Wayward sidewalks lead to twisted path
Vaughan pedestrians must grapple with unsafe walkways
Sidewalks are in short supply on a busy commercial street in Vaughan, where pedestrians have to mix it up with vehicles to get where they’re going.
Development of the area around Jane St. and Hwy. 7 is in full bloom, if the number of new facilities and construction is any indication. Vaughan’s building boom is as frantic as anywhere in the 905.
One of the streets where retail businesses and light industry continues to locate is Applewood Cres., with ongoing construction of new buildings adding to the commercial traffic on the street.
With all the development on Applewood, a lot more people are walking along it than a few years ago, but the sidewalks have not kept pace with the growth.
Nick Hudson emailed to say “intermittent sidewalk coverage forces people to alternate between the road and sidewalk,” on Applewood, between Portage Pkwy. and Pennsylvania Ave.
“I commute to work and walk along this road and have had a few close encounters, from oncoming traffic not being aware of me on the road and from having to walk back and forth up driveways, in the path of cars that are entering and exiting the parking lots.
“This being dubbed the ‘Vaughan Corporate Centre’ and home to many large corporate offices, including Smart Centres and Arista homebuilders, I find it hard to understand why this situation exists.”
We went there and saw a patchwork of sidewalk sections that run partway along the west side of the street, while there’s no sidewalk at all on the east side.
A steady stream of people walked past — mostly on the road — while we were there, including a guy who told us that lots of people walk to Applewood after getting off the bus on Portage. Status: We asked Vaughan officials about building more sidewalks. Andrew Pearce, director of develop- ment engineering and infrastructure planning, said, “City sidewalks in new industrial subdivisions are typically constructed in conjunction with the development of the adjacent lots. The city of Vaughan recognizes that pedestrian traffic flow is growing and is working with the developer of the subdivision to advance the construction of the missing segments of sidewalk and anticipates this will be complete during the 2016 construction season.” What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-869-4823 email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.