City Hall responds to Thomson - Thomson pushes back

By Pepper Parr

August 15th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Jim Thomson, an Aldershot resident, who brought to our attention a confusing set of crosswalk markings at Plains Road East and Francis Road.  We published a short piece on the crosswalk markings.

That got the problem on the desks of people at Transportation operations

Good afternoon Jim,

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns about pedestrian accessibility at Plains Road East and Francis Road. We always appreciate hearing feedback from residents.

Chris King: Manager Traffic Operations and Signals at the City of Burlington

This intersection works differently than most because of its unique layout and traffic patterns. The intersection operates under what is called a “split-phase operation”. This means that instead of northbound and southbound traffic being permitted to move at the same time, each direction must take its turn. While not the most common form of signal operation, it’s worth noting that this type of operation (and the absence of a crosswalk) can also be found in other areas in Burlington, across the province, and beyond based on the specific safety and operational needs of each location.

For safety and efficiency, many split-phase intersections only have crosswalks on certain sides. At this location, adding an east side crosswalk would create safety issues (including between pedestrians and turning vehicles due to the required 2 left turn lanes exiting the plaza) and would require a much longer signal cycle length, which would cause delays for all road users including pedestrians. The increase in delay would not only occur at this location but also at synchronized intersections on Plains Road and in the surrounding areas, which would need their timings and cycle lengths modified to stay in synch.

Regarding the pedestrian button in the middle island, these are used in specific circumstances (typically very large intersections). The timing at this location is designed to give enough time to cross fully, and pedestrians should begin crossing only when the “walk” symbol is lit.

We understand that the roadway design means your trip required extra crossings, and we know that can be frustrating. However, the current setup prioritizes safety and considers traffic flow and overall delay for all users both at this location and across the broader traffic network in Burlington.

Thank you again, your input helps us continue to review and improve how our streets work for all road users. Have a nice weekend.

Chris King

Manager, Transportation Operations

Intersection of Plains Road East and Francis Road.

Thomson responds

I can not believe that having to walk three sides of a square to get from the south east side of Francis Rd to get to the bus stop on the north east side of Francis Rd is considered to be a good design.  If you want people to use active transportation then you have top make it convenient for people who are walking.  The fact that this might inconvenience IKEA /Fortino Shoppers should not be the main priority.  The fact that you insist that the time allotted to cross is sufficient and that no one should ever end up stuck on the island in the middle island is especially ridiculous as I have been stuck on the island at another of the intersections that prioritizes cars over people.  Once there there is nothing you can do to get safely off the island.

Jim Thomson.

The Integrated Mobility Plan as passed by Council in September 2023 has a policy direction in 7.1.1 to enhance the pedestrian level of service (experience).  My concern is that at the Francis Road /Plains Road East intersection the car is taking priority over the pedestrian because there are only crosswalks on three sides of the intersection.

This needs to change if the goal is to build a walkable environment and improve pedestrian safety.

I would also suggest the the speed limit on East Plains should be maintained at the 50 km/hr that it has coming into the intersection and should not increase to 60 km/hr at any point on Plains Road East.    The frequent changes in the posted speed limit promotes speeding in the areas where the limit is posted at 50 km/hr  and in the school zones where it reduce to 40km/hr.   Traffic would flow more smoothly if it wasn’t continually changing speed.

I would also suggest that your bus drivers need to have a lighter touch on the gas pedal and the brake.  Currently they are trying to accelerate like cars to get to the posted speed limits ie 0-60 km/hr as fast as possible.   And they decelerate with a squealing of brakes.  This is not a comfortable ride for the passengers in the bus.  The suspension of the Buses is rather hard and when they hit bumps in the road at 60km/hr it can be jarring to the passengers.

I also wonder how you can run the buses to  a schedule when the time displayed in each bus is different.  Some have been as much as 6 minutes behind my watch to 3 minutes ahead of my watch.  I should be able to set my watch to the time in the buses they should all be displaying the same time.

I have heard all sorts of reasons why Plains is an arterial road but the facts are that it goes down to one lane across a bridge before it gets to Hamilton.  There are cycle paths but only one lane for vehicles.  I have yet to see major use of the bike lanes and still see many cyclists preferring to ride on the sidewalks rather than in the bike lanes.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that if  the goal is to have a walkable city then the Intersection at Francis Rd and Plains Road East  needs to be modified to have crosswalks on all four sides, not just the three it presently has.   The city needs to start prioritizing the pedestrian over the automobile.,   I reject your thesis that the design prioritizes the safety of the network.  The design prioritizes traffic flow.

I thank  Councillor Galbraith for forwarding my concerns to you but I don’t believe you took them seriously; you just tried to justify what is currently in place.

Change won’t happen if the culture isn’t in place to accept that things need to be improved when you get negative feedback.  This should be a relatively easy problem to solve.  All it takes is some paint and a change to the timing of lights at this one intersection.  As you point out there are several more intersections that also need to be changed to prioritize pedestrians over cars, but I have only complained about this one.

It will be interesting to see how this works out.