{"id":42998,"date":"2013-04-11T10:26:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T14:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=42998"},"modified":"2013-04-11T10:26:57","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T14:26:57","slug":"walking-insights-from-gridlock-sam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/04\/11\/walking-insights-from-gridlock-sam\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking insights from “Gridlock Sam”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I went to the talk by former New York City traffic commissioner Sam Schwartz<\/a> on \u201cCreating a More Walkable Toronto \u2013 Strategies from Chicago and New York City<\/a>\u201d on Tuesday. Schwartz is known as “Gridlock Sam” thanks to a column he writes for the New York Daily News<\/em> (and a reputation for having popularized the term “gridlock”). His firm helped develop Chicago\u2019s Pedestrian Plan and an America Walks guide called “Steps to a Walkable Community<\/a>.” The talk was organized by the City of Toronto’s Public Realm Office, as part of a commitment in Toronto’s Walking Strategy to hold a public forum on walking once a year. It was organized in partnership with the Toronto Society of Architects.<\/p>\n

Schwartz was introduced by Stephen Buckley, the new General Manager of Transportation for the City of Toronto, and it was an opportunity to see him in action for the first time too. Buckley led efforts to develop a “complete streets” policy in Philadelphia, where he previously worked. His influence perhaps helps to explain this week’s motion by Public Works and Infrastructure Committee chair Denzil Minnan-Wong<\/a> to start Toronto on the process of developing Complete Streets Guidelines.<\/p>\n

Buckley did a quick roundup of walking facts and policies at the City. He noted that Toronto has 7,100 km of sidewalks, 600 pedestrian crosswalks, and an estimated 1,000,000 signs. He also noted that Toronto has about $10 billion worth of transportation assets — and asked the audience to consider how much that meant we should invest in maintenance every year.<\/p>\n

He announced that Transportation was launching a crosswalk-painting blitz downtown, where the markings have often faded terribly; and that they would be launching a transportation safety study.<\/p>\n

Next up was Schwartz himself, who titled his talk “These streets are made for walking”. Here are a few notes on what he said:<\/p>\n