ActiveTO is working, so let’s keep it going
Over the past four months, kids in Toronto got on bikes and followed their parents around like goslings behind a mother goose each weekend. It’s a sight not as common as it should be in Toronto, where the speed and erratic skills of drivers, along with roads designed for cars first, can make such an outing fraught.
The “ActiveTO” major road closures on Lake Shore Boulevard, Bayview Avenue and River Street changed that. After a bad spring where people in public space were suspect and shamed, when all of High Park was closed because of the spectre of a cherry blossom blowout, the city of Toronto did something great: It gave the people space to spread out so they could walk, run and cycle.
The move acknowledged that this is a city of many apartments with inhabitants who have no or little outdoor space of their own.
It was also a strong signal that being outside was good, safe and where we should go to exercise, improve our mental health and even socialize during this long pandemic. I don’t think I’ve seen a city program embraced so quickly and enthusiastically. It’s a major success.
Last week, the city released data showing how the closed streets were well used. On days without significant rainfall from June to August, an average of 18,000 cyclists and 4,000 pedestrians were on Lake Shore West. On Lake Shore East, 6,300 cyclists and 5,700 pedestrians were present, while 2,000 cyclists and 300 pedestrians used Bayview.
All this happened and the sky did not fall. The sky being traffic, that is. Parts of major arteries can be shut down an entire weekend and the city can carry on just fine, without major disruptions. That’s a lesson to remember. On weekends when there was construction on the Gardiner, the Lake Shore closures were skipped. It all worked out.
The street closures were set to come to an end last weekend, something that took me by surprise considering both their success and the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases of late, largely due to indoor transmission. The need to keep encouraging outdoor activity is still there.
Enlightened heads prevailed and Mayor John Tory announced the closures will be extended into October. As the temperature gets cooler and the annual urge to hibernate rises, it’s an important message to send: We’ve got to do winter differently this year, like it or not.
Another ActiveTO message worth sending is the “Quiet Streets,” those routes with the “Share Space” signs and barriers that, in theory, forced drivers to slow down, but their success is harder to gauge.
Roads in North America are generally designed to move cars fast and minimize driver thinking, but the opposite of both is needed in cities.
As the well-marked photo radar cameras proved over the summer, catching more than 22,000 speeders in their first month of operation, physical redesign of streets is also needed to slow drivers down to safer speeds.
Those barriers did that for some, getting drivers to think and negotiate with oncoming traffic. Eye contact, necessary communication and some coerced courtesy: all things that make drivers better use the skills they should have.
Unfortunately, some drivers decided they would treat the Quiet Streets as if they were on a giant slalom alpine ski course. On streets that didn’t have concrete barriers installed, the orange and black rubber barrels were routinely moved to the side or simply run over. Beginning Thanksgiving, the Quiet Street signs and barricades are scheduled to be removed.
This is a great shame, as this initiative needed time and tweaks to become a success. Time for both drivers and other users to understand and learn how to use this new kind of shared street, something largely alien to North America but common in other regions, and for design tweaks to be made and other elements introduced that would slow drivers down, like speed humps and narrower street widths.
The city conducted a survey on Quiet Streets and worthy resident suggestions could also be incorporated.
I know I’m not alone in finding I gravitated to these streets when walking and I often followed one to another when out cycling. In some places, there was a logic to how they were laid out and they became welcome corridors in a city that can be hostile to non-automobile forms of transportation. When driving, I avoided these streets.
Imagine if these routes were permanent: They would change the way we navigate the city. Imperfect as they are, the sign on each block proclaiming all forms of transportation are welcome and must be respected is a big deal, a philosophical shift.
Over the summer, Torontonians really embraced their parks and open space like never before. Fall and winter are not the time to slow that momentum, but rather find even more ways like these to make the outdoor city welcoming to residents.