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City sidewalks, busy sidewalks - and where are the manners?
BERT ARCHER
Special to The Globe and Mail
August 25, 2007
My introduction to sidewalk rage came a couple of years ago. I was walking along a sidewalk near Dupont and St. George when I saw a jogger coming in the opposite direction, with a weighted backpack, furrowed brow and set jaw. He chose a route that headed straight for me. As he got closer, with no intention of slowing down, he barked, "Move." When I halted in the middle of the sidewalk, he cursed and jostled me with his bellicose elbows.
Until recently, sidewalk etiquette wasn't an issue in Toronto. Urban sprawl made sure that our congestion was limited to the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway and that our mostly narrow sidewalks were sufficient for the number of people who used them.
But ever since the current condo boom began a decade ago, our downtown has been straining under the foot traffic - and so has our civility. As the city core gets more crowded, and adds more and more amenities to draw us out onto the streets, we need to adapt.
The sidewalk has always been the place where we meet fellow citizens face to face. "The sidewalk is where people connect with the city," says Dylan Reid, a pedestrian advocate and co-chair of the city's increasingly active Pedestrian Committee. And so, Mr. Reid says, it really matters how we behave there. "Good etiquette encourages people to get out on the sidewalk, building civic community," he explains, "whereas bad etiquette discourages people from using the sidewalk, building isolation and alienation."
The City of Toronto has only recently started studying pedestrian issues in earnest, but one thing city staff has learned is that people will go out of their way to walk. "People who move into downtown neighbourhoods, one of the primary reasons is so they can walk to work," says Dan Egan, the city's manager of pedestrian and cycling issues.
And our sidewalks are now used by more people, in more ways, than their planners ever intended. People use them to commute, to shop, to jog, to walk their dogs, to busk, to beg or just to meander. They use them on foot, on scooter, skateboard, Heelys, the occasional bike and motorized chairs.
But there are ways to resolve such conflicts, Lesley Carlin says. Ms. Carlin is one half of the Etiquette Grrls, authors of the 2001 etiquette guide Things You Need to Be Told, which includes a section on pedestrian etiquette. According to her, London is a good example of how masses of people can work well together in public spaces.
"They really know what they're doing," she says from her home in Pittsburgh. "I don't know if it just has to do with stand-to-the-left, walk-to-the-right you hear in all the tube stations, but people really do that. When you get in an elevator, you don't have to navigate around people. There are more specific etiquette rules there and they seem to have been internalized.
"On a very fundamental level, it's about common sense," she adds. "Generally, you don't want to have body contact with other pedestrians. It's not hockey."
She advises editing your carry-on baggage when leaving the house to minimize your personal perimeter. "And don't stop abruptly," she says. "There are probably people behind you and they will run into you."
It's a good time to be considering such things. Walk21, the international pedestrian association, will be holding its annual conference in Toronto starting Oct. 1 at the Design Exchange. Its president, the appropriately named Jim Walker, says that on Oxford Street, Europe's busiest, London has even considered instituting fast and slow lanes to separate what he calls the striders and the strollers. Though he thinks applying traffic rules to sidewalks is ultimately ridiculous, he does think something needs to be done.
"Generally, planners don't allocate enough space to pedestrians," he says. "In North America, for example, road designs are based on two fire engines being able to pass each other. There is a standard in the way that footways are designed, but that doesn't have any association to understanding demand or potential demand."
The Walk21 conference will gather 400 experts in fields related to urban pedestrianism to discuss the latest thinking on the subject of cities and those who walk in them. In preparation for this conference, Toronto has decided to get its pedestrian act together. It plans on having a draft pedestrian strategy prepared by the city's Pedestrian Committee in time for the conference, with final adoption slated for the end of the year.
But while we're waiting for those new pedestrian zones or wider sidewalks, there's the question of our behaviour. "It seems to me there's been a deterioration in people's collective behaviour, how they respond to the collective they're a part of," says urban geographer Larry Bourne, a professor in University of Toronto's geography department and a member of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies. In his opinion, pedestrian etiquette is in dire need of amendment, on the sidewalks, as well as in the subway system. "I have a sense that we aren't as civil as we could be in our use of civic space."
His colleague Paul Hess, who specializes in urban and suburban pedestrian studies, says that while there are very few studies anywhere on pedestrian behaviour, there have been numerous ones on the effects of crowding and urbanization on people's social skills. "We're far less likely to help if we see someone in distress, for instance," he says, adding that the corollary for less serious misbehaviour can be inferred.
Prof. Bourne figures there's a simple solution that something even as low-profile as the Pedestrian Committee might be able to accomplish. "I think a not expensive but concerted public-relations campaign would waken people up to [the fact that] what they do individually, when multiplied a million times over the course of a day, can have a significant effect on the efficiency and comfort of a system."
Dos and don'ts
According to Toronto pedestrian activist Dylan Reid and Etiquette Grrl Lesley Carlin, a few simple rules - beyond the obvious, staying to the right - will make us all happier on the hoof.
If you must eat while walking, be sure you are actually capable of eating and walking at the same time. Don't pause for each bite. And don't eat anything drippy. Puddles of ketchup and ice cream can be both messy and dangerous.
Don't let your dog pee in the middle of the sidewalk, or on the property side, where it will trickle down the slope across the sidewalk.
Never toss a cigarette or litter on the sidewalk. Not only is it unsightly, unhygienic and illegal - you could also hit someone behind you.
Never step on the earth around a street tree. It compacts the soil and makes it harder for the tree to thrive.
If you must cycle on the sidewalk for a short stretch, be aware that you're a guest and act properly. According to Mr. Reid, "Cyclists who ring their bell on the sidewalk to move pedestrians out of the way are deserving of great opprobrium."
If you are walking with friends and taking up the whole sidewalk so you can all talk together, it is the responsibility of the person on the left to be aware of the surroundings, and to move behind their friends to allow someone to pass.
Buskers, vendors and panhandlers should keep to the edges of the sidewalks.
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks - and where are the manners?
BERT ARCHER
Special to The Globe and Mail
August 25, 2007
My introduction to sidewalk rage came a couple of years ago. I was walking along a sidewalk near Dupont and St. George when I saw a jogger coming in the opposite direction, with a weighted backpack, furrowed brow and set jaw. He chose a route that headed straight for me. As he got closer, with no intention of slowing down, he barked, "Move." When I halted in the middle of the sidewalk, he cursed and jostled me with his bellicose elbows.
Until recently, sidewalk etiquette wasn't an issue in Toronto. Urban sprawl made sure that our congestion was limited to the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway and that our mostly narrow sidewalks were sufficient for the number of people who used them.
But ever since the current condo boom began a decade ago, our downtown has been straining under the foot traffic - and so has our civility. As the city core gets more crowded, and adds more and more amenities to draw us out onto the streets, we need to adapt.
The sidewalk has always been the place where we meet fellow citizens face to face. "The sidewalk is where people connect with the city," says Dylan Reid, a pedestrian advocate and co-chair of the city's increasingly active Pedestrian Committee. And so, Mr. Reid says, it really matters how we behave there. "Good etiquette encourages people to get out on the sidewalk, building civic community," he explains, "whereas bad etiquette discourages people from using the sidewalk, building isolation and alienation."
The City of Toronto has only recently started studying pedestrian issues in earnest, but one thing city staff has learned is that people will go out of their way to walk. "People who move into downtown neighbourhoods, one of the primary reasons is so they can walk to work," says Dan Egan, the city's manager of pedestrian and cycling issues.
And our sidewalks are now used by more people, in more ways, than their planners ever intended. People use them to commute, to shop, to jog, to walk their dogs, to busk, to beg or just to meander. They use them on foot, on scooter, skateboard, Heelys, the occasional bike and motorized chairs.
But there are ways to resolve such conflicts, Lesley Carlin says. Ms. Carlin is one half of the Etiquette Grrls, authors of the 2001 etiquette guide Things You Need to Be Told, which includes a section on pedestrian etiquette. According to her, London is a good example of how masses of people can work well together in public spaces.
"They really know what they're doing," she says from her home in Pittsburgh. "I don't know if it just has to do with stand-to-the-left, walk-to-the-right you hear in all the tube stations, but people really do that. When you get in an elevator, you don't have to navigate around people. There are more specific etiquette rules there and they seem to have been internalized.
"On a very fundamental level, it's about common sense," she adds. "Generally, you don't want to have body contact with other pedestrians. It's not hockey."
She advises editing your carry-on baggage when leaving the house to minimize your personal perimeter. "And don't stop abruptly," she says. "There are probably people behind you and they will run into you."
It's a good time to be considering such things. Walk21, the international pedestrian association, will be holding its annual conference in Toronto starting Oct. 1 at the Design Exchange. Its president, the appropriately named Jim Walker, says that on Oxford Street, Europe's busiest, London has even considered instituting fast and slow lanes to separate what he calls the striders and the strollers. Though he thinks applying traffic rules to sidewalks is ultimately ridiculous, he does think something needs to be done.
"Generally, planners don't allocate enough space to pedestrians," he says. "In North America, for example, road designs are based on two fire engines being able to pass each other. There is a standard in the way that footways are designed, but that doesn't have any association to understanding demand or potential demand."
The Walk21 conference will gather 400 experts in fields related to urban pedestrianism to discuss the latest thinking on the subject of cities and those who walk in them. In preparation for this conference, Toronto has decided to get its pedestrian act together. It plans on having a draft pedestrian strategy prepared by the city's Pedestrian Committee in time for the conference, with final adoption slated for the end of the year.
But while we're waiting for those new pedestrian zones or wider sidewalks, there's the question of our behaviour. "It seems to me there's been a deterioration in people's collective behaviour, how they respond to the collective they're a part of," says urban geographer Larry Bourne, a professor in University of Toronto's geography department and a member of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies. In his opinion, pedestrian etiquette is in dire need of amendment, on the sidewalks, as well as in the subway system. "I have a sense that we aren't as civil as we could be in our use of civic space."
His colleague Paul Hess, who specializes in urban and suburban pedestrian studies, says that while there are very few studies anywhere on pedestrian behaviour, there have been numerous ones on the effects of crowding and urbanization on people's social skills. "We're far less likely to help if we see someone in distress, for instance," he says, adding that the corollary for less serious misbehaviour can be inferred.
Prof. Bourne figures there's a simple solution that something even as low-profile as the Pedestrian Committee might be able to accomplish. "I think a not expensive but concerted public-relations campaign would waken people up to [the fact that] what they do individually, when multiplied a million times over the course of a day, can have a significant effect on the efficiency and comfort of a system."
Dos and don'ts
According to Toronto pedestrian activist Dylan Reid and Etiquette Grrl Lesley Carlin, a few simple rules - beyond the obvious, staying to the right - will make us all happier on the hoof.
If you must eat while walking, be sure you are actually capable of eating and walking at the same time. Don't pause for each bite. And don't eat anything drippy. Puddles of ketchup and ice cream can be both messy and dangerous.
Don't let your dog pee in the middle of the sidewalk, or on the property side, where it will trickle down the slope across the sidewalk.
Never toss a cigarette or litter on the sidewalk. Not only is it unsightly, unhygienic and illegal - you could also hit someone behind you.
Never step on the earth around a street tree. It compacts the soil and makes it harder for the tree to thrive.
If you must cycle on the sidewalk for a short stretch, be aware that you're a guest and act properly. According to Mr. Reid, "Cyclists who ring their bell on the sidewalk to move pedestrians out of the way are deserving of great opprobrium."
If you are walking with friends and taking up the whole sidewalk so you can all talk together, it is the responsibility of the person on the left to be aware of the surroundings, and to move behind their friends to allow someone to pass.
Buskers, vendors and panhandlers should keep to the edges of the sidewalks.
