Open streets programs such as OpenStreetsTO and ActiveTO helped promote and encourage healthier, more active lifestyles by making it safer and easier for people to walk, bike, and engage with their community. OpenStreetsTO closed parts of Bloor and Yonge Streets for two Sundays per year from 2014 to 2019 (and one Sunday in 2022), while ActiveTO major road closures such as on Lake Shore West played a critical role in bringing people together during the pandemic while practicing physical distancing.
Those who attended ActiveTO and OpenStreetsTO events were overwhelmingly supportive of them, as shown by the results below:
- Over 100,000 people attended OpenStreetsTO in 2019 while 97% supported expanding the program per a Toronto Metropolitan University survey.
- 62% of attendees reported being more active as a result of ActiveTO.
- 93% of attendees supported continuing ActiveTO beyond the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite such widespread support, ActiveTO was scrapped on Lake Shore West in June 2022 and while there was a promise to hold limited closures at the time, this was never done. As for OpenStreetsTO, that program didn’t run in 2023 or 2024, while it is very unlikely it will happen in 2025 either. Based on this, we are making the call to reinstate open streets for 2026.
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Photo: Robert B. Moffatt via CC BY-SA 2.0
