Author: Walk Toronto

Walk Toronto has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to comment on the update to the Vision Zero road safety program.

Walk Toronto strongly endorsed the continued expansion of the program, but noted a couple of areas of concern, involving the lack of maintenance of zebra markings on crosswalks, and the lack of movement in changing the “warrant” system to give more weight to a death or serious injury caused by a collision.

We thank Councillor Dianne Saxe for raising our concerns in the committee discussion and getting a promise from staff to follow up on them.

• Read Walk Toronto’s communication on Vision Zero (PDF)
• See the Vision Zero agenda item

Walk Toronto has written to City Council to support a motion by councillors Josh Matlow and Mike Colle to look at implementing a pedestrian scramble intersection (where there is a pedestrian-only crossing phase in all directions as well as regular crossing phases) at Yonge and Eglinton once the Eglinton Crosstown LRT is active.

Yonge and Eglinton has the heaviest pedestrian count of any intersection in the city in recent years, with 40,372 pedestrians were counted at the intersection on May 29, 2024 – a far higher volume than the number of vehicles.

• Read Walk Toronto’s letter (PDF)
• See the agenda item

At the same meeting, Walk Toronto submitted a letter to City Council for the item “Respecting Local Democracy and Cities” in defence of the city’s right to make its own decisions on bike lanes, which protect pedestrians as well.

• Read Walk Toronto’s letter (PDF)
• See the agenda item

At the September 24 meeting of the TTC board, Walk Toronto’s Lee Scott spoke in favour of a motion by councillor Josh Matlow to implement automated (camera) ticketing for motorists who drive by open streetcar doors (item 15; councillor Dianne Saxe also moved a similar motion). Here is her deputation:

Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

My name is Lee Scott. I am a member of the Walk Toronto Steering Committee and a resident living 50 m from the 507 streetcar stop at First Street and Lake Shore Blvd W in Ward 3, New Toronto.

Just this morning at 7am, as I waited in my car for a green light on northbound First Street at Lakeshore Blvd West, I saw what is almost a daily occurrence … the driver of an SUV passing the open doors of the westbound streetcar that had stopped for passengers at Dwight Avenue. The operator of the streetcar honked repeatedly as the driver of the vehicle continued westbound. Honking is currently the only option of the streetcar operator … a meaningless effort that will not help anyone in the path of that vehicle.

Walk Toronto urges the board to accept this motion to use cameras installed in streetcars to record and ticket drivers who drive by the open doors as an absolute minimum action that can be taken to fine and educate drivers to the risk of severe injury and death they pose to the pedestrians boarding and exiting the streetcar.

Each person riding in a streetcar is repeatedly reminded by recorded message just before the doors open to look right for “traffic.” Traffic is actually the driver of a vehicle that could inflict severe harm or even death. This is just another example of how the most vulnerable road user must be in a constant state of high vigilance when trying to navigate the city.

Also, it is important to remember, especially because we often forget, that there could be pedestrians waiting at the curb to step out to the road to board the incoming streetcar. There is no automated message at the streetcar stop reminding a person to look left. Meanwhile, there are drivers of vehicles who are oblivious to these pedestrians waiting at the curb. These drivers attempt to speed past the streetcar before the red lights at the doors begin to flash. Several years ago, I witnessed this exact horrifying scenario … a pedestrian stepped out on the curb at Kipling and Lakeshore Blvd West just before the flashing lights had been turned on. It was dark and rainy. That person was violently struck and thrown to the pavement by a driver racing past the streetcar.

Walk Toronto sees the automated camera solution as a reactive tool that will begin an education process for drivers but it is just that, reactive. We would like to take this opportunity to request that the TTC board consider even more proactive solutions to avoiding pedestrian injury and death … possibly turning on flashing lights before the streetcar has come to a stop.

It is raining today and we are entering the dark season. This is the time of year when pedestrians and other vulnerable road users are at even greater risk getting on and off the streetcar. Walk Toronto urges the board to accept this motion as a vital first step in making the people boarding and exiting streetcars safer.

Thank you.

Walk Toronto has written to the Toronto East York Community Council, and earlier to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee, to support the proposed transformation of Avenue Road between Bloor and Dupont into a four-lane main street (rather than a 6-lane highway).

Walk Toronto has also proposed that, given the extremely narrow sidewalks between Davenport and Dupont, for the sake of safety and accessibility some unneeded parking spaces be removed to create more space for pedestrians, and simple platforms be used to make all additional pedestrian spaces level with the sidewalk.

• Read Walk Toronto’s letter to the Toronto East York Community Council (PDF)
• See the TEYCC agenda item (June 11, 2024)
• Read Walk Toronto’s letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee (PDF)
• See the IEC agenda item (May 28, 2024)

Walk Toronto has written to City Council to support the Eglinton Complete Streets project (in this case, from Bicknell Avenue to Mount Pleasant Road).

Michael Black writes:

During the Crosstown construction period, pedestrians have endured walking conditions on and near Eglinton Ave. that have been unsafe, unpleasant and inconvenient. Although Metrolinx has recently been rolling out streetscape improvements in the vicinity of Crosstown LRT stations, the interstitial sections of Eglinton Ave. located between stations also require significant enhancement. This is the responsibility of the City of Toronto. The ultimate goal should be a harmonized streetscape that supports pedestrians in a seamless manner along the entirety of the Eglinton Crosstown route.

• Read Walk Toronto’s letter (PDF)
• See the City Council agenda item

Walk Toronto was pleased to work with Toronto Metropolitan University School of Urban and Regional Planning studio class in the fall term of 2023 to develop a major report on how to improve sidewalk snow clearing in Toronto for pedestrian safety, accessibility, and convenience.

The class was led by Prof. Pamela Robinson, and the report was prepared by students Catherine Caetano-Macdonell, Sara Cullen, Alex Hanes, Kiera McMaster, Frani O’Toole, Ramya Ragavan, and Aneil Sihota. Walk Toronto was the “client” of the studio, and Walk Toronto steering committee members Michael Black, Adam Cahoon, Pamela Gough, Daniella Levy-Pinto, Dylan Reid, and Doug Vallery met with the students several times over the course of the term to provide insight and feedback.

The comprehensive TMU report “Keeping Sidewalks Safe in Winter: 2023 Update,” published in December 2023, builds on the 2014 Walk Toronto report “Keeping Sidewalks Safe in Winter,” which was prepared by Michael Black. The new 2023 report incorporates comprehensive research on the current state of sidewalk snow clearing in Toronto and examples of best practices from around Canada and the world, concluding with an extensive series of recommendations.

• Read “Keeping Sidewalks Safe in Winter: 2023 Update” (PDF)

Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Toronto Star on Feb. 22, 2024. The letter expressed support for the proposed transformation of part of Avenue Road into a safer street with more space for pedestrians and slower traffic. The letter was in support of an op-ed in the Toronto Star by Albert Koehl, “There is no reason to fear a safer Avenue Road.”

The text of the letter was as follows:

Transforming Avenue Road is long overdue

There is no reason to fear a safer Avenue Road, Feb. 18

I lived on Avenue Road near Dupont in the 1990s and regularly walked along it to get to work or for errands. At one point, I wrote to my Metro councillor in the hope that planned roadworks might narrow such a dangerous and intimidating street for pedestrians, with its speeding cars and narrow sidewalks, and she wrote back that, much as she’d like to see it, it could never happen. So it’s heartening to see, three decades later, that this necessary transformation is within grasp. A two-kilometre six-lane highway is not just an anomaly in the city, but serves no real purpose now that the streets north and south of it are all four lanes. It’s time to start making it a normal downtown main street.

Dylan Reid, Toronto

The letter can be found online on the Toronto Star website with other Feb. 22, 2024 letters.

Walk Toronto is a member of the Avenue Road Safety Coalition. City of Toronto staff will be presenting a plan to make Avenue Road safer for pedestrians at the March 27, 2024 Infrastructure and Environment Committee.  Everyone who supports this concept is encouraged to connect with the coalition, and to express their support to the local councillors (Dianne Saxe and Josh Matlow).