Monday, January 17, 2005

A solution for the Union Station bus terminal

A couple of years ago, they built a bus terminal across Bay St. from the rest of Union Station. Despite signage and warnings to the contrary, many commuters (myself included) cut across Bay St. instead of walking up to Front St. to cross at the lights. They built an overhead walkway across Bay St., but that didn't help because it was still faster to go outside and cut straight across. Recently, they've put in metal barricades on either side of Bay (and on the median too?), but commuters just keep going over, under, around or through these barricades.

I have a simple solution: just lock the Bay St. doors of Union Station. Make sure they can't be opened from the inside or the outside. Perhaps install a system where they can be opened if a fire alarm is going off (or make an alarm go off when they are opened?), but don't let them be opened during normal operation. That way, people will only be able to get in and out of Union through the overhead walkway or at Front St., so they will have no reason to cross in the middle of Bay. After all, you wouldn't cross a street in the middle of the street if your destination was not directly opposite your current location, would you?

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