Sudbury residents tell CBC News what it's like to walk, drive in the city

Morning North6:04Pedestrian and drivers... taking it to the streets

Our reporter Marina von Stackelberg took a walk in Sudbury to chat with pedestrian and drivers alike. There's been a string of pedestrian related collisions in Sudbury and we wanted to hear what people thought about walking and driving in the nickel city.

A Sudbury motorist is calling drivers in the city "horrendous."

Last week two pedestrians were sent to hospital after they were hit by a vehicle in two different incidents.

Driver Therese Lacroix, who works at a pharmacy, said she often has people coming in for pain medication because they've had a foot run over by a car or were hit by a vehicle while crossing the street.

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"I've lived in different provinces. In big cities and small cities. I've never seen such an issue of pedestrians being hit by drivers than I have in this city," she said.

"A lot of people think, 'I'm in a car, so get out of my way.' You don't only have your life in your own hands, you have everybody else's life in your hands."

Sudbury police released statistics on Friday showing there were 34 collisions involving pedestrians from January until September.

Sudbury resident Nigel Savage, who both walks and drives in the city, said drivers — and pedestrians — are to blame.

"Pedestrians are kind of bad. I do this myself: sometimes I don't even pay attention on crosswalks and I just walk through," he said.

Savage said the Ontario driver's licence test should be tougher and focus more on how to drive around pedestrians.

The spot in Sudbury with the most collisions in 2015 was the downtown intersection of Brady and Minto streets, which is next to the police station. Four collisions have taken place there this year.