Canadian Urbanism Uncovered
Read more articles by Dylan Reid
The Sunday Toronto Star has a great article about how the automobile muscled its way into becoming the sole master of the roadway at the beginning of the twentieth century, and how it might be good for everyone, including cars, if streets were once more shared between cars and people.
The article cites notable advocates Dutch traffic planner Hans Monderman and Australian walking activist David Engwicht on their ideas for sharing streets and slowing down traffic.
My friend and I both nearly jumped out of our skin. The difference between us is that I could see it coming. Two rows of vehicles were stopped at a red...
By Ingrid Buday
Much-needed repair work to the western portion of the Gardiner Expressway began this spring, sparking a lot of consternation about the disruptions to...
By David Simor
In the early 2000s, I moved into a new condo building in the Garment District south-west of Queen and Spadina. The area had been mostly an employment area...
By Dylan Reid
6 comments
The Star was in fine form yesterday. Christopher Hume wrote about
how Cyclists call the shots in Sweden. If only that were true in Toronto.
As a start we should change the lights at Dundas and Spadina. As part of the cycle, the car lights should go red while all pedestrian lights are green. Allowing legal kitty-corner crossing.
Though i slagged Edinburgh a couple weeks ago, i did like that intersectioons went green for pedestrians 4 ways, so you could go diagonal.
Mike & Sean – it’s called a Barnes Dance or Pedestrian Scramble (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Dance) and I used one in Berlin by the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
I’d also like to see them at Yonge & Bloor, Hoskin & St. George, Yonge & Dundas, and Bay & Front (at rushhour at least to handle all the scrambling commuters making their way to Union for the GO trains & buses.)
Sorry, but where is the “pedestrian only area” in Montreal? Montreal is far less pedestrian friendly (and our pedestrians are more aggressively anti-car, re their jaywalking habits) than Toronto. To suggest otherwise is misleading.
Is the article is referring to a few small pedestrian malls, such as Place Jacques Quartier or a few blocks of Prince Arthur, well, every city has a few of those. Sparks Street in Ottawa is bigger than both put together…
That’s funny – seriously, Toronto doesn’t have ANY of those small pedestrian malls on former streets, as far as I can recall. (There is a block closed on the Ryerson campus, but it doesn’t have shops, just academic buildings). I am amused that you can’t even imagine this state of affairs, but maybe that will give you an idea of why we envy even a short little strip like Prince Arthur.