Water flows which way?

Here's a head-scratcher. The new crosswalk from Tower City (Higbee) east across Ontario has an interesting angle to it. The sidewalk in front of Higbee slopes down to the west and the crosswalk ramp is placed at the proper angle to the sidewalk, but not the crosswalk. In short, the ramp is nearly level and when it rains, it fills up with water. Here's a picture during today's deluge. - July 9th, 2008

We have noticed this in quite a few spaces around the city. For some reason the curb cuts for crosswalks are usually the lowest part of the street (because the road is crowned for runoff but also because no attempt is made to pitch away from the cuts) so water and slush collect there, impeding travel for pedestrians. One would think that careful consideration would be made to keep crosswalks dry and clear of standing water, snow, slush, mud, anything that people would not want to step in since, as a general rule, its main purpose if for people to walk in that location.

SBS should also comment that no one on the staff is a professional engineer in any manner however we do know that water goes what way? Downhill. These curb cuts should be either designed or constructed with that in mind.

On a completely unrelated note we at SBS received message that the Key Bank overhangs may be resultant of having a "Key Bank style" that includes the use of overhangs whether needed or not.