In another surprise from the city's unpredictable public works committee, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong asked Wednesday for a review of the "scramble" at Yonge and Dundas Sts., possibly Canada's busiest intersection for pedestrians.

The scramble allows pedestrians to cross the road diagonally once every signal cycle, temporarily stopping vehicle traffic in all directions. According to a study co-authored by a city official, the creation of the scramble in 2008 nearly tripled drivers’ average waiting times during the evening rush.

The study’s authors said this was “acceptable,” since pedestrians outnumbered drivers 53,000 to 36,000. Minnan-Wong, a right-leaning ally of car-friendly Mayor Rob Ford, disagreed.

“Four o’clock on any given day, all through the rush hour, you have cars that are stacked up almost all the way to University Ave. And for me, that’s an arrangement that’s not functioning properly,” Minnan-Wong said.

“I’m not asking for any type of decision to be made today in terms of removing them, but I think it’s a reasonable thing to do to say: ‘Hey, are these things working?’”

City transportation staff are already studying the three downtown scrambles. The review Minnan-Wong asked for would be part of a consultant’s broader review of downtown gridlock.

Minnan-Wong’s request irked the local councillor, left-leaning Kristyn Wong-Tam. Wong-Tam was blindsided by the committee on another transportation issue in June, when Ford allies approved a motion to remove the Jarvis St. bike lanes.

She said she was not opposed to a review of the scramble. But she took issue with Minnan-Wong’s decision not to inform her that he was bringing forth the proposal, pointing to a “repeated pattern” of procedural trickery at his committee.

In April, committee conservatives killed the Fort York pedestrian and cyclist bridge with another surprise motion.

“It seems to be the way this administration is operating,” Wong-Tam said.

“I think that we’ve seen, consistently, a disregard of not even just the local councillor — I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself — but the residents and business owners of Ward 27, downtown communities, constantly being shut out by ulterior motives and agendas.”

Told of Wong-Tam’s complaint about his tactics, Minnan-Wong was mockingly dismissive. “A-gain?” he said with a smile. “Poor Kristyn.”

He argued that the Yonge-Dundas area is a matter of city-wide concern. And he said he knew Wong-Tam would find out about the proposal at the meeting.

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The city’s other scramble intersections are Yonge and Bloor Sts. and Bay and Bloor Sts. All three scrambles were installed over the last three years.

“We had an expectation of how they would function. Now is the time to really review how they are operating, and see if we need any tweaking to improve the efficiency for pedestrians and vehicles,” said transportation services general manager Gary Welsh.

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