Here are the city's plans for busy intersection at Western and Sarnia road

One of London's busiest intersections will get much-needed improvements, but it won't be anything London hasn't seen before.

Upgrades to the intersection of Western Road and Sarnia Road/Phillip Aziz Avenue originally included a pedestrian scramble, which would see those walking cross diagonally at certain times, but that idea was scrapped.

The intersection, in the western-most edge of Western University, is one of London's busiest. About 64,000 cars and buses pass through each day, according to a city report. Recent traffic counts showed 6,740 pedestrians crossing north-south and 5,070 crossing east-west throughout an average day.

Scramble crossings work by stopping all traffic with red lights so pedestrians can move safely in whichever direction they need to go, even diagonally through the centre of the intersection, without having to worry about cars turning left or right.

The idea for a scramble at this intersection was first pitched back in 2023, with Western's University Student Council (USC) particularly eager to see it happen.

Students crossing the busy intersection on Monday had mixed opinions on how effective this type of crossing would be.

"I think they should add it, because the cars are a little crazy and I feel like they're not really paying attention to their surroundings all the time," Kate Corcoran said. "I think it would be useful to have one for just students to walk across."

Others, like Luke Levesque, thought the change would be too much for London drivers to handle.

"That would be way too confusing," he said. "Our drivers are already poor enough as is and we need to simplify the roads."

City staff outlined a number of reasons in their report to the committee why they recommended against adding a scramble to the intersection.

One consideration was the delay an extra red light cycle in all directions would cause for drivers. City staff estimated that drivers would experience an average delay of nearly four minutes in the morning, with that delay increasing to nearly six minutes in the afternoon.

The size of the intersection was also a contributing factor. The diagonal crossing at this intersection is about 47 metres, which is twice as long as diagonal crossings in other cities. This means the lights would need to remain red for a longer period of time to ensure everyone can cross safely.

Finally, there simply aren't enough people to warrent a pedestrian scramble, staff reported. Pedestrian volumes during the intersection's peak hours reached 850 in the morning, 1,592 around midday, and 1,779 in the afternoon. All of these volumes are below the 2,000 per hour threshold that other cities use to justify a scramble.

Members of Western's USC sent a letter to the committee expressing their thoughts. Although they had hoped to see a pedestrian-only phase at the intersection, they wrote, they understand that there are not enough pedestrians each day to implement it.

"As populations grow around this intersection, and mobility patterns evolve, the USC would hope to facilitate future consultations regarding the safest option for our community," they said.

Ward 6 Coun. Sam Trosow was the only committee member who voted to have staff report back with more information on the feasibility of a scramble.

"I was disappointed to see that the issue was not effectively treated in the staff report," he said. "They said why they were dismissing it, but they never really pointed to any studies or criteria as to when a scramble would be needed."

Instead of the scramble, staff recommend expanding bike lanes, implementing a no-right-on-red rule, and giving crossing pedestrians a head start before traffic starts moving. Trosow expressed concern that some of these improvements would be delayed in anticipation of the Bus Rapid Transit expansion coming to Western Road, which could be a long way off..

"Those are things that they need to get started on right away. I don't want to delay this anymore."

Council will discuss and vote on the report at their next meeting on Tuesday, Sep. 23.