{"id":1532,"date":"2007-02-12T18:11:43","date_gmt":"2007-02-12T22:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2007-02-13T19:24:13","modified_gmt":"2007-02-13T23:24:13","slug":"boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I just came back from the capital budget open house at City Hall today, and there is good news for pedestrians in the City of Toronto&#8217;s 2007 capital budget.<\/p>\n<p>First, the first stage of the Pedestrian Crossover Review recommendations, for pedestrian crossovers on major arterial roads, is fully funded ($3.63 million). That means that by the end of the year, we can expect to see crosswalks on major arterial roads made much more visible, with the most dangerous ones converted to full traffic lights.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the city is going to fund the Bloor Street revitalization project to start this year ($12 million this year and the same next year), but the money will be repaid in full over the long term by the Bloor-Yorkville BIA. This arrangement solves the <strike>only<\/strike> main pedestrian problem with the original proposal, which was the disproportionate allocation of resources to this strip because of the disproportionate wealth of the BIA (<em>edit &#8211; as Hamish points out, there are unresolved issues for cyclists<\/em>). Now what is possibly the busiest pedestrian strip in the city will get an attractive pedestrian makeover, and it will cost the city very little in the long term (maybe some interest charges).<\/p>\n<p>Third, the very best news is that the budget for the Civic Improvement Program, which makes significant enhancements to public pedestrian spaces when opportunities arise, has been something like doubled, to $3.0 million a year. It means they will be able to take advantage of twice as many opportunities as they did in the past, and really start to make a difference to Toronto&#8217;s walking experience. This is a real boost to the pedestrian realm in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>It possibly gets better, too. In addition to the boost to the Civic Improvement Program (which is run by City Planning), the Transportation Division has pledged to implement improved standards for the pedestrian realm, such  as tree planting, special paving and lighting, on 20% of their road reconstruction projects. This means the Civic Improvement Program can focus on more specialized projects. It&#8217;s also a start towards systematically using road reconstruction projects to make Toronto a real walking city. At the moment, this is just a pledge, so it&#8217;s not clear to what extent this will actually be put into practice, but at least it&#8217;s down in writing.<\/p>\n<p>One pedestrian item in the capital budget that I was not able to get more detailed information about was the missing sidewalk program, since it is subsumed into a general sidewalks budget. It&#8217;s a good program, but its budget ($2.0 million) hasn&#8217;t been increased since it began.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/inconuit.com\">Adam Krawesky<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just came back from the capital budget open house at City Hall today, and there is good news for pedestrians in the City of Toronto&#8217;s 2007 capital budget. First, the first stage of the Pedestrian Crossover Review recommendations, for pedestrian crossovers on major arterial roads, is fully funded ($3.63 million). That means that by<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget&#8221;<\/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":[2,32,6],"tags":[556,22085,4591,19,417,391],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-streetscape","category-walking","tag-adam-krawesky","tag-politics","tag-the-pedestrian-crossover-review","tag-toronto","tag-transportation-division","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - 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\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just came back from the capital budget open house at City Hall today, and there is good news for pedestrians in the City of Toronto&#8217;s 2007 capital budget. First, the first stage of the Pedestrian Crossover Review recommendations, for pedestrian crossovers on major arterial roads, is fully funded ($3.63 million). That means that byContinue reading &quot;Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-02-12T22:11:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-02-13T23:24:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\",\"name\":\"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-02-12T22:11:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-02-13T23:24:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\",\"name\":\"Dylan Reid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dylan Reid\"},\"description\":\"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"I just came back from the capital budget open house at City Hall today, and there is good news for pedestrians in the City of Toronto&#8217;s 2007 capital budget. First, the first stage of the Pedestrian Crossover Review recommendations, for pedestrian crossovers on major arterial roads, is fully funded ($3.63 million). That means that byContinue reading \"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2007-02-12T22:11:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2007-02-13T23:24:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dylan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dylan Reid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/","name":"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg","datePublished":"2007-02-12T22:11:43+00:00","dateModified":"2007-02-13T23:24:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.inconduit.com\/photo\/01col.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/12\/boost-for-pedstrians-in-2007-capital-budget\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boost for pedestrians in 2007 capital budget"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b","name":"Dylan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Dylan Reid"},"description":"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}