Categories
Brampton Cycling Roads Toronto Walking

It’s time to rethink slip lanes

While slip lanes facilitate vehicle movement, they have a significant impact on the safety and comfort of pedestrians. Though the City of Toronto has been proactive in removing or modifying slip lanes, there is still much more work to do.

Categories
Cycling Ontario Transit Urban Planning Walking

How a transit authority has become a barrier to active mobility

It is frustrating when an agency tasked with “[connecting] new, established and emerging communities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe” fails to connect the communities its transit projects run through.

Categories
Cycling Infrastructure Ontario Roads

Crossride of death: how an Ajax girl was killed riding her bike

On Thursday, November 7, a 13-year-old girl was struck and killed by the driver of a Hyundai Santa Fe (a midsized crossover SUV) at Rossland Road and Stevensgate Drive. She was riding on a multiuse path, crossing the street properly in a crossride.

Multiuse paths are a popular form of cycling infrastructure, especially in the suburbs. Poor design and bad driver behaviour have made them dangerous at intersections, and should be fixed.

Categories
Cycling Roads Toronto Urban Planning Walking

Deadly by design: Annette and Pacific

On Monday, September 23 at 8:06 PM, the driver of a 2024 Hyundai Elantra sedan travelled north on Pacific Avenue. The driver of a 2017 Hyundai Tucson crossover SUV drove west Annette Street. The two vehicles collided in the intersection with enough force that the Tucson continued into the sidewalk on the northwest corner, striking two pedestrians. A […]

Categories
Cycling Infrastructure Politics Roads Urban Planning Walking

Bloor Street blues

The Bloor Street redesign is the right thing to do for a safer and more inclusive city. Mississauga is growing up. Some of its politicians should too.

Categories
About me Cycling Toronto

How Sean got his bike back

On Saturday August 19, while my spouse and I were paying a visit to the renewed AKG Art Gallery in Buffalo, a thief broke into our building and made off with my bicycle. The well-equipped thief broke into our building’s front entrance using a pry bar, and then used a heavy-duty bolt cutter to cut […]

Categories
Cycling Infrastructure Parks Travels Walking

Chicago’s 606: an urban rail trail

Chicago shows how to build a great multiuse path in an urban setting

Categories
Cycling History Infrastructure Roads Toronto Walking

The jarring streetscape of Jarvis Street

Over a century ago, Jarvis Street was Toronto’s most fashionable address, and home to prominent families including the Masseys, who made their wealth from the farm equipment industry, and whose names live on through Massey Hall, Hart House, the Fred Victor Mission, and Massey College. The wide boulevards allowed for lush street trees to flourish, […]

Categories
Cycling Maps Roads Toronto Walking

No exit? Yes, walk this way!

Last week, Dylan Reid and I, both co-founders of Walk Toronto, decided to create an inventory of all instances in the city where “No Exit” signs do not apply to all road users. Though these signs are required under traffic codes and regulations, they do not reflect that in many cases, there is an exit […]

Categories
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 […]