Road Safety & Vision Zero Plan

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1459180468704886786

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1459276697719779334

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1459348325585543168

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1459690500127170570

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1459698728911187975

 

[crs1026]

^There is actually fairly frequent speed enforcement on the Queensway. They frequently set uo in the entrance to the Sewage plant.

Daytime only, of course, and it’s a bit of a fishing hole because speed lowers from 60 to 50 but the roadway is equally wide and open on both sides of the change point, so motorists don’t get any clues that the speed limit has lowered. Some of the signage is not easy to spot thanks to other poles, etc.

Definitely a street whose physical layout would encourage drivers to err on the side of speed.

- Paul

 

[tiffer24]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1459714330329600001

 

[concrete_and_light]

Do we have any journalists in this city who can get an interview with the Mayor and push him and demand accountability on his absolute negligence of his duty to protect the people of this city, or are the journalists and organizations who have access to the Mayor all his PR team?

 

[W. K. Lis]

Do we have any journalists in this city who can get an interview with the Mayor and push him and demand accountability on his absolute negligence of his duty to protect the people of this city, or are the journalists and organizations who have access to the Mayor all his PR team?

More about the councillors and their fiefdoms. Get one complaint about cycling or pedestrian improvements, and it gets reversed.

From December 1, 2020...

Toronto to remove Brimley Road bike lane after driver complaints​

Scarborough 'by its nature' a place for cars, resident says​

From link.

Brimley Road’s cycling track, installed in July, will be removed as quickly as possible, City of Toronto transportation officials say.

Part of the ActiveTO initiative, the lanes were called temporary, but could have remained on Brimley until 2022, when the road is scheduled for resurfacing.

Residents who drive Brimley from Lawrence Avenue to Kingston Road, however, didn’t like the delays caused by losing Brimley’s curb lanes.

They began attacking the project after it was installed, and local councillors Michael Thompson and Gary Crawford encouraged them to speak their minds.

During a Nov. 30 virtual meeting, staff involved with ActiveTO said more community consultation would have delivered a better project.

The city chose to separate full lanes with lines and bollards because it needed to install the lanes rapidly.

Given another chance, it would use boulevard space along Brimley or change curb locations so road capacity wouldn’t be reduced, said Jacquelyn Hayward, Toronto’s transportation project design director.

A resident, Carol Baker, told the meeting investigating bicycle lanes for Brimley in 2022 was questionable. Existing bike paths through Scarborough are enough, she said.

“Scarborough, by its nature, is a vehicular area. It’s kind of ruled by that,” Baker said.

Hayward said the city – which in 2019 added Brimley to its Cycling Network Plan for future consideration as a north-south route - is trying to build a network to get cyclists to work, school and other destinations.
“We do hear from many others who want that choice in their life,” said Hayward.

The city said 35 to 100 cyclists a day used the cycling track.

Cyclists have long been frustrated by the lack of protected routes, apart from trails and hydro corridors, in Scarborough.

Cheryl White, a Nike Canada employee, said she drives but knows co-workers who use the Brimley lanes to reach the company’s offices at 260 Brimley.

Nicholas Chin, who grew up in North Scarborough, said he drives there because there’s no connected cycling network.

Many seniors in his old neighbourhood use bicycles on sidewalks because they can’t risk being on the road, he said.

ActiveTO installed 40 kilometres of bike routes across the city, most of them temporary, to help give citizens another transportation option during the pandemic.

On Brimley, the city later removed some bollards to assist emergency vehicles and to help more drivers make turns at intersections.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Not In My Front Yard: The controversy of installing sidewalks​

From link, dated March 16, 2016.

McNicoll Avenue at Boxdene Avenue. There’s no sidewalk on the south side of this busy Scarborough road.

It might come as a surprise that nearly 25% of all local streets in Toronto don’t have a sidewalk. And many more only have a sidewalk on one side of the street.

Most local streets that don’t have sidewalks are found outside the old Cities of Toronto, East York and York, particularly in parts of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough built in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of these residential and industrial streets were built with ditches instead of storm drains; others were laid out without sidewalks in mind. In the master-planned Don Mills development, there are many walkways connecting parks, major roads, and schools; it was likely intended that these would be used for getting around on foot rather than sidewalks. In other post-war subdivisions, particularly affluent areas like those in central Etobicoke, it was probably assumed that everyone would get around by car.

Static map showing the City of Toronto’s sidewalk inventory as of 2011.

The City of Toronto is hoping to change this. As roads come up for reconstruction, the new policy, recommended by staff, is to install a sidewalk where there isn’t one already, even despite local opposition. The current policy, in place since 2002, is that a new sidewalk could only be installed on an existing local street after the local councillor completed a consult of the neighbourhood and there was a consensus supporting the installation.

In Toronto, the installation of new sidewalks has been surprisingly controversial. But the city’s presentation lists some of the reasons why sidewalks are often opposed. Sidewalks have to be cleared by the adjoining landowner. Residents can’t park their cars in the driveway if they block the sidewalk. They might result in the removal of landscaping or trees. And there is a minority who just want to keep outsiders away from their homes. You could call this NIMBY-ism, even though sidewalks are technically is in the front yards, not the backyards, of local opponents.

Sidewalks provide safe, accessible routes for pedestrians, especially important for people using strollers or mobility devices. They promote the city’s initiatives encouraging children to walk to school, for all persons to engage in physical activity, and for seniors to age at home. City policy, including the Toronto Pedestrian Charter, supports sidewalks.


On Chine Drive, in an affluent part of Scarborough near the Bluffs, local residents opposed the construction of a sidewalk, even though it would provide a safe path to a nearby school. Since 2004, some residents opposed the sidewalk, claiming that they were afraid it would “take away from the rustic look of the neighbourhood.” Supporters, including parents with young children, wanted a safe route to the local school. It took ten years, but in 2014, the sidewalk was installed.

Last year, on nearby Midland Avenue South, there was a similar fight to keep sidewalks off the street. This is despite the fact this section of Midland is designated as a collector road, and is part of the Waterfront Trail’s route in the Scarborough Bluffs area. The city owns the land, known as a boulevard, where the sidewalks would go, but without the consent of local homeowners, the city was left in a bind. This new city policy will hopefully solve this problem.

And on Glen Scarlett Road, in the old Stockyards neighbourhood, Ward 11 Councillor Frances Nunziata is opposed to the installation of a sidewalk on that industrial street, according to members of Walk Toronto, who have been following this issue closely. (Full disclosure, the author is a member and co-founder of this organization.) Glen Scarlett Road, lined with slaughterhouses and other industries, is due for reconstruction this year between Symes Road and Gunns Road. Local industries oppose a sidewalk as it would cross their loading docks; Nunziata’s office claims that since the street “is unsafe for pedestrians to be walking on due to heavy traffic, [the City] should not be encouraging pedestrians to use this road by installing a sidewalk.”

Not only is this logic is completely counter-intuitive, it ignores the needs of workers walking to work, or local residents walking to the streetcar loop at St. Clair Avenue and Gunns Road, or nearby shopping and residential areas.

A few weeks ago, I created an interactive map of the City of Toronto’s sidewalk inventory, with geo-spatial data obtained from the City of Toronto’s Open Data Initiative. The city’s database shows the sidewalk status for every public street in the city of Toronto (excluding private roads and laneways), as of 2011. Since posting it to my blog, I made a few edits, such as including the new Chine Drive sidewalk, and I corrected a few errors and omissions identified in the comments on the website and social media.

Almost every arterial and collector road in Toronto has a sidewalk on at least one side of the street. Exceptions include Highway 27 and Black Creek Drive, where, like expressways, pedestrians and cyclists are prohibited, the Bayview Drive Extension though the Don Valley, and in the far northeastern part of Scarborough, in Rouge Park. But it’s the local streets, marked in orange and red that are most apparent.

View attachment 362783

Providing safe, accessible, and consistent pedestrian infrastructure is simply the right thing to do. The city owns the land on which sidewalks can be put down, if they aren’t already. There are legitimate concerns that need to be taken into account when new sidewalks are proposed — trees and landscaping especially — but at the end of the day, the needs of vulnerable road users need to be addressed first and foremost.

 

[tiffer24]

The mother of a three-year-old boy struck and injured by a driver last week in Toronto's Wychwood neighbourhood says city officials and motorists driving near schools must put the safety of children first.

Amanda Bokamyer, mother of Waylon Dennison, 3, says children have a right to cross streets safely to and from school in Toronto.

On Monday, Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m., Waylon was hit while walking in between his caregiver and two taller children, one of which was his sister. They were in the crosswalk at the intersection of Hendrick and Benson Avenues, south of St. Clair Avenue West and Oakwood Avenue.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toro...collision-crossing-school-motorists-1.6248656

 

[Northern Light]

The mother of a three-year-old boy struck and injured by a driver last week in Toronto's Wychwood neighbourhood says city officials and motorists driving near schools must put the safety of children first.

Amanda Bokamyer, mother of Waylon Dennison, 3, says children have a right to cross streets safely to and from school in Toronto.

On Monday, Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m., Waylon was hit while walking in between his caregiver and two taller children, one of which was his sister. They were in the crosswalk at the intersection of Hendrick and Benson Avenues, south of St. Clair Avenue West and Oakwood Avenue.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toro...collision-crossing-school-motorists-1.6248656

Both of these streets do have sidewalks on both sides of the road. Neither street is particularly conducive to speeding either (not super wide, parked cars present).

The sidewalks are narrow, and the intersection itself could probably use tighter turning radii. There are no crosswalk markings, but its not type of intersection to normally see those.

I will, however, note, that there are no stop lines present, despite the intersection being a 4-way stop, with stop signs present.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Both of these streets do have sidewalks on both sides of the road. Neither street is particularly conducive to speeding either (not super wide, parked cars present).

The sidewalks are narrow, and the intersection itself could probably use tighter turning radii. There are no crosswalk markings, but its not type of intersection to normally see those.

I will, however, note, that there are no stop lines present, despite the intersection being a 4-way stop, with stop signs present.

View attachment 362804

A three-year old would be level with the car's hood, as shown in the image to the right. The kid may not see over the hood and the driver's eyes could be scanning the other three corners. The fences and bushes do not help.

 

[Northern Light]

A three-year old would be level with the car's hood, as shown in the image to the right. The kid may not see over the hood and the driver's eyes could be scanning the other three corners. The fences and bushes do not help.

Interesting that all 4 properties at the corner have visual barrier in the form of a fence, retaining wall or both.

The fence on top of the retaining wall looks borderline in terms of its legality, but it tough to tell. Typically, the City limits front-yard fences to 4ft, that clearly sits well over 4ft, but its on top of the retaining wall......

The 2 others properties with fences, they are both quite short.......so not the same issue; that said, no offense to the owners, but they seem oddly pointless, in that they don't provide any added privacy or security to the front yards
and aren't particularly attractive. That said, I'm loathe to call them a material safety risk. I don't want everyone's yard having to be concrete or short grass.

I do wonder, perhaps, about adding bump-outs here to make pedestrians a bit more visible and discourage speeding.

Though it has to be said, there are so many more dangerous spots in the City, this most unfortunate incident notwithstanding.

 

[lenaitch]

By the sounds of the article, it seems the driver was trying to scooch in between a group of pedestrians - wrong. Regardless of the physical layout; irresponsible, illegal, impatient, incompetent - pick your adjective. It would be interesting to see the area around school opening/closing; streetview already shows a fair bit of legal parking. Although not illegal in and of itself, any situation that permits or enables motorist to reverse in a pedestrian heavy environment is a recipe for tragedy.

Traffic congestion around schools is not a unique problem. Perhaps if they did some heavy enforcement and tweaked a few by-laws, more parents would be 'encouraged' to let their kids actually walk to school.