News

Thank you for meeting with the Avenue Road Safety Coalition representatives on July 23 to discuss the City’s installed and planned improvements for Avenue Road between Davenport and Dupont.

The Avenue Road Safety Coalition is pleased with the progress made since May 9 and the news that work is proceeding quickly to complete some of the construction this season. The reduction to 4 lanes, a key ARSC goal to encourage slower speeds, is approved for the first kilometre. Since Council approved the revisions, we have seen tangible progress with the bike lanes, the design for pedestrian improvements between Davenport and Dupont are underway and that the much-needed signalized mid-block pedestrian crosswalk will be completed in sync with the sidewalk improvements over the next few months.

Read more

There’s a certain anxiety that activates when some of us pedestrians push the button to activate one of Toronto’s standalone pedestrian crossovers. You take a deep breath as the overhead …

Read more

A researcher has measured how “claustrophobic” New York’s sidewalks are by gathering data on all of the people, benches, trash cans, bus shelters, bicycle racks and clutter in the way.

Any New Yorker who regularly walks around the city quickly learns which sidewalks are a pleasure to navigate and which are more like obstacle courses. Some are wide enough to stroll two, maybe three people across. Some are so narrow and crowded that it’s easier to just walk in the street, despite the danger.

Read more

Featured in the Toronto Star

There was a time when city hall routinely rejected community demands for changes to arterial roads — even when motivated by safety concerns — by pointing to a road’s designated function to move lots of cars, fast.

Fortunately, the times, and city priorities, have changed. High-speed, six-lane Avenue Road, between Bloor Street West and St. Clair Avenue West, is the latest road on the verge of a makeover with interim measures to convert it to a calmer, safer four lanes, in advance of full reconstruction at a later date. With public consultations now complete, and a committee vote on the final staff recommendations scheduled for March, city hall may now be ready to deliver.

Read more

Road safety advocates are calling on the city to speed up proposed changes to Avenue Road after an e-bike rider was struck and killed by a truck driver Tuesday.

The 39-year-old male e-bike rider, who has not been publicly identified, was the fourth cyclist killed in Toronto this year, putting the city on course for one of its deadliest years for cyclists in recent memory. The crash occurred on a particularly dangerous stretch of Avenue Road, between Davenport Road and Bloor Street, where three cyclists have been killed in the past nine years.

Read more

Multiple developments will increase density in Etobicoke and elsewhere in Toronto. There simply isn’t enough space for everyone to rely on their cars all the time, Dr. Christopher Yarnell writes. …

Read more