Walk Toronto has co-signed an open letter initiated by Cycle Toronto that asks the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, to rescind those newly-granted police powers not already rescinded, including the right to stop or question people if they have a “reason to suspect” gathering, as well as remove restrictions on outdoor activities that have not been shown to be sources of transmission of COVID-19.
These types of restrictions have historically resulted in undue and disproportionate harassment of BIPOC people, youth, and the homeless and serve to restrict their freedom to walk and be present in public spaces in a manner that discriminates against them compared to other residents of the city. Walk Toronto is committed to the principle that all residents of the city should be able to walk in public on equal terms.
Walk Toronto was invited, with other active transportation organizations, to participate in an online consultation on March 24, 2021 regarding the Government of Canada’s recently announced active transportation infrastructure fund and the development of a federal active transportation strategy. The meeting was with MP Andy Fillmore, parliamentary secretary to Minister of Infrastructure Catherine McKenna, and MP Julie Dabrusin.
After the meeting, Walk Toronto submitted extensive comments and suggestions to Infrastructure Canada and the two MPs regarding the infrastructure fund and the proposed federal active transportation strategy.
Walk Toronto’s comments address issues such as mandating truck side guards and other federal regulation of safe vehicle design; creating networks and overcoming barriers such as rail corridors; equity and accessibility; and integration with transit.
In February 2021, Walk Toronto launched a campaign and map to demonstrate the need to change misleading “No Exit” signs where there was in fact a pedestrian (and often cycling) exit.
On April 8, 2021, City Council passed a motion directing Transportation Services staff “to implement changes to clarify No-Exit signage where pedestrian access is still permitted and to begin installation of the new signs in 2021.”
We’re very pleased to see that our campaign resulted in such quick action, and we look forward to seeing the installation of accurate signage that helps to make the city more accessible for walkers.
We thank Councillor Paula Fletcher for her hard work developing and moving the motion, Twitter user @The_Terroirist for inspiring our campaign, and all of the people who sent in locations for the map. Thank you as well to Walk Toronto steering committee member Sean Marshall for the many hours of work he put in creating the map.
Walk Toronto has written to Toronto City Council to support a member motion from councillor Paula Fletcher, seconded by Brad Bradford, “on implementing changes to clarify No-Exit signage where pedestrian or cyclist access is still permitted.”
The motion is in response to Walk Toronto’s map of locations where “No Exit” signs fail to reflect exits for pedestrians and, in some cases, cyclists. The map was created by Sean Marshall and has identified over 450 locations in every ward in Toronto. The map was the basis of Walk Toronto’s campaign to get these signs changed to reflect routes available to people on foot.
The communication notes:
The pandemic has led many more people to walk in their neighbourhoods, and as they get to know their community, they have become more acutely aware of this kind of misleading signage. At the same time, the City of Toronto has realized the value of walking for health, mobility, and the environment. That commitment requires that the City’s signs consider the needs of walkers as equal to the needs of drivers.
Earlier this year, when schools were still closed, the newsletter of John Filion, city councillor for Ward 18 (Willowdale) in North York, included a message from Filion’s chief of staff, Markus O’Brien Fehr, making an eloquent argument for installing sidewalks on suburban streets that currently lack them and seeking to accelerate such installations in Ward 18.
Installing missing sidewalks on suburban streets, necessary for safety and accessibility for many walkers, has often been a difficult struggle and faced opposition from local residents and politicians. Walk Toronto was heartened to read such support from a suburban politician and his chief of staff, and received permission from Mr. Fehr to republish his message. Here is the full text:
In a week without access to school yards, the importance of outdoor infrastructure for physical activity has become even more evident. As with so many families struggling to adapt to online learning for young kids, we’ve been forced to encourage more self-reliance so that we, as parents, can keep up with work. While this has had predictably mixed results with classroom activities (perhaps a topic for a future column), an independent walk to a local park is something we have to be very cautious of without sidewalks in our neighborhood.
Even with a push on road safety via the Vision Zero program, Toronto has not increased its annual budget for sidewalk installation since Council established a fund in 2002. At the current rate, each city ward would have enough for about 225 m of new sidewalk each year. With just under 300,000 m (or 300 km) of local roads in North York without sidewalks, this pace just isn’t acceptable.
Because of the small budget, the City tends to only adds sidewalks when roads are being reconstructed. Even when an important gap in our sidewalk network is identified, it can take decades for projects to get moving. John has successfully moved motions through Council, most recently in 2019, calling for an increase in this budget. But despite that political success, it hasn’t yet changed the staff’s approach. The entire program needs an overhaul.
Our office has been working to identify stretches of local roads that are most in need of sidewalk additions in Willowdale. This has included input from the community through a road safety survey, and online neighbourhood conversations run last fall. We hope to prioritize any local road longer than 200m, open to traffic on both ends, in close proximity to a public school or large park. Is there a road in your community without a sidewalk that fits this description? If so, please e-mail me so we can make sure it’s on our list for an upcoming meeting with City Transportation staff.
Whether it’s next week, or in the near future, our kids will eventually get back into classrooms and school yards. Safe access to parks will still be important, just as encouraging walking to and from school will return to being an important campaign to keep kids physically active and reduce traffic congestion. Sidewalks are simply a necessity under all conditions.
Walk Toronto has prepared a ten-page report about the question of whether the City of Toronto should proceed with a pilot project to allow a shared electric kick-scooter (e-scooter) service to operate in Toronto. The report was delivered to the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee, who will be discussing the issue on Feb. 25, 2021.
The report opens by stating:
Electric kick-scooter (“e-scooter”) sharing companies are looking to expand into Toronto. While Walk Toronto welcomes the advent of new, non-polluting forms of transportation, we continue to have serious concerns about the impact of e-scooters on pedestrians using the already-busy sidewalks. In this submission, we highlight accessibility and safety concerns, as well as other unintended impacts of adopting this technology and delivery model in our city.
Walk Toronto believes that our concerns, and those of the accessibility community, have yet to be adequately addressed. Walk Toronto does not believe it is currently advisable to proceed with an e-scooter pilot in Toronto, and recommends that the City of Toronto not proceed with a pilot.
The starting wage for an Amazon fulfillment centre employee is $17.00 an hour, despite notoriously tough working conditions. With most professional and office workers at home, and with ongoing pandemic restrictions, Amazon has enjoyed significant sales increases. But those workers picking and packing orders are not able to work from home – and workplace spread has been a significant factor in COVID-19 transmission in Ontario.
Brampton, home to two of the GTA’s fulfilment centres, and close to Amazon’s Mississauga, Milton and Bolton warehouses, has been a COVID-19 hotspot. Like Toronto, Peel Region has been under lockdown and stay-at-home orders since November.
Like most new logistics facilities, the new Scarborough warehouse, like the other five GTA Amazon fulfillment centres, is in an industrial area on the city’s outskirts, where land is plentiful, but transit and pedestrian access is lacking. East of Tapscott Road, Steeles Avenue narrows from four lanes to two, and there are no designated pedestrian crossings at the intersection with Eastvale Drive. The eastbound TTC stop at Eastvale Avenue was removed in 2018 after a passenger was struck and killed trying to cross the street after disembarking from a 53 Steeles East bus. The next nearest stop, at Tapscott Road, is 300 metres west.
Steeles Avenue, looking west towards Eastvale Drive and the signalized intersection beyond, at Tapscott Road
The sidewalk on the south side of Steeles Avenue ends at Tapscott, a few hundred metres west of the Amazon fulfilment centre. On the north side, the sidewalk ends at Ferncliffe Crescent in Markham. Despite a new residential area in Morningside Heights, to the east, there is no sidewalk along Steeles to connect to it. Pedestrians heading to Amazon or towards Staines Road must choose whether to walk in the mud, or on the busy roadway. Though the posted speed limit is 50 km/h, motorists regularly travel at 60 km/h or faster.
Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)
A stairway and ramp were built on the north end of the Amazon property, likely with the expectation that a sidewalk on the south side of Streeles Avenue would soon be installed. This would provide improved pedestrian access to the fulfillment centre. But without a safe and logical way to get to it from the street, it remains largely unused.
Passmore Avenue, on the south side of the fulfillment centre, was rebuilt with a sidewalk in the late fall of 2020, months after Amazon opened. However, it requires a lengthy walk north to Steeles Avenue up Tapscott, and there are no sidewalks on Tapscott from Passmore south, towards McNicoll Avenue. The intersection of Passmore and Tapscott itself – controlled by an all-way stop – still does not feature proper crosswalks.
Looking east on Steeles from Tapscott Road – despite the sign advising motorists of pedestrian activity, there are no sidewalks leading east towards the new Amazon fulfillment centre (Sonali Praharaj)
Though there are two TTC bus routes that operate to the corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue – 53B/953B Steeles East and 102B/C Markham Road – for months, workers had to walk on the roadway, through a construction site to access those buses. Anyone looking to go east, towards Morningside Heights, or southeast, towards Malvern, still face a long, dangerous walk or a lengthy bus commute.
The corner of Tapscott Road and Passmore Avenue
The TTC, starting January 11, 2021, began diverting the 53B Steeles East bus to directly serve the Amazon fulfillment centre, finally serving a major industrial trip generator and reducing essential workers’ travel times. Even still, the new sidewalk on Passmore ends at the warehouse entrance – anyone waiting for a bus must still walk and wait in the snow or mud.
Eventually, Steeles Avenue will be widened, with new sidewalks and bike lanes, and Morningside Avenue will be extended north to Steeles Avenue. However, these improvements have been planned for years and completion is still several years away. Though new warehouses have opened here, civic infrastructure has not caught up.
New TTC bus stop serving the Amazon Fulfillment Centre on Passmore Road (Sonali Praharaj)
The TTC’s service change, adding a new bus stop on Passmore Avenue, was a welcome – yet overdue – acknowledgement that essential workers, especially racialized and lower-paid workers, deserve better. It is inexcusable that new employment uses are planned, approved, and constructed before the appropriate pedestrian infrastructure and transit services are in place. It is also inexcusable that after a TTC customer was killed that a nearby bus stop was removed, rather than safety improvements added instead. This is not just a matter of ensuring a basic level of safety for pedestrians – this is a matter of justice for those we consider essential workers.
Prepared with assistance from Sonali Praharaj, Aria Popal, and Vallari Patel.
Many pedestrians have noticed over the years that “No Exit” signs on streets often don’t apply to walkers, because there is in fact an exit for people travelling on foot. It’s frustrating to see a sign that is meant only for drivers and be left uncertain as to whether you, on foot, can get through.
The prevalence of these signs is a symptom of how car-centric transportation planning has been in Toronto. So Walk Toronto is starting a campaign to get the City to change this situation and establish more inclusive and accurate signage that provides information to all travellers, not just drivers.
Our first step is developing a map, created by steering committee member Sean Marshall, of locations in Toronto where there is a “No Exit” sign but, in fact, there is actually an exit for pedestrians. See the map here (Google maps) or below. On the map, blue walker icons indicate where pedestrians can exit, green walker icons indicate where both pedestrians and cyclists can exit, and stairs are indicated separately, since they pose additional accessibility challenges.
The map is being crowd-sourced, so if you know a location that is not listed yet, post a tweet to @sean_yyz or send an email to info@walktoronto.ca with “No Exit” included in the subject line.
Solutions could be as simple as a pendant sign that says “Pedestrians Excepted” or, if relevant, “Pedestrians and Cyclists Excepted”, similar to the “Bicycles excepted” signs that have been added to “No Entry” signs where new cycling contra-flow lanes have been introduced on one-way streets. As well, the city could develop a more precise “No Exit for Motor Vehicles” sign.
Walk Toronto’s Sean Marshall has written to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to express Walk Toronto’s strong support for the YongeTOmorrow plan to widen sidewalks and create pedestrian priority zones on Yonge Street between Queen Street and College Street.
Marshall writes, “Yonge Street is Toronto’s signature main street, steeped in over 225 years of history, legend, and lore. It is the place where Torontonians congregate to celebrate sports victories, rally for political and social change, shop, dine, and enjoy performing art and cinema. … The YongeTOmorrow plan represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet the existing and future needs of downtown residents, workers, students, and tourists, and give it the iconic treatment the street – and Toronto – deserves.”
The plan will be voted on by the committee on Monday Jan. 11, 2021.
Walk Toronto has written to support the “Transform Yonge” proposal being recommended to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on Dec. 1, 2020. The proposal would transform Yonge Street in North York into a true main street with wider sidewalks, bike lanes, and more trees. The proposal is the result of the REimagine Yonge (Sheppard to Finch) Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Study, which was launched due to the need for a full reconstruction of this part of Yonge Street.
Walk Toronto’s Daniella Levy-Pinto, who prepared the communication, writes “To ensure that the transportation network within the REimagining Yonge Study area is modified in a way that is responsive to broad changes and growth over the next several decades, Walk Toronto strongly supports the recommended options: a cross-section reduction from six to four lanes, wider sidewalks and boulevards, new and enhanced pedestrian crossings, traffic signals and turn restrictions at some intersections, and a central landscaped median, which will emphasize pedestrian and active transportation use in this critical stretch in North York Centre.”
Walk Toronto’s Dylan Reid gave an oral deputation at the committee meeting, based on Daniella Levy-Pinto’s text.
