In conjunction with the international Walk21 conference being hosted by the City of Toronto in early October, Ryerson University is launching an international student competition to redesign Gould St. in downtown Toronto, to generate ideas for transforming it into a pedestrian haven.
The entries will be featured to the public as part of the Walk21 conference, and the winners (who get monetary prizes) will be announced during the conference.
Gould Street, which goes through the heart of the Ryerson campus, is heavily used by pedestrians, and students have been calling for it to be made more pedestrian-friendly for a long time. The current attempt by Ryerson to get hold of the Sam the Record Man building at the corner of Gould and Yonge adds a further range of possibilities to the idea.
Click here for full information about entering the competition.
photo by Rannie Turingan
4 comments
From the link:
“Your design should be inclusive of all users for both the road and sidewalk (both vehicular, human-powered) and should propose, where appropriate, traffic-calming measures or “shared streets concepts” ….”
Looks like they’ve ruled out pedestrian malling it, in the name of inclusivity (of motor vehicles). That didn’t make me throw up in my mouth nearly as much as if they would have invoked “diversity”.
Gould’s already quite a pleasant street, with fairly “calm” traffic. If they don’t want to ped-mall it they should just leave it alone and save the taxpayer’s dime. But if they did it would really help make it more of a unified campus as it would join with the already ped-zones of the Devonian Square and that Victoria? Lane that runs between Gould and Gerrard.
I don’t think that they’ve ruled out ‘malling’ it. I think all designs need to consider vehicles for safety concerns — firetrucks, police, ambulances, etc all have to be able to access the road. Its just one of those requirements to satisfy a variety of City agencies and regulations. Dylan might be able to expand on this better than I can.
“Throw up in my mouth…” is how the kids talk these days.
Anyway…back on topic – Let’s hope you’re right Matthew, but there’s nothing in their proposal to substantiate your view.
Emerg vehicles don’t really constitute “traffic” that needs calming.