of a divider wall at 8th ave. or over by CNC. These wall do not stop pedestrians and only serve to slow the pedestrians down (especially those who have to stop to lift their bicycles over the walls). A child could have seen this as a bad idea but someone must have thought it a good idea. Bad decisions are not the answer to poor planning and the lack of overpasses where they are sorely needed. Hope the youth is O.K.

Great post, Gus! Now the natural question to ask is: If council sets a policy which conflicts with an agenda of the administration, the police or the province, who wins?

My guess is: Council backs off. Where does the buck stop?

Most new candidates appear to be very credible and energetic people. As for the others, well they had their turn.

Diplomat. I see your question as having a simple answer.

We vote for Council, not Administration. Policy comes first, not the agenda of Administration. The mayor and the City Manager should be a team, with neither dominating the other, dealing with day to day activities. If the City Manager dominates, we are in deep doodoo. We can elect and elect till the cows come home, nothing will change.

Council sets policies, taxation levels based on the perceived needs as presented by administration, and negotiates at high levels with the province and federal government to obtain funding preferences over others in the province trying to do the same. (not the standard million here, $200 thousand there kind of applications)

Administration implement policies with programs, projects, procedures. If they do not, and they do not have a rational reason why they do not, they must be evaluated on that basis. Three strikes, and you are out.

The Police is the City Police. RCMP or not. We should have a police commission which ensures that the Police produce what they are paid to produce. They are just another contractor, nothing more. Contract work needs to be properly evaluated, whether a line painting job or a police job.

In the case of the province, the relationship is clear. The jurisdiction of the City is given by the province. As long as the City stays within those bounds, and keep good relationships otherwise, everything should be okay.

Gus are you running for council if not maybe you should consider it you sound very well informed

Who evaluates the performance of the administration? And who evaluates the evaluator?

They haven't done any dredging of the piled up gravel at the mouth of the Nechako yet, although they had agreed a long time ago that there is an urgent need to do so.

Does that mean that they can't agree on what to do or that neither council nor administration has either an agenda or a policy for action?

Are we going to be in deep doodoo again?

VERY good points gus!

Realist. You do "realize" what you just said right?

"These wall do not stop pedestrians and only serve to slow the pedestrians down (especially those who have to stop to lift their bicycles over the walls)."

Since when are roads built to cater to the needs of pedestrians? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'd say that 95% of traffic on roads are vehicles not pedestrians or bikes. The meridians are put in place so idiots that are driving and not paying attention won't end up in the other lane and cause a deadly accident. Who gives a flying @$%$& if "pedestrians" have to be inconvinienced and head down the road a bit till they find a proper crossing, ( which there are plent of )

I'm not making light of the scenario by any means. It's too bad and a real shame that this young man was struck by the bus, but I'm fairly confident that a center meridian had nothing to do with it. And if it comes to light that it did, well maybe people will have to start thinking twice about trying to cross busy roads in the dark.

Let's hope this young man makes a full recovery and try to learn from this.

Gary Long

People involved in the business of safety have learned differently over many decades. Designers of systems have a responsibility of due diligence under the law, including Canadian Criminal Law.

If any reasonable person could have forseen that there was a "desire line" to cross by pedestrians atr some key nodes, as could be observed from past observations, then something should have been done about a new barrier to accommodate such a "desire line".

That is the reason why there are tunnels, such as was just put in place near there on HWY 16W, overpasses, signalized crosswalks, etc.

So, you said: "Since when are roads built to cater to the needs of pedestrians?" They have been for a long time.

That's the same thinking behind not getting your dog fixed and then getting mad that it is pregnant. Expecting people to not cross the highway just because it is dangerous is just as silly. I too hate the fact that teens seem to think that they can just walk out in front of you and expect you to stop just to accommodate them but, hit one and see what happens to your insurance. People are going to cross there regardless of what anyone thinks, so why make the situation worse by putting up a barrier that makes the situation worse? P.S. I can't recall there ever being a cross over accident on these spots where the barriers are up. (I might be wrong here though). So what exactly are they there for?

They will have to put a chain link fence on top of the concrete barriers if there is a desire to prevent pedestrian crossing.
There have been collisions between motor vehicles on the bypass before, but I agree that it has not happened frequently. An overpass is still the answer for the bypass at 8th avenue.
metalman.

I have never, ever seen an accident on the bypass that involved crossing the center line.
Why in on earth would some bonehead city planner decide to spend my tax dollars on an inconvenient, idiotic and now known dangerous solution to a non-issue.
This just created more of a hazard.
If there is a problem with that area, please let the general population in on the secret issue.
If it is a matter of controlling where pedestrians cross, don't be a pinhead and create blocks. create safer passages for the pedestrians. Even the hood got an under ground safe highway crossing, why not do the same for the more heavily traveled crossing at a major venue, IE Spruceland.

That's all I was saying too.

The by pass shouldn't be in the centre of the city. It is many a day since it was actually a "by-pass".

My sympathy is with the young man. My query is "what block was he hit in?"

All good wishes to those that love him and a hopeful speedy recovery.

Maybe we should pass a law making it illegal for pedestrians to be stupid and careless when it comes to crossing streets and highways with two tons of automobiles in motion nearby. My car doesn't stop on a dime anymore these days. It stops on 8.2 cents.

I just heard the accident was over by the casino. I don't know if there are barriers there or not. However, I still think the barriers on the highway in front of Spruceland are stupid.