Author: Walk Toronto

The southern portion of Midland Ave. in Scarborough is a collector road that is also part of the Waterfront Trail used by pedestrians, runners and cyclists. As per City of Toronto policy, the City plans to take advantage of work on this road to install sidewalks on both sides. Installing the sidewalk along with other work will greatly reduce the cost.

In response to local opposition to this sidewalk, the local councillor, Gary Crawford, has submitted a motion to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee to stop the installation of this sidewalk. (The motion attempts to muddle the issue by calling for the installation of a sidewalk further north – something the City already plans to do when it gets the opportunity).

Walk Toronto has submitted a detailed deputation to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee in support of the sidewalk installation. It is very important for improving pedestrian safety that the City policy of installing sidewalks on collector roads be consistently implemented, especially when it is part of a designated pedestrian trail. Read all of the reasons for installing a sidewalk on Midland Ave. (PDF) in our deputation.

UPDATE: the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee deferred this motion to their October meeting. At the October meeting, the the Committee voted 4-0 to support the sidewalk. The item did not need to get approved by council, so this decision is final and the sidewalk will go ahead as planned.

Green Communities Canada has published the State Of Walking Advocacy in Canada 2015 which we thought was an infographic worth sharing.

A great win for access and advocacy!

If you enjoy the Lower Don Trail, you know how difficult it can be to access – for people using a mobility device, with children in strollers, on bikes or trikes, pushing a bundle buggy or towing a trailer, etc. That’s about to improve, with an accessible ramp to be built at the Riverdale Park pedestrian/cyclist bridge.

This amazing win is the result of several years’ hard work by cycling and pedestrian advocates who collaborated together, found a champion in a local councillor, and engaged residents and the community. The process started in April 2013, when the City of Toronto held a public consultation on the Lower Don Trail Access, Environment + Art Master Plan project. Advocates attended and provided input, including requesting that ramps, rather than simply staircases, be part of the plan to increase accessibility to the Narrows section of the Lower Don Trail (located halfway between trail entrances at Corktown Common and Pottery Road). When the final plan was released by the City of Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in September 2013, advocates were disappointed to learn that new staircases proposed for the bridges at Gerrard Street East and Dundas Street East would not include any ramp. That’s when the hard work began – to get an accessible ramp connection, to better serve the many people for whom stairs are still a barrier.

Fortunately, a coalition of local and city-wide advocates, including Walk Toronto, didn’t give up and kept the pressure on staff and politicians to come up with an accessible solution, which the City finally agreed to in the spring of 2015. The ramp, once it is built, will benefit not only local Riverdale residents but also downtowners who are not well provided with large bodies of green space – Torontonians will have three streetcar line options if they wish to get to the ramp using public transit.

Congratulations are in order to Ward 30 Bikes, the official Cycle Toronto advocacy group for Ward 30, which took the initiative on this project. In April 2014, the group, led by Michael Holloway, authored the report “Creating Accessible Connections: Ramps to the Lower Don Trail at Dundas and Gerrard,” which was endorsed by Walk Toronto, Cycle Toronto Trails Working Group, Ward 28 Cycling Advocacy Group and Ward 29 Bikes. Walk Toronto submitted its own “Lower Don Trail Accessibility” report in August 2014 and posted about this issue at that time.

Kudos are also due to Councillor Paula Fletcher for getting a study on the matter, and to Paul Young at South Riverdale Community Health Centre for assisting the advocates. The Riverside BIA, neighbourhood residents, individuals in local walking/hiking groups, and Cycle Toronto members are among the many others who also made known their support for an accessible ramp.

The work isn’t over. Advocates, including Walk Toronto, continue to be involved as the City prepares a Request for Proposal for the design phase in 2015, with construction slated for 2016. Nevertheless, let’s celebrate this victory, and reflect on what it teaches us to do:

• Get involved.

• Collaborate with others, and engage different communities.

• Find a political champion.

• Be persistent. Be persistent. Be persistent

Post prepared by Vivien Leong

On June 22, 2015, Walk Toronto deputed at a special meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) that considered a motion to reduce speed limits on all local streets in the district to 30 km/hr.

The motion passed unanimously. Councillors emphasized that the vast majority of their constituents were in favour of slower speeds on their streets. 14 of the 15 public deputants were also in favour (although some wanted additional measures).

TEYCC has final authority over this issue, so this is now policy. However, funding for changing speed signs still has to be finalized.

See Walk Toronto’s submission (PDF)

Walk Toronto has sent a letter to City Council supporting the boulevard (remove) option for the Gardiner Expressway east of Jarvis, rather than the “hybrid” option. While a wide boulevard is not ideal for pedestrians, Walk Toronto had decided that it provides more opportunities for good pedestrian spaces along the new street and safer crossing than the current experience of crossing Lake Shore and the Gardiner ramps, which the “hybrid” version would perpetuate.

Read the letter (PDF)

Walk Toronto has submitted a deputation to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee regarding the “Proposed 30 km/h Speed Limit Policy” being discussed today (Thursday April 9, 2015). The proposed policy specifies conditions for reducing speed limits on local roads to 30 km/hr without having to add traffic calming measures.

The gist of the deputation is that the proposed policy is very restricted. We are concerned that it not interfere with efforts to introduce broader, system-wide speed limit reductions on local streets. We also propose various measures to make the policy easier to implement on a broader range of streets.

Read our deputation (PDF)

Walk Toronto’s Michael Black was interviewed about this issue in the Globe and Mail, and on CBC radio.

Walk Toronto has submitted comments to the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee (PWIC) in response to the proposal to remove the Bay-Bloor pedestrian scramble crossing. The comments emphasize our disappointment at the recommendation and the popularity of pedestrian scramble crossings (as noted in the report itself).

Walk Toronto’s key recommendation is:

Walk Toronto recommends that PWIC direct staff to identify alternative intersections that meet the criteria for pedestrian scramble crossings and begin the process of establishing pedestrian scramble crossings at those intersections as soon as possible. Walk Toronto further recommends that the scramble crossing at Bay and Bloor not be removed until at least one has been installed at an alternative location.

Read Walk Toronto’s full comments (PDF).

The PWIC agenda item, and a link to the City of Toronto report, can be found on the City website.

UPDATE: PWIC approved the removal of the Bay-Bloor pedestrian scramble crossing without the amendment we proposed. It will be voted on at City Council at their March 31st meeting. There is still an opportunity to pass our recommendation at that meeting.

Here are some media articles about this issue in which Walk Toronto was quoted:

• Pedestrian advocates say evidence supports adding additional scrambles in downtown Toronto (Metro Toronto)
• If Bay-Bloor pedestrian scramble dies, will a new one be born? (CBC News)

With Semi-Actuated Type 2 (SA2) pedestrian signals, the pedestrian signal does not change to “Walk” automatically with the traffic signal. A pedestrian can end up seeing a green light but a “don’t walk” pedestrian signal if they have not pressed the pedestrian button (sometimes referred to as a “beg button”). These signals are not only frustrating, they can also be dangerous because pedestrians often end up crossing anyway, but there may not be enough time for them to get across before the light changes.

The City of Toronto has a large number of these signals in all parts of the city (see a map created by a blog commenter), many of them in high-density locations where there can be a fair amount of pedestrian traffic.

A recent blog post on Spacing Toronto asked readers to identify intersections in the city where they thought SA2 signals should be replaced by signals where the walk sign always comes on with a green light. There were many responses, reflecting the frustration pedestrians feel about this type of signal. Walk Toronto decided to send this crowdsourced list (cross-referenced with the city’s traffic signal inventory to make sure they are all SA2 signals) to City of Toronto Transportation Services with a request to review these signals and change them to the more pedestrian-friendly type of signal. It is our hope that this list is just a start, and eventually the number of SA2 signals in the city will be greatly reduced.

See our letter, with the list (PDF).