If you frequently cross the street between Innis Residence, Innis College, and Robarts, it’s fairly likely you’ve had at least one near-death experience (I, personally, have had three). The intersection at St. George and Sussex is something of a death trap, but not the exciting kind of death trap where your heart races and you feel proud to have narrowly escaped with your life. It’s the awkward kind, the kind where you do a bizarre back-and-forth step that looks like your aunt dancing at a wedding after one too many glasses of wine and which leaves you face to face with an oncoming vehicle (or cyclist) despite looking all three ways twice. That is, to say more succinctly, the intersection is a mess, and one which frequently puts the safety of pedestrians in jeopardy.

After countless years of near-accidents between students and vehicles, a group of students at Innis Residence have created a petition to make the intersection more pedestrian-friendly. This petition was created by outgoing IRC President Daniel Li and has been carried out with the support of Adrian Sin, a co-chair of the Innis Residence Environmental Committee, and Jadine Ngan, an outgoing IRC Junior House Representative. I sat down with Daniel and Jadine (Adrian was unfortunately not available) to hear more about what motivated them to create the petition, what the process has been like, and what they ultimately hope to see change at the intersection as a result.

Daniel said he was inspired to take action after fellow IRC executive Katharina Vrolijk told him she had almost been hit by a car at the intersection and insisted that the IRC had to do something about it. Having personally experienced issues with the crosswalk and knowing many other students who had as well, Katharina’s incident prompted Daniel to start the petition and advocate for the safety of the residents he represents as IRC president. Daniel wrote the petition over winter break, and has since received close to 200 signatures from Innis College students and members of the broader community who use the space.

Indeed, the crosswalk doesn’t just present an issue for the Innis College community. With its proximity to Robarts and connection to a residential neighbourhood, the petition aptly notes that “the crosswalk is relied upon by a variety of community members on a daily basis.” Both Jadine and Daniel hope to collect signatures from wider community members by standing at intersection as the weather improves, some of which may have to be done this coming September.

The petition outlines five major issues with the petition as it currently exists:

1. Drivers (and cyclists) do not always obey the stop signs.
2. The stop signs are too far away from each other.
3. The intersection lacks painted markings that indicate it is a crossing space.
4. The intersection is too large, which results in vehicles having to stop in the middle of the intersection. This makes pedestrians feel intimidated by the standing cars and prompts them to rush across the street.
5. The intersection has lower visibility at night which exacerbates the above issues.

Both Daniel and Jadine say the main goal of the petition is to flag the intersection as an issue for city council. Daniel admits that he doesn’t know the exact solution to make the crosswalk safer, but hopes that if the petition gains enough traction the city will look into implementing the most feasible and beneficial change for students. The petition does provide some suggestions that would improve the safety of the space, including moving the stop signs closer together, increasing signage, painting white lines on the crossing areas to increase visibility, and creating a speed table to slow traffic.

In addition to creating the petition, Daniel has reached out to local City Councillor Mike Layton, who has since raised the issue at multiple committee meetings. “It’s going somewhere,” said Daniel, who hopes to send along the petition when it collects more signatures—his goal is 300. Jadine and Daniel also plan to do more research over the summer and learn about the process of bringing this issue to council and seeing a positive change result from it.

Overall, the petition has received wide support from community members. Daniel and Jadine have each encountered one person who felt it wasn’t necessary or felt that pedestrians had a responsibility for their own safety, but these two are outliers in what has generally been a well-recepted campaign. Most people Jadine, Daniel, and Adrian have spoken to have expressed personal concerns about the intersection and are glad to see a motivated group of students take action to make it better.

Reflecting on her own involvement, Jadine said, “I didn’t even fully realize it was an intersection until it got brought up at the IRC meeting. I always just felt like I was jaywalking there, which probably says something about the situation. I didn’t even realize it was meant to be a place of crossing.” She was inspired to work on the petition based on her own experiences and so she could help make a positive impact in the community.

Both also hope that the crosswalk will inspire a shift in both the IRC and ICSS. “I generally think the student councils in general should be doing more advocacy,” said Daniel, “I know it’s difficult… it’s easier for us to run events because we do get money for it, but I think there’s a lot of value in us being that voice for students in a broader sense. I thought this was a good start.” Daniel hopes to see student unions across campus take on a stronger advocacy role, particularly related to issues of student wellbeing and broader issues like tuition. Jadine also shares this hope, citing the inspiring work that students do on campuses in the United States and Europe as inspirations. “It says a lot about the power we could potentially be harnessing as students,” she said, “and I feel like there is an opportunity here that we haven’t fully taken. This is like a first step towards that.”

With the school year coming to a close, the petition is likely to be stagnant over the summer but will return in full force in the fall. As Toronto continues to try to create safer spaces for both pedestrians and cyclists, hopefully our campus will do the same.

Find the petition online at http://chng.it/2VtjS7SvKh or visit the Facebook page, “Make Sussex and St. George Pedestrian Friendly,” for more information.