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About me Politics Toronto

Sean’s strong mayor agenda for a new era

Who knew, just two weeks ago, that Torontonians would be returning to the polls to elect a new mayor of Toronto? Looking back on John Tory’s last eight-and-a-half years in office, the biggest disappointment might have been that he spent so little of the political capital that he had accumulated after decades as a backroom […]

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About me Maps

Please stand by…

November 5: I’m happy to report that my interactive maps are all online again. In case you’ve been looking for my interactive maps, such as the Ontario Intercity Transportation Map, I apologize for the interruption. I host my interactive maps on Esri’s ArcGIS Online, and I pay a monthly “pay as you go” for the […]

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About me Design Infrastructure Roads Toronto

Shining a light on Toronto’s streetlamps

Street lighting is an important, yet overlooked, part of any city’s standard infrastructure. For over seventy years, Toronto’s streets were lit with an elegant and increasingly unique streetlamp design. But modern standards and a desire for standardization will see this change, just as Toronto’s streetcars and street signs have. Toronto Hydro, which is responsible for […]

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About me Infrastructure Roads Toronto Walking

Signs of recognition

New road signs and universal sidewalk snow clearance are big wins for pedestrians in Toronto.

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About me Cycling Design Infrastructure Roads Toronto

Yonge, tomorrow

Over the past few years, I have been involved with the YongeTOmorrow project on behalf of Walk Toronto. It has been a very interesting and worthwhile experience being part of a stakeholder advisory group. Allied organizations working towards a more exciting and sustainable Yonge Street include Cycle Toronto, 8 80 Cities, and the David Suzuki […]

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About me Brampton Toronto Transit

Podcast News

This week, I appeared on two podcasts, talking about municipal open data, crowdsourced mapping projects, and Brampton’s success in building suburban transit ridership. For Spacing Radio’s Future Fix series, I spoke about a recent Walk Toronto initiative to map sidewalk pinch points during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used Google Maps to […]

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About me Toronto Walking

A week of social distancing in Toronto

Ten days ago, I spent the day at City Hall and addressed the Infrastructure and Environment Committee. While I was following news of a novel coronavirus that was affecting China, Italy, and Iran, it wasn’t on my mind that day. What a difference a few days makes. On Thursday, the province announced that elementary and […]

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About me Politics Toronto Walking

On right turns, advocacy, and civic democracy

On Wednesday, March 11, I deputed to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee at Toronto City Hall in support of a motion by Councillor Mike Layton to have city staff examine and report back on expanding right turn on red (RTOR) restrictions in the City of Toronto. Though I had the time and willingness to attend […]

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About me Cycling Toronto Walking

Survey says… Torontonians demand safer streets

A mock-up of a re-imagined Danforth Avenue, Summer 2019 Yesterday, I met with fellow road safety advocates Keagan Gartz, executive director of Cycle Toronto, Gideon Forman from the David Suzuki Foundation, and Jessica Spieker, from Friends & Families for Safe Streets. The occasion was to publicize a new poll commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation […]

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About me

Five years of musings

Here I am, back in 2015 Today, December 7, 2019, marks the fifth anniversary of my personal blog, Marshall’s Musings. I started this website as a place to archive the maps I was making in 2014 after the municipal election. I had mapped poll-by-poll results for each ward, showing how each area voted for mayor […]