The Future Fix: Safe Streets

Spacing and Evergreen proudly present The Future Fix: Solutions for Communities Across Canada, a special podcast series.

THIS EPISODE: Safe Streets

For our second season, we wanted to begin with a challenge that faces many cities, large and small, that has been given a higher sense of urgency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That challenge is the need for safe streets and active transportation routes for pedestrians and cyclists. To create these spaces, you need to be able to communicate the problem, and pinpoint where an intervention can provide the most benefit. That’s where data comes in.

In this episode, we hear from communities across Canada.

Walk Toronto co-founder Sean Marshall tells us how the advocacy group used things like Google Maps to crowd-source sidewalks too narrow to social distance, and help influence policy.

Shabnem Afzal, road safety manager for Surrey, British Columbia, overseas that city’s Vision Zero program — a global effort to reduce the amount of road injury and death to zero. She explains how data was used to generate support for a safe streets program and to identify problem areas.

“Whenever you want to make change, you need to think of how you can convince and coordinate that change. What’s the kind of dialogue that you need to have. Why would you change anything unless you paint a convincing picture?”

Listen to the podcast for more about Surrey’s Vision Zero campaign.

And Halifax City Councillor Waye Mason tells us about that city’s mobility response, and an interactive map that lets citizens identify spots where safe street interventions for walk, cycling, and social distancing are needed.

“It’s hard to social distance when the sidewalk isn’t wide enough to maintain two meters. So what we’ve done is created a network of slow streets.”

Listen to the episode to hear more about Halifax’s interactive COVID mobility response.

The Future Fix is a partnership between Spacing and Evergreen for the Community Solutions Network: a program of Future Cities Canada. As the program lead, Evergreen is working with Open North and partners to help communities of all sizes across Canada navigate the smart cities landscape. The Community Solutions Network is supported with funding provided by Infrastructure Canada.