Playing in traffic

The crosswalk outside CBC, at the corner of Front St. and John St., has gone digital.

Digital watch, that is - in addition to the regular crosswalk signs (White Man says walk, Red Hand says halt!) and noises (chirping) there’s now a timer that counts down how many seconds you have left to cross the street.

I’ve never seen this before. It’s quite mesmerizing, actually - I end up staring at the time remaining instead of getting my ass to safety. You get something like 20 seconds to cross - seven seconds of white hand safety, then 13 seconds until you get greased by a Hippo bus.

I don’t understand the need for it, but I love it. It’s like one of those Hollywood movie time bombs ticking away, or the Christmas tree lights at a drag strip.

I’ve only crossed there twice since the installation, and already I’m inventing games to play with the countdown. How fast can I cross? How late in the count can I go before I dash? What will my personal best be?

And I can only imagine the elderly tourist staring at those seconds draining away, terrified that they won’t make it, and staying on one side of the street forever. As a colleague pointed out, knowing the number of seconds remaining is only useful if you know how long it takes you to cross the street.

This is going to take some practice.

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 11-21-2006 | 06:11 PM
Posted in: Apocalypse signs