{"id":14233,"date":"2010-09-21T09:58:10","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=14233"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:18:33","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:18:33","slug":"raising-the-road-to-meet-the-sidewalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/09\/21\/raising-the-road-to-meet-the-sidewalk\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising the road to meet the sidewalk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s an interesting little piece of infrastructure innovation on the west side of University Ave. at Orde St., just south of College in the hospital district. At the crosswalk, rather than having curb cuts down to the roadbed, the road actually rises up so that it’s flush to the sidewalk (although the sidewalk also dips a little).<\/p>\n

I heard a presentation about this idea at the Pedestrian Committee a couple of years ago. Researchers from Toronto Rehab<\/a> had been observing pedestrians crossing University Avenue during the very snowy winter<\/a> we were having in 2008, and noticed the trouble they had with the big pools of water and slush that gather at corners after heavy snowfalls. It was a particular problem for their patients, many of whom have mobility difficulties and can’t jump across. They proposed an ingenious solution — raise the roadbed to meet the sidewalk at pedestrian crossings, so that the water would drain off that space automatically and keep it clear for pedestrians. The idea also has additional benefits — it’s easier to use for people with mobility difficulties because they don’t have to go up and down, and possibly it might help make crosswalks more noticeable to drivers.<\/p>\n

It’s not necessarily a solution that would work everywhere — for example, it might not be practicable on roads with streetcar lines. But it’s good to see that it’s being tried, appropriately just north of Toronto Rehab’s University Ave. offices. If it becomes routine, it could prove to be one of those simple solutions that helps fix a nagging problem with little cost and effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an interesting little piece of infrastructure innovation on the west side of University Ave. at Orde St., just south of College in the hospital district. At the crosswalk, rather than having curb cuts down to the roadbed, the road actually rises up so that it’s flush to the sidewalk (although the sidewalk also dipsContinue reading “Raising the road to meet the sidewalk”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,20,6],"tags":[16007,37,1508,1729,1560],"class_list":["post-14233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infrastructure","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-ingenious-solution","tag-intersections","tag-pedestrian-committee","tag-university-ave","tag-university-avenue"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRaising the road to meet the sidewalk - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/09\/21\/raising-the-road-to-meet-the-sidewalk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Raising the road to meet the sidewalk - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There’s an interesting little piece of infrastructure innovation on the west side of University Ave. at Orde St., just south of College in the hospital district. 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