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9 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,A ugust 25,2022 w aterloochronicle.ca Oakville Smart Centre 261 Oak Walk Drive Oakville 289.291.3261 Walkers Line 3505 Upper Middle Road Burlington 289.427.5260 Appleby Village 5111 New Street Burlington 905.635.0584 The Boardwalk 101 Ira Needles Blvd Kitchener ON N2J 3Z4 519-579-8270 Shops at Waterloo 75 King Street South Waterloo ON N2J1P2 519-880-9463 Stanley Park Mall 1005 Ottawa Street North Kitchener ON N2A1H2 519-954-2923 Laurentian Hills Plaza 720 Westmount Road East, Unit 8 Kitchener ON N2E 1J2 519-578-4646 FREEDOM IS CALLING. ANSWER WITH A GALAXY. GET YOURS WITH AN UNLIMITED DATA PLAN. A one-time connection fee will apply on new activations or hardware upgrades. Speeds reduced beyond Fast LTE data amounts. Conditions apply.All Freedom Mobile services are subject to our Terms of Service, Internet Traffic Management Policy, Fair Usage Policy, and Privacy Policy located at freedommobile.ca. The Freedom Mobile name and logos and other words, titles, phrases, marks, logos, icons, graphics are trademarks of, or used under license by, Freedom Mobile Inc.All rights reserved. Follow us 2 Arthur St. S., Elmira (Corner of Church and Arthur) 226-600-3502 Did you know? The best healthy change you can make in your kitchen is to substitute extra-virgin olive oil for other fats Simple Changes • Healthy Salad Dressing • Drizzle on roasted veggies • Replace butter in baking eggs, grilled Cheese, mashed potatoes, pasta and more… Come in for a Tasting Experience Gourmet Extra Virgin Olive Oil Premium Aged Balsamic Vinegars Shipping available across Canada. Daily delivery Elmira and surrounding area. Order online www.oandvtastingroom.ca or email info@oandvtastingroom.ca Coming soon Gourmet Tasting Events!! Weekly delivery KW, Cambridge and Guelph. A pedestrian was taken to hos- pital after being hit by a car while attempting to cross a roundabout in Waterloo. It's not a story we hear every day, and we're no doubt grateful for that. Still, in light of other actions we've taken on our roads, our re- action to this unfortunate and unnecessary incident has been largely inconsistent. Largely, but not entirely. In the immediate aftermath of the news, some of us settled into traditional camps. We shouted down vehicles and the people who drive them for the menaces they are. Others took aim at "zombie walkers," those pedestrians whose faces are so fixated on their phones or ears too plugged by ear buds, that they simply don't pay enough attention to the other people and traffic around them. Neither position is near the conversation we should be hav- ing, which is how we can improve safety at roundabouts and how our approach to them to date has been inconsistent with our other efforts to increase road safety. As drivers enter roundabouts, they are conditioned to look left to watch for oncoming vehicles. Pity the pedestrian crossing from the right. If the pavement markings were a colour other than white, or the surface of the road was raised to make us even more aware that something is different here, we'd reduce the chances of a pedestrian being struck. Ideally, though, it would seem obvious that removing the pedes- trian from the roundabout en- tirely is the best way to go. Creating a pedestrian cross- ing 25 to 50 metres outside the roundabout and adding a flash- ing light like those seen in count- less other places around the re- gion would increase the level of safety immeasurably. Considering our actions taken on other roads, it's curious that we haven't taken action here. Recently -- and in the name of safety -- we've been reducing speed limits on residential streets where no pedestrian has ever been hit. Meantime, our roundabouts have seen several collisions involving pedestrians, yet we continue to ask people to cross in the thick of traffic. Years ago, not long after the roundabout opened at Homer Watson Boulevard and Block Line in Kitchener, a young girl was seriously injured while crossing a roundabout. That incident prompted a ro- bust effort to slow the speed of traffic, even using electronic signs and flashing amber lights to remind drivers to reduce their speed from 70 km/h on Homer Watson, to 50 km/h as they ap- proached the roundabout. In Waterloo, the speed limit on Ira Needles Boulevard is 60 km/h and there's no such effort to en- courage drivers to slow to 50 km/h as the roundabouts ap- proach. Finally, much of our newest cycling infrastructure is de- signed to physically separate bi- cycles from automobiles, the idea being that when mistakes are made -- and they will be -- the impact of those mistakes will be minimized because the cyclist is protected by barriers. Mistakes will continue to be made at roundabouts, too. So, when will we show we're serious about reducing the impact of those mistakes? We'll accomplish a lot with any effort to slow down drivers. But it's also time we stopped asking pedestrians to fend for themselves in an area we know is dangerous. Give them a new place to cross. Columnist Mike Farwell is a broadcaster, MC and advocate. Follow him on Twitter at @far- well_WR, or connect with him via Mike.Farwell@rci.rog- ers.com. ROUNDABOUTS: IT'S TIME WE STOPPED ASKING PEDESTRIANS TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES OPINION MIKE FARWELL Column Seen in this file photo is a roundabout at Block Line near Homer Watson Boulevard in Kitchener. Metroland file photo An article appearing in the Aug. 18, 2022 edition of the Water- loo Chronicle about the Keep Your Head Up Foundation incor- rectly cited Bluevale Collegiate Institute as the founders' high school. They attended Resurrec- tion Catholic Secondary School. We apologize for the error. CORRECTION