The jaunty pedestrian

A new Curious Calgary comic, & some traffic light trivia

Hello friends! Welcome back to The Drawing Book, where I usually post comics from my old sketchbook journal series. Last week, I took a break from comics to share the story of my first art show in Calgary, 25 years ago! But this week, I’m afraid I still don’t have any old comics for you. That’s because I have been busy working on a new “Curious Calgary” zine for independent journalism outlet The Sprawl. You can read it HERE on The Sprawl website. But since you came here to read something, here’s a little “behind the scenes” glimpse at what went into the new zine!

The “Curious Calgary” zines are tiny snippets of Calgary history and infrastructure stuff. This week’s zine is about… Walk Signals!

While I was working on this story, someone said to me: “Now that probably isn’t a subject you’ve written about before!” Afterwards, I realized that I actually did make a comic about a walk signal before, believe it or not. It was about a race to push the crosswalk button, written back when I used to write a monthly comic for the Ramsay newsletter. Here it is!

But let’s get back to the new zine about walk signals. Growing up in Calgary, I never gave much thought to this subject. But then, in 2000, my American boyfriend visited Calgary and observed that the figure on the “Walk” signal light was striding with a jaunty strut. I drew this picture in The Drawing Book, back then:

(This picture is part of a Drawing Book episode from a few weeks ago.)

But the walk signal featuring the jaunty pedestrian is no longer to be found at Calgary intersections! At least, not its original version. I’m actually really interested, now, in finding out more about this design. Apparently, it was unique to Canada, and was used all over the country. I wonder who designed it? And why was it discontinued? Can it still be found anywhere?

(In case you’re interested, here’s the jaunty pedestrian - as seen on a sign, not a light - in Calgary, from a 2008 article about scramble crossings.)

One of my favourite things about the “Curious Calgary” zine series is finding out random information while I’m trying to come up with the stories. One interesting fact that didn’t make it into the zine: Calgary traffic lights are mounted horizontally, instead of vertically. Apparently, this isn’t the norm for most cities. A Google search confirmed this for me. Here are a couple of vertical traffic lights on a street corner in Toronto.

The choice of vertical/horizontal mounting might have something to do with “wind loading” (i.e. the configuration that can best endure windy conditions). Who knew? Here are some horizontal Calgary lights!

And another piece of trivia: The lights in the photo above are the current model, used all over Calgary today… but there are still a few of the older models around, as seen in these examples below. With the older ones, the corners of the yellow panel are rounded, and the lights themselves are a bit smaller in diameter than the new ones.

Today’s traffic lights have come a long way from the original versions. Here’s a picture of Calgary’s first traffic lights being installed in 1931!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the new zine! You can pick one up from the Ramsay news box on my street…

Or, you can read this week’s zine on The Sprawl website! And while you’re there, stick around to find out more about upcoming Sprawl events: The Sprawl’s Jeremy Klaszus is leading a Jane’s Walk/Bike Ride on May 3, which I’m looking forward to attending! And, there’s a “garage sale” of Sprawl merch this Wednesday, April 16 from 4 to 6 p.m. It’s at the Sprawl office: 1510 Kensington Road N.W., kitty corner from Chicken on the Way, on the bottom floor. Entrance is on the south side of the building. There is no parking at the building so if you're driving, park on the street on Kensington Road just east of 14th Street.

And if you like the “Curious Calgary” zines, subscribe to The Sprawl so you don’t miss any new ones. There are plans for some good stories in the weeks ahead.

That’s it for now. We should get back to the old Drawing Book comics next week. See you then!

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P.S. After all this talk about walk signals, I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the East German “Ampelmaennchen.” That’s another story!