Are city’s roads evolving, or is the car still king?
‘Scrambles’ were among top 10 big ideas named by Star readers
Earlier this year, Star readers identified modernizing intersections to improve safety and reduce congestion as one of their top 10 Big Ideas. We check in on what progress has been made.
In a city where the car is king and traffic is often in a state of chaos, Toronto’s scramble intersections send a different message.
“They give a sense that suddenly you’re in a big city. You’re in a city where there’s tons of pedestrians and tons of life on the street,” said Dylan Reid, of the group Walk Toronto.
Scramble intersections — or “pedestri- an priority phase” crossings, to use a more technical term — come in different forms. At Yonge and Dundas and Yonge and Bloor, pedestrians cross with vehicles in each direction. They’re also given sole access to the intersections during a special cycle of the lights.
The scrambles are intended to reduce pedestrian crowding on street corners, as people wait for a green light. And they reduce jaywalking by giving pedestrians “three opportunities” to cross, according to Fiona Chapman, manager of pedestrian projects for the city.
But the implementation process hasn’t been easy. A proposed scramble at Bay and Dundas was never installed, mainly because of its proximity to Yonge and Dundas, according to Chapman.
And council voted in April to remove a priority crossing at Bay and Bloor after staff highlighted “significant” drawbacks for drivers at the intersection.
The implementation and removal of pedestrian scrambles could be considered emblematic of the city’s struggle to move and manage traffic — a series of studies, debates, incremental changes and, sometimes, steps backward.
And in many ways, Toronto is failing to manage traffic safely and efficiently.
Some 1,513 people were struck by vehicles between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 this year. Drivers killed three cyclists in one three-week span.
And, while Mayor John Tory has wrung several photo ops out of ticketing blitzes aimed at illegal parking, the impact of his initiative is hard to quantify. A police spokesperson said in an email that a freedom of information request was necessary to obtain records of no-stopping tickets issued in 2014 and 2015.
As for the ongoing chaos of Toronto traffic, that probably can be confirmed by looking out your nearest window. But change is taking place. In October, the city implemented higher fees for street occupation permits, paid by people or companies who occupy the road and sidewalks with machines and other clutter.
The city formerly charged a flat fee of $5.77, but the new regime accounts for where the road is being blocked.
Occupying a square metre of space in the heart of the city now costs $105.41 per month; fees throughout the rest of the city range from $26.35 per square metre per month to $79.06.
The city also updated its online road closure reporting webpage, which notes the severity of each closure. Film permit closures were added to the website, according to an emailed statement provided by a spokesperson.
Salvation, to the degree it’s possible, may lie with the city’s Big Data Innovation team, formed this year to analyze transportation data.
The team has already worked with a group from McMaster University to investigate data gathered from the city’s streets by a third party.
“The value in it has just been in showing us, with some strong data, things that we already know in a lot of ways,” said team lead Jesse Coleman.
“The worst congested days of the year (involved) severe weather events.”
Not terribly surprising, Coleman acknowledges, but precise data lets the city provide better information to citizens when there’s a problem.
Stephen Buckley, general manager of transportation services, cites another example of numbers at work: using data from the TTC to determine what the true “peak” hours are on streets, which can dictate when parking should and shouldn’t be allowed.
The two-person team will soon expand to four members, Coleman said.
It should go without saying that changes to improve roadways lack the headline-grabbing impact of a new subway line or airport link.
In 2014, then-mayoral candidate Olivia Chow spoke about making curbs at intersections more square — rounded curbs allow drivers to take corners more quickly, putting pedestrians at risk.
The proposal, like Chow’s candidacy, did not resonate with voters. But Chapman said the city’s new guidelines on curb radii signal a shift away from roads built to accommodate cars.
Sharper corners don’t make sense in all parts of the city, Chapman said, but in others, “it’s more appropriate for somebody taking the turn to be slowed down quite significantly.”
Changes to the city’s streets can have an impact far beyond simply moving people around more safely. Yonge and Dundas has become a known Toronto intersection partly because of the scramble, Chapman believes.
“We see people doing really fun, and kind of wacky things in the middle of the intersection,” Chapman said.
Yonge and Dundas remains a place to shoot your wedding photos, stage a protest or celebrate the Jays’ latest victory. Just wait until all the walk lights are on.