Sean Marshall

Category: Roads

  • Let’s not be jealous of Montreal

    Let’s not be jealous of Montreal

    Rue St-Catharine in the Quartier des Spectacles, August 2025

    A visit to Montreal can make one jealous. Jealous of the city’s better street furniture, greater cycling infrastructure, great public spaces throughout the city, and an improved pedestrian realm. Entire streets are closed in the summer months to motor traffic, allowing pedestrians to spill out into the roadway, and patios to sprout without the need for concrete blocks to protect them (and less noise and pollution to those dining al fresco).

    For example, Avenue Mont-Royal, was first closed in Summer 2020 as a “Corridor Sanitare” to encourage people to get outside during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and support local businesses, which set up patios on the sidewalk and the street. My spouse and I rented a car and visited Montreal during this time, getting a lot of walking in a city that opened up as much as safely possible.

    Avenue Mont-Royal, looking east, August 2020

    Happily, Montreal continued the tradition in the years since, even as pandemic restrictions eased, then disappeared entirely. Five years later, Avenue Mont-Royal was even more vibrant. Not only were there lots of patios on the street, there were public benches, shade structures, and water fountains, allowing anyone to sit, relax, and enjoy the outdoors. The annual summer closure is a hit.

    Avenue Mont-Royal, looking east, August 2025

    Several public squares were also renewed in recent years. Phillips Square, on Rue Ste-Catharine across from the now-shuttered Hudson’s Bay department store, was renewed with new splash fountains along with small café-style tables and chairs, complete with shade umbrellas. The metal chairs are movable, allowing larger groups to sit around a single table. It’s a refreshed natural congregation point along the city’s main shopping street.

    Phillips Square, August 2025

    Similar tables and umbrellas were set up at Dorchester Square, several blocks to the west, near Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral and Central Station. Both squares were reimagined by the brilliant landscape architecture firm Claude Cormier + Associés. At Dorchester Square, a new water fountain, seemingly a classic installation, is cut in the rear, with a woodpecker behind. Such Easter eggs are features of Cormier park projects.

    Dorchester Square, August 2025
    Fountain at Dorchester Square; note the woodpecker on the side. One of the two black curved footbridges across the parking ramps is behind.

    Furthermore, Montreal is rebuilding the western section of Rue St-Catharine towards Crescent. Though motor vehicles are permitted after reconstruction, they are limited to a single through lane, with lay-bys for deliveries, passenger pick-ups and drop-offs, and emergency vehicles. Sidewalks are widened considerably, with more benches, bicycle parking, and street trees.

    Completing Rue St-Catharine, near Bishop Street

    After returning to Toronto, it’s easy to feel down on this city. Montreal seems to do everything right. Meanwhile, ActiveTO, the open streets initiative following the pandemic restrictions here, quickly eroded, and was effectively ended in 2022. Open Streets, which closed sections of Yonge and Bloor Streets to motorists for two Sunday mornings, was last held in 2022. But there are still business improvement area-led weekend street festivals, which attract tens of thousands of pedestrians.

    Torontonians want to walk, and pedestrianized streets, even when they’re just weekend events, are immensely popular. One downside, however, is a lack of seating outside of businesses’ patio areas. One is free to walk, enjoy live music, or just people watch, but to sit down, one is compelled to purchase something from one of the businesses with a sanctioned patio.

    Torontonians love a street festival: Cabbagetown in September

    There are a few other successes. A small segment Gould Street at Toronto Metropolitan University was pedestrianized and rebuilt as a central plaza for that university campus. A short section of Willcocks Street at the University of Toronto was similarly pedestrianized.

    But the best example in Toronto is Market Street, which abuts St. Lawrence Market. Patio space and Muskoka chairs provide plenty of seating, without obligation to purchase anything (though it provides additional seating to those who picked up a snack or lunch inside the market). The shade umbrellas and high-quality surface materials and street furniture make this a wonderful oasis in Toronto’s downtown core.

    Market Street looking north from The Esplanade. St. Lawrence Market is on the right.

    Planning for Yonge Street’s makeover, which will include narrowing the roadway, widening the sidewalks, improvements to the public realm, and seasonal closures of selected sections of the traffic lanes, is complete. Unfortunately, the YongeTOmorrow improvements will have to wait for another five years (work starting in 2030) due to Ontario Line construction.

    Rendering of Yonge Street looking north towards Dundas, once YongeTOmorrow improvements are complete

    There are also other great things happening in Toronto. Claude Cormier was tapped to create new public spaces, such as HtO Park and Sugar Beach on the Harbourfront, but also reimagine existing places such as Love Park (previously a highway off-ramp) and Berczy Park, home of the popular Dog Fountain. At Love Park, not one of the 45 movable chairs have been taken (though one ended up in the pond). Torontonians have been shown to cherish great public spaces.

    • HTO Park from Toronto Harbour
    • Canada’s Sugar Beach
    • Love Park
    • Berczy Park

    Toronto has made a lot of progress on improving its public realm, and it has shown that it is willing and able to close streets to traffic for the benefit of pedestrians and cyclists. Though it is so very easy to envy Montreal for its greater progress in the last two decades, it is up to us to continue the momentum Toronto does have, and work harder to push for change, even when there’s a car-focused provincial government. Streets can be narrowed, parks can be improved, and streets can be handed over to the people. Additional seating and more public washrooms will open up this city to many more residents and visitors.

    This should all be a key pillar of a progressive agenda in next years’ municipal election. When certain candidates talk about tax cuts, austerity, and crime, there needs to be a focus on creating a better quality of life to provide an alternative. And that talk must be backed up with action, with quick wins that don’t require multi-year waits.

  • Deadly by design: Burnhamthorpe Road

    Deadly by design: Burnhamthorpe Road

    A dented light pole is the only indicator of a deadly collision in Mississauga City Centre

    On Saturday, June 7, around 10:20 AM, the drivers of two vehicles collided in the intersection of Burnhamthorpe Road and Kariya Drive in central Mississauga. One of the two cars that collided, a Tesla sedan, slid onto the sidewalk on the southeast corner, hitting a traffic pole, and then colliding with two pedestrians waiting at the corner to cross the street. One of the two pedestrians, a man in his forties, was killed; the other was taken to hospital with serious injuries. CBC Toronto, CP24/CTV News and the Toronto Star covered the collision.

    Unfortunately, there has been no follow-up reporting so far, and there is no press release or statement on the Peel Regional Police website.

    Screenshot of CP24 news report showing the badly damaged Tesla that crashed into two pedestrians

    A few days later, I visited the area to take note of the intersection and the surroundings.

    The intersection of Burnhamthorpe and Kariya is within the busy, urbanizing Mississauga City Centre (MCC) neighbourhood. MCC, also known as Downtown Mississauga, is the political, commercial, and cultural centre of the sprawling suburb of 750,000. The area is centred around Square One Shopping Centre, which opened in 1973, expanding several times in the next four decades to become one of Canada’s largest malls. Immediately to the west of Square One is Mississauga’s post-modern city hall, which is one of the most interesting and walkable civic centres in Ontario. Nearby is a performing arts theatre, a Sheridan College campus, several office buildings, a YMCA, central library, parks, a transit hub, as well as many high-rise residential towers. Newer residential development includes streetfront retail, oriented to the community with local restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, and grocery stores. Despite its greenfield suburban origins, Mississauga City Centre has become a true 15-minute city.

    Looking north on Confederation Parkway towards MCC
    Looking north on Confederation Parkway near Central Parkway, where MCC’s high-rise condominiums tower over older single-family homes

    The problem, though, is despite its impressive growth, MCC’s built infrastructure still has the trappings of a suburban speedway. Though some collector streets and minor arterials, like Living Arts Drive and Confederation Boulevard, are more human-scaled, with bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, benches, and street trees, other streets have not been updated to suit the emerging urban environment. Burnhamthorpe Road is the best example of this.

    Looking east on Burnhampthorpe
    Looking east on Burnhampthorpe Road from Kariya Drive, towards Hurontario Street and the landmark Absolute condo towers

    Burnhamthorpe Road is six lanes wide, with an additional left turn lane at every intersection. Though there is a sidewalk on the south side and a designated multiuse path (MUP) on the north side, it is not a pleasant place to walk.

    Looking west on Burnhamthorpe
    Looking west on Burnhamthorpe Road, towards newly built and under-construction high-rise residential towers

    While I visited The MUP on the north side of Burnhamthorpe west of Kariya Drive was also closed off for the convenience of the builders of the Exchange District Condos development, one of many new mixed-use projects in the area. This forces pedestrians to cross the intersection to continue west, and no thought was made to closing one of the three westbound traffic lanes to provide a continuous path.

    Signs blocking path
    Multiple “sidewalk closed” bike lane detour, and “dismount and walk” signs blocking the asphalt MUP on the north side of Burnhamthorpe Road. Note that no traffic lanes were blocked to provide a continuous route for vulnerable road users.

    The intersection of Kariya and Burnhamthorpe is quite busy; at every light cycle, there were multiple pedestrians crossing here on mid Tuesday afternoon, including students walking to the mall or to home from nearby schools, couples and young families out for a stroll. (Kariya Park, named for a Japanese city that was twinned with Mississauga in 1981, is a lovely oasis.) Burnhamthorpe has a 60 km/h speed limit, though Kariya has a 40 km/h limit.

    Five pedestrians, standing where a man was struck and killed last Saturday, about to cross Burnhamthorpe Road on a Tuesday afternoon

    The corner is also a busy transfer point. Miway route 26 Burnhamthorpe is a major east-west bus corridor that connects with the TTC subway at Kipling Station; Kariya Drive is the best stop to get to Square One as Route 26 doesn’t serve the main terminal. Routes 3 Bloor and 8 Cawthra, which do continue to the City Centre Terminal, stop here as well.

    Route 26 Burnhamthorpe is one of MiWay’s busiest

    Also worth noting is that Kariya Drive is a signed school route. MCC itself does not have any elementary or secondary schools, but there are several schools within a short walk to the south of Burnhamthorpe, including Fairview Public School, Elm Drive Public School, St. Giovanni Scalabrini Catholic School, and Fr. Michael Goetz Catholic High School. The more people move into MCC, the more necessary safe walking routes will be.

    School route sign at Kariya Drive
    A school route sign with walking paths to three nearby elementary schools at Kariya Drive and Fairview Boulevard

    There is nothing particularly remarkable about the intersection of Burnhamthorpe Road and Kariya Drive itself that makes it deadly, but that is the problem here. To make walking safer and more attractive, there is much that should be done. Reducing Burnhamthorpe to four lanes in each direction, along with more street trees, could help to reduce speeds (the speed limit should also be dropped to at least 50 km/h), and with several nearby schools, parks, and YMCA, there’s a case for Burnhamthorpe to be designated a community safety zone, with increased enforcement, along with automated traffic cameras. Perhaps dedicated bus lanes could supplant the third traffic lane in each direction, as the nearby Hurontario LRT nears completion.

    Right now, drivers race through the intersection, making left turns against oncoming traffic and crossing pedestrians after the advance arrow signal disappears, as seen in the video below. Wide lanes and a 60 km/h speed limit encourage unsafe driving.

    Three motorists continue to make left turns from Kariya to Burnhamthorpe (behind the FedEx truck) after the advance turn arrow disappears and the green light for opposing traffic and walk signal turn on. Note several pedestrians waiting to cross as drivers rush through.

    To make Mississauga City Centre a complete urban hub, it needs to be safe for pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities to get around. Six-lane arterials like Burnhamthorpe have no place in a dense, multi-use neighbourhood, especially when nearby Highway 403 can handle goods movement and through traffic. One death is too many.

  • BRT comes to London

    BRT median under construction on Wellington Street at South Street, London

    The City of London, Ontario has been quietly constructing a new bus rapid transit (BRT) system over the last few years, which will extend south and east of the downtown core. By the end of April 2025, the first major section of this network will begin operation.

    The Wellington Road and Fanshawe College segments are two of the four rapid transit routes originally proposed under London’s SHIFT. At first, a north-to-east line, connecting Masonville Place Mall, Western University, Downtown London, and Fanshawe College, was to be a light rail corridor, featuring a short tunnel under Richmond Street to avoid a busy freight railway crossing. A BRT line would have connected the west end of London, at Oxford Street and Wonderland Road, continued downtown, and head south towards the Victoria Hospital campus and White Oaks Mall near Highway 401. The map below shows the initial proposal.

    The original rapid transit proposal called for a light rail (orange route) connecting Western University, downtown, and Fanshawe College and a BRT (blue) corridor to the west and south of downtown

    Due to budget constraints, the project was revised to a BRT-only scheme. The Richmond Street leg, leading north to Western University, was cut when the bus tunnel under the CPKC railway and the Oxford Street intersection was deemed to cost $220 million in 2017. Business owners along Richmond Street, a busy restaurant, nightlife, and shopping district known as Richmond Row, were also opposed to the reduction in traffic lanes that the transit tunnel would have required.

    This section of Richmond Street — used by eight London Transit routes — is a severe bottleneck as it is not only a busy traffic corridor, it crosses CPKC’s mainline connecting Toronto, Windsor, and the US Midwest.

    Several buses cross Richmond Street north of Downtown London
    Several buses cross the CPKC tracks on Richmond Street north of Downtown London

    The pared-down BRT project consists of a curbside bus-only lane encircling the downtown core, following King Street, Wellington Street, Queen’s Avenue, and Ridout Street. At each turn, buses must wait for a dedicated signal to make the left turn to continue on the loop. Right now, buses do not have any signal priority, and can wait a full light cycle (up to two minutes) to get the dedicated left turn signal.

    Example of a left turn from the right curb lane in London. The dedicated transit signals allow left-turning buses to remain in the right lane without traffic conflicts.

    New enlarged shelters and long platforms allow multiple buses to pick up and drop off at each stop; most routes heading through downtown will serve at least one of these new bus stops on their routes. All buses were removed from Dundas Street, which has been re-landscaped to create a more pedestrian-friendly commercial environment called Dundas Place.

    New enlarged bus shelters along the BRT corridors; this is at Wellington and King Streets

    On April 28, Route 94, a weekday express route between Argyle Mall in London’s east end, Downtown London, and Western University, will begin operating in both directions on King Street, and will be the first route using the bus infrastructure outside the downtown loop. King Street was originally a one-way, two-lane-wide roadway east of Downtown London, but was recently widened to allow for painted bus lanes in both directions.

    Contraflow bus lane on King Street, previously a two-lane, one-way street

    Work is far from complete. Utility work and road reconstruction continues on Dundas east of Ontario Street (at the Western Fairgrounds) and on Highbury Avenue north to Oxford. Construction of the BRT median on Wellington Street/Wellington Road south is also ongoing.

    Looking south on Wellington Street at the South Thames River bridge crossing, which is being widened as part of the BRT project

    The cost of the BRT project has risen to at least $454 million, and that does not include the north or west segments. Service levels have yet to be determined, along with transit route restructuring once the east and south segments are complete. The new station shelters will not have off-board fare payment equipment, so unless policy changes, all transit riders will still have to enter the bus from the front door.

    Concept rendering of Wellington Road with new BRT median lanes near White Oaks Mall

    Entering and leaving downtown along Wellington Street, south BRT buses will still have to squeeze through an older four-lane railway underpass in mixed traffic, limiting bus throughput. The lack of a northern segment between Downtown, Western University, and Masonville Place Mall is another major downfall.

    Bottlenecks, like Richmond Street North, will limit how fast and how attractive transit will be to prospective riders

    Though it is hoped that London’s Rapid Transit project will help shape development — much in the same way Waterloo Region’s Ion LRT has — the cost-cutting will limit this potential. The Wellington Road BRT median might help improve bus reliability along a congested traffic corridor, but the lack of signal priority — plus the railway underpass bottleneck — will not help. Western University students will still have to endure a slow ride north from downtown, reducing the attractiveness of Wellington Street, currently littered with big-box stores and strip plazas, as a place to build up with private mixed-use development. Perhaps the eastern segment on King and Dundas Streets, serving the regenerating Old East Village neighbourhood, will be more successful.

  • Dysfunction junction: permanent obstructions at Union Station

    Dysfunction junction: permanent obstructions at Union Station

    New blocks installed in front of Union Station at Front and York Streets

    When I learned that Union Station was finally getting permanent bollards to replace the haphazardly-placed Jersey barriers that have sat in front of the transport hub since 2018, I was relieved. I wrote about these barriers several times on this website, criticizing their appearance and their placement, blocking the way for the thousands of people who cross Front Street every day. But when I went to see them in person, after seeing criticism online, I was dismayed.

    The new permanent barriers might even be worse than the temporary obstructions they are meant to replace.

    The Jersey barriers were hastily placed after a tragic attack on Yonge Street in North York, where a man intentionally drove a rented van on to the sidewalk, killing ten pedestrians and injuring and traumatizing many more.

    Vehicular assaults on crowds of pedestrians are a major concern; tactics used at mass gatherings — such as the winter light show and New Years Eve events at Nathan Phillips Square and major concerts and playoff games at Skydome and Scotiabank Arena — now include blocking closed streets with heavy vehicles such as snow plows, dump trucks, and city buses. However, Union Station is the only place in the city where officials have decided that new permanent barriers were necessary.

    Union Station is one of the busiest pedestrian areas in the city

    The new permanent barriers are not the sturdy, yet narrow, bollards that are used elsewhere. Instead, they are large, undecorated concrete blocks anchored into the ground and are knee-high. The plain concrete colour does not match the stone sidewalks or plaza. They are placed very close together, impeding access for those using large carts, strollers, or wheeled mobility devices. Despite all the money spent renovating Union Station, these blocks look cheap.

    Concrete blocks at the corner of York and Front Street at Union Station

    The total cost of installing the “Custom Anti-Terror Concrete Barriers,” as the city described the bid, was $2,438,238, including HST. The lowest bid, by South Central Inc., came over a $1 million cheaper than the other two bids. It is worth noting that there are no public documents that describe the city’s specifications for the contract, nor was there any public consultation before the city solicited bids.

    The result? An esthetic failure and an accessibility challenge.

    Video showing pedestrians going around the concrete blocks in front of Union Station

    I cannot understand the city’s decision to go with these blocks where more elegant and pedestrian-friendly alternatives are typically used elsewhere. For example, the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna, which faces the famous and busy Ringstrasse, is protected by smaller concrete bollards, which are also more widely separated, making it much more pleasant for pedestrians to get by. In Great Britain, metal bollards are common on busy commercial streets and in front of important buildings, but they are easy for pedestrians to pass, and generally blend in.

    Thick concrete bollards in front of the Austrian Parliament Building, 2023
    Metal bollards in front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London

    In the United States, government buildings are also protected by heavy anti-vehicular barricades (especially since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing), but they are generally more permeable for pedestrians.

    Metal bollards protect the federal courthouse in Downtown Manhattan (Google Streetview)

    It is also worth noting that other popular pedestrian areas, such as the Yonge-Dundas intersection, are not protected from a potential vehicular attack — or an unintentional collision. It is beyond comprehension why the city only focused on protecting one pedestrian area, using such a poorly thought-out design. Toronto can — and should — do better.

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

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

    Memorial for 13-year-old Kirsty, who was struck and killed while riding a bicycle in Ajax on November 7
    Memorial for 13-year-old Kirsty, who was struck and killed while riding a bicycle in Ajax on November 7

    January 13, 2025 update: A 44-year-old woman was charged by Durham Regional Police with careless driving causing death, over two months after this tragic collision.

    On Thursday, November 7, at approximately 7:35 AM, 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. The girl was riding a bicycle in a marked crossride, a crossing designated for both pedestrians and cyclists along a multiuse path, when she was struck and pinned beneath the vehicle.

    Multiuse paths (MUPs) are typically found in parks, particularly along waterbodies such as lakes, rivers, and creeks such as Lake Ontario or the Don River. They are shared by all sorts of people, including walkers, runners, cyclists, dog-walkers, rollerbladers, and wheelchair users, often coming into conflict on busy, narrow sections such as the Martin Goodman Trail or the Lower Don Trail.

    In the suburbs surrounding Toronto (and in a few locations within the city, such as on Lake Shore Boulevard East and Eglinton Avenue West), MUPs are a popular form of cycling infrastructure along busier roads with higher speed limits. Older boulevard MUPs required cyclists to stop and dismount at road crossings (though these instructions were usually ignored). Newer and upgraded MUPs allow cyclists to ride across intersecting roadways, at marked crossrides. Signage advises motorists to watch for cyclists and advises cyclists to slow and watch for motorists and to yield to pedestrians. At signalized intersections, most new MUPs include dedicated bicycle signals.

    It was at one of these new crossrides that Kirsty was struck and killed. Though no official police press release or any follow-up news articles provided the girl’s name, that name was clearly visible at the makeshift memorial next to where she was killed.

    Crossride at Stevensgate Drive, where a driver pulled out ahead into the crossride without stopping at the stop sign/stop line first.
    Crossride at Stevensgate Drive, where a driver pulled out ahead into the crossride without stopping at the stop sign/stop line first.

    Rossland Road was recently widened from two to four through lanes; a new multiuse path was built on the north side of the roadway, complete with crossrides and cyclist signals. Rossland Road is very much a road. There are no houses fronting onto the roadway, while the few driveways on Rossland provide access only to church and commercial plaza parking lots.

    Rossland Road in Ajax has two lanes in each direction, with a concrete median in between. The speed limit on Rossland is 60 km/h.

    Stevensgate Drive, which leads north from Rossland Road, is a quiet residential street with about two dozen homes and an evangelical church. A stop sign controls traffic at Rossland Road. Though Stevensgate connects to a large subdivision to the north, there are several other streets with signalized intersections that also provide access to the community.

    Motorists take wide turns pulling into Stevensgate Drive. The memorial is below.
    Motorists take wide turns pulling into Stevensgate Drive

    When Kirsty was struck, it was by the southbound Santa Fe driver who would have passed a stop sign and a clearly painted stop line before entering the crossride. A CP24 news report clearly showed the vehicle being towed onto Rossland Road from the southbound direction. At 7:35 AM, it was daylight.

    Screenshot from CP24 report
    Screenshot from CP24 report

    Drivers rolling through stop signs are a common occurrence, even though the law clearly states that a full and complete stop at the stop sign and painted stop line is required before proceeding. Had the driver done so, this tragedy most likely would have been prevented.

    Looking west along the multiuse path from Stevensgate Drive, towards Ravenscroft Road
    Looking west along the multiuse path, towards Ravenscroft Road

    Two days later, on Saturday, November 9, I visited the scene. I noted the roadside memorial next to the stop sign facing Stevensgate Drive. While I was there, several people stopped to visit the memorial; at least two people left flowers and cards of sympathy.

    While there, I mounted a small digital camera on the trunk of a car parked on the west side of Stevensgate, about 75 metres north of the intersection, in a legal parking spot. The camera, mounted on a mini-tripod, was mostly inconspicuous. Within 25 minutes, five motorists improperly stopped after the stop line and into the crossride; two properly stopped before creeping up to make their turn. Two drivers also made fast, wide right turns into Stevensgate during that time. The edited video below shows motorists’ actions during that 25 minutes

    Video taken on Saturday, November 9 showing motorists driving south on
    Stevensgate Drive towards Rossland Road (3 minutes, 7 seconds)

    While taking photographs and recording the videos, a resident, who lived a few houses north of the intersection, came to talk to me, and asked if I knew the girl. I explained why I was there, and we had a short, but good chat, about the collision and road safety. He noted that it is hard to see traffic from the stop line, and that he has to pull forward before turning. But he agreed that the stop line was there for a reason, and that drivers often rush to get onto Rossland.

    Police enforcement is not necessarily the answer. There are too many intersections to watch, and the careless driving behaviours exhibited are normalized. In Toronto, it is cyclists on quiet streets and in public parks who are typically targeted at stop signs, not motorists, even though cyclists are the more vulnerable road users.

    In Washington DC, there are stop sign cameras mounted at specific locations, though there are only about a dozen of those throughout the city at any given time. These could provide a useful tool for targeted automated enforcement on Ontario’s roads to reinforce proper driving behaviour.

    A pole-mounted camera faces an all-way stop in Washington DC
    A pole-mounted camera faces an all-way stop in Washington DC

    Intersections should also be redesigned to improve the visibility of pedestrians and cyclists at crosswalks and crossrides and act to slow down motorists; raised sidewalks and path crossings would act as a speed hump as well as enhance visibility. A concrete island or short median at the stop sign would force motorists to approach the stop at a slower speed and prevent wide turns on to and off the intersecting street. A quick and inexpensive (though less-effective) solution could be to place wide knock-down bollards with supplemental crossing and stop sign messages in the middle of the roadway at each stop bar and crosswalk/crossride. Though this is best as a short-term measure.

    A wide knock-down bollard designed to provide additional visibility to a crosswalk
    (Milton, Ontario, via Google Streetview)

    As the provincial government vindictively overrides municipalities’ ability to provide safer on-road cycling infrastructure, off-street infrastructure, such as MUPs, will remain an important tool for promoting active transportation, especially in suburban areas and high-traffic neighbourhoods. Though boulevard MUPs provide separation from traffic in most cases, they are particularly hazardous at intersections, especially when motorists are distracted, aggressive, or just merely careless. There is much more that can and should be done to make them safer for all road users.

  • Deadly by design: Annette and Pacific

    Memorial for Julia Cleveland, September 28, 2024

    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 man, aged 50, was injured and taken to hospital. Julia Cleveland, 46, died at the scene.

    As of Thursday, October 3, charges have yet to be laid.

    Looking west on Annette Street towards Pacific Avenue

    On Saturday, September 29, I paid a visit to Annette and Pacific. A roadside memorial of flowers, cards, and tributes were laid next to the sidewalk where she and a fellow pedestrian were struck. I also took note of the streetscape, the surroundings, and driver behaviour on a Saturday afternoon.

    While at the intersection, I observed many examples of distracted, aggressive and inconsiderate driving, as the video compilation depicts. Drivers intentionally drove through stale amber and solid red lights, blocked crosswalks, and swerved around slower vehicles. These motorist behaviours are commonplace.

    Video shows driver behaviour at Annette Street and Pacific Avenue

    I also noted many pedestrians and cyclists. There’s a No Frills grocery store on Pacific Avenue between Annette and Dundas. Two blocks east, there’s a Toronto Public Library branch. There were several families with young children, as well as older pedestrians.

    In 2008, Annette Street was reconfigured from a four-lane cross-section to include bike lanes and centre left turn lanes. Though it is a busy east-west cycling route, connecting to bike lanes on Dupont Street and Runnymede Road, the lanes are unprotected and are only marked with solid white lines and signage. The limited protection offered to cyclists was made clear when a stretch Lincoln limousine pulled out front of St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church and idled in the bike lane for over 30 minutes. Though the driver was likely waiting out front for a wedding party to emerge, I noted at least two dozen cyclists forced to merge into traffic to get around it.

    Cyclists merging around a limo idling in the unprotected bike lane

    The intersection itself offers minimal protection to pedestrians. Sidewalks are flush against the roadway, with very shallow curbs. There are unnecessarily wide turning radiuses at intersections. On the northwest corner of Pacific and Annette, there are metal bollards, but they are positioned to protect the small apartment building, not the sidewalk itself.

    Looking east on Annette from Pacific Avenue. On the right is St. Cecilia’s Catholic church, beyond is a masonic lodge and a Toronto Public Library branch

    Annette and Dupont Streets make up a useful bypass around traffic on Bloor Street to the south. There are three blocks between Pacific Avenue and the first traffic signals to the east, at Keele Street. To the west, however, there are traffic signals at the next three intersections: at High Park Avenue, Quebec Avenue, and Clendenan Avenue. Motorists might be tempted to speed through amber and red signals. Without better protection — protected bike lanes, for example, pedestrians and cyclists are especially vulnerable. Despite the 2008 road diet, the roadway has not been significantly altered.

    A few days later, on Wednesday, October 2, there were two more collisions in which drivers struck pedestrians at signalized intersections, at Avenue Road and Davenport Road in Midtown Toronto, and at Islington Avenue and Finchley Road/Odell Avenue in central Etobicoke.

    At Avenue and Davenport Roads, a pedestrian was struck when the drivers of three cars collided. One vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz SUV, stopped on the sidewalk after hitting a concrete pole.

    In Etobicoke, a family of five were struck by a left-turning motorist turning from Finchley Road south onto Islington Avenue. The driver, a 77-year old woman likely visually impaired by the late afternoon sun, hit the family; the entire family — including a one-month old baby — were sent to hospital with serious injuries, while the mother was sent to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries. Traffic signals were installed there in 2022 to help pedestrians cross Islington Avenue. Despite the new signals, locals continue to complain of drivers rushing the lights.

    The problem on Toronto’s roads isn’t simply an engineering one, though protected bike lanes and physical traffic calming measures on Annette Street likely would have prevented Julia Cleveland’s death. Aggressive driving, including speeding, sudden lane changes, and red light running, along with distracted driving is increasingly a problem in Toronto and across the region. Engineering changes can help curb speeds, but there needs to be more done to rein in dangerous behaviour. That means more automated enforcement (red light and speed cameras) but also active enforcement to curb dangerous driving.

  • Deadcatting: Doug Ford’s big dig

    We need a Highway 401 Tunnel like we need a dead cat on the dining room table

    On Wednesday, September 25, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, along with transportation minister Pradmeet Sarkaria, announced that the provincial government would fund a feasibility study on building a new highway tunnel under Highway 401 from Peel Region to Durham Region, along with an unspecified new transit facility.

    Earlier this week, Doug Ford exclaimed that those living in homeless encampments and anyone else without housing who he thought could work should “get off their a-s-s and start working like everyone else.” The day before that, we learned that Ford’s Progressive Conservative government would prohibit new bicycle infrastructure if it took road space away from motorists.

    The old Doug Ford — the angry bull-in-a-china-shop we remember from 2018-2019 — is back, and it is clear that governing, in fact, has not changed him. After six years, and a rumoured early provincial election, Doug Ford will need to run on something, because there’s little to show for his promises of getting housing built, transit projects completed, and hospitals fixed. An RCMP investigation continues to look at the government’s Greenbelt land swaps, and it is rare for provincial or federal governments in Canada to get elected with a majority three times in a row. So here we are.

    But after three straight days of political red meat policy announcements, the strategy has become clear: Doug Ford is “deadcatting.” Dead cat theory, popularized during the leadership of former London mayor and British prime minister Boris Johnson, is the practice of suddenly throwing down an outrageous policy or statement to divert attention away from an unpleasant topic. The shocked audience is suddenly compelled to talk about the metaphorical dead cat thrown on the table. In the United States in recent weeks, dead cats have become less metaphorical, with baseless and racist accusations against Haitian migrants in Ohio spread by Donald Trump, vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, and far-right commentators.

    The strategy is thought to come from Lynton Crosby, an Australian conservative strategist who worked on Johnson’s mayoral and UK Conservative leadership campaigns, as well as Canada’s Conservative Party in 2015.

    There is no way a Highway 401 tunnel will be built. Not only would it be the longest road tunnel in the world, but the long on-ramps and off-ramps required to access a deep-bore urban highway tunnel will make it completely infeasible. The proposal also completely ignores the problem of induced demand, and it won’t solve the problem of where the traffic goes when it gets off that additional highway. For these reasons, it was especially disappointing to see the Toronto and Region Board of Trade (TRBoT) endorse the idea.

    TRBoT post on September 25, 2024

    There are things that can help alleviate traffic. One is ensuring that transit projects are completed, funded, and maintained. That doesn’t just mean building and completing projects like the Crosstown LRT and the Ontario Line, it’s also making sure the system remains in excellent condition to avoid problems like the persistent slow orders in the Toronto Subway. It also means making the best use of existing infrastructure, like Highway 407, for goods movement. Highway 407 passes by every major freight yard in Greater Toronto, but trucks clog Highway 401, Highway 7, and Steeles Avenue instead because of the high tolls. And it means active transportation improvements, like bike lanes and multi-use paths.

    What we don’t need are more dead cats to distract us from the real problems.

  • A little more coordination, please?

    No matter how you get around Toronto, it’s feels like it’s more difficult than ever

    Getting around Downtown Toronto can be an exercise in frustration, whether you drive, bike, take transit, or drive. Though necessary transit and road construction projects are the cause of much of the congestion, driver behaviour, poor management, and a lack of coordination between various municipal and provincial agencies have only added to the traffic quagmire.

    North-south streets such as Spadina, York, Bay, and Jarvis are jammed by drivers headed south towards the Gardiner Expressway, with lane closures near Exhibition Place only making things worse. Motorists blocking intersections make it difficult for pedestrians, cyclists, streetcars, and through traffic to get across the city centre. Ontario Line construction has closed a portion of Queen Street, while work to rebuild streetcar tracks on York and Adelaide Streets to allow 501 cars to bypass the closure is still proceeding.

    GO Transit is also expanding its rail corridors to allow for more off-peak and express trains, with the long-term goal of having an electrified, frequent, regional rail network that complements and supplements the web of subways, light rail and buses throughout the region. The TTC is also addressing a backlog of state-of-good repair works throughout the subway system, resulting in slow orders, early closures, and weekend shutdowns.

    Meanwhile, people still need to get to places like work, school, conferences and trade shows, concerts, sporting events, social gatherings, festivals, museums, and all the other things that make a city a city. Eventually, with improved GO corridors, the Ontario Line, and the opening of the Crosstown LRT, there will be some redundancy in the transit system that will make planned service closures easier to navigate. But for now, we are stuck with an underbuilt transportation system in a rapidly growing city.

    This makes the coordination of transit closures and projects especially essential so things don’t completely fall apart. Saturday, September 21 was just one example of the failure to do so.

    On Saturday September 21 and Sunday September 22, GO Transit reduced service on the Lakeshore West Line to hourly service on the entire corridor because of work at Long Branch GO Station, where the station is being completely rebuilt for accessibility improvements and future expansion. It also shut down the entire Barrie Line for various construction works along the corridor, with rail replacement buses to Union Station, stuck in traffic on the Don Valley Parkway and Lake Shore Boulevard with all other motorists getting around the Gardiner closure.

    Normally, there are hourly trains as far west as West Harbour Station in Downtown Hamilton, with half-hourly service to Aldershot Station in Burlington. Between Union and Oakville, rail service is as frequent as every 15 minutes during midday and early evenings on Saturday and Sunday. Hourly train service reduced capacity on the inner Lakeshore West line by 75%.

    Compounding the problem was the total closure of the Gardiner Expressway between Highway 427 and the Don River between Friday evening and Sunday morning for routine maintenance (the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway are regularly closed twice a year for repairs). Many people who might have otherwise driven into the city would have taken GO Transit instead, normally a very good idea. Though none of Toronto’s professional sports teams were playing at home on Saturday, there was still a Shane Gillis stand-up comedy performance at Scotiabank Arena, and a Rainbow Kitten Surprise concert at Ontario Place.

    Also, to add insult, the Lakeshore East trains between Toronto and Oshawa were not through-running with the Lakeshore West trains and were operating on a modified schedule. I was travelling east of Toronto on Saturday, making a few stops in Durham Region. As I arrived back from Whitby on Saturday afternoon on a train that normally connects onward westbound train at Union Station, we were treated to the sight of the hourly Lakeshore West train just pulling out. It couldn’t have even waited 2-3 minutes to allow passengers to make the cross-platform connection. That resulted in other passengers complaining to GO staff in the concourse, who were not that helpful.

    Tweet from Alan Deschamps, reporting on a full GO train arriving at Long Branch at 6:21 PM on Saturday Sept 21, with the customer service ambassador (CSR) telling waiting passengers to not board and to wait for the next train in an hour

    In the early evening on Saturday, a jam-packed eastbound GO train on the Lakeshore East train was not accepting any passengers at Long Branch or Mimico station because of overcrowding. Waiting passengers were told to wait an hour for the next train.

    One would think that Metrolinx (GO Transit’s parent agency) and the City of Toronto would coordinate their construction schedules to avoid such problems. However, not even the City of Toronto can figure this out. Back in June of this year, the TTC replaced the 509 Harbourfront and 511 Bathurst streetcars with buses for a week for minor overhead work on Fleet Street. The timing coincided with the massive Collision tech conference at Exhibition Place, which resulted in overcrowded shuttle buses and unreliable service. Had the TTC checked with anyone at the city’s economic development office or with Exhibition Place (another city agency), this work could have easily been rescheduled.

    Overloaded 509 Harbourfront bus shuttle on Queen’s Quay in June 2024

    Though coordination of transit closures and construction projects with major events and parallel roadworks will not solve Toronto’s road and transit congestion problems, it will at least reduce some of the frustration of getting around. The poor customer service at GO Transit will certainly make riders question if they will be able to rely on the service in the future.

    Of course, there is one measure that won’t help but still will be implemented by the provincial government later this fall: a prohibition on new bicycle lanes if they take road space from motorists. Despite blocked bike lanes, aggressive drivers, and an incomplete cycling network, it is still the most reliable and fastest mode for many shorter city trips. Along with major transit improvements and construction coordination, cycling is one of the solutions to getting around Toronto.

  • Bloor Street blues

    Bloor Street blues

    Bloor Street, entering Mississauga from Toronto

    On Friday, May 10, Mississauga City Councillor and mayoral candidate Dipika Damerla posted a message and video on Twitter/X, stating that “it will be up to the residents to decide on who best represents the vision of the Mississauga they want.” She followed that by saying that she “will not be silenced in my opposition to remove two lanes from Bloor Street and create more gridlock in Mississauga.”

    In the video, she is standing on Bloor Street West at Yonge Street in the heart of Toronto’s Bloor-Yorkville business district, 16 kilometres east of the Mississauga border at Etobicoke Creek. Needless to say, this is a very different built environment than anywhere in Mississauga.

    Toronto’s Bloor-Danforth bike route, which stretches from Danforth Avenue and Dawes Road on the east to Bloor Street West at Aberfoyle Crescent (near Islington Avenue) is very well used by cyclists, including commuters, couriers, and casual riders. There is also a subway paralleling the entire corridor. Behind Councillor Damerla, there is heavy traffic, but it is unfair to blame the bike lanes for this congestion. The vehicles are stopped at a red light at Yonge Street, one of the busiest intersections for pedestrians and cyclists in the city. There’s a dedicated scramble crossing at the intersection, which does reduce the green light time for traffic on Bloor, though it makes it safer for pedestrians, who outnumber all other road users there.

    There is also considerable construction in and around the intersection. Work continues on the troubled “The One” condominium tower, blocking off some of the southwest Yonge-Bloor corner. Just east of Yonge, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists are squeezed as the TTC works to expand the Bloor-Yonge Subway Station below.

    Furthermore, before the bike lanes were installed, the curb lanes were used by stopped cars and delivery trucks; Bloor Street was never a traffic clearway, and it is a ridiculous argument that the bike lanes have caused congestion.

    Construction on Bloor Street is the cause of some of the congestion in the area

    In Mississauga, Bloor Street is a minor arterial road that extends as far west as Central Parkway. Between Etobicoke Creek and Royal Orchard Drive (just west of Dixie Road), Bloor is lined with rental and condominium apartment buildings and townhouse complexes. From Royal Orchard to Cawthra, the street is lined with low-density dwellings, a shopping plaza, and a high school. The western-most section is lined with fences as the houses back onto Bloor, more typical of major suburban arterial roads.

    Bloor Street in Mississauga
    Looking west towards Central Parkway and the Mississauga City Centre skyline

    The City of Mississauga was already planning to resurface Bloor Street, but took advantage of the timing to completely study the corridor with the goal of promoting active transportation and improving road safety while maintaining traffic flow.

    After extensive community consultation, Mississauga city staff recommended Alternative 6 for Bloor Street which widens the sidewalks, adds new separated cycle tracks, and a boulevard for trees and street lighting between the roadway and cycle tracks and the sidewalks and property lines. A continuous two-way left turn lane would allow motor vehicles to turn in and out of side streets and private driveways without conflicting with through traffic. This was approved by City Council in June 2023. Construction is scheduled to begin in October 2024.

    Council-approved redesign for Bloor Street in Mississauga

    This plan balances the needs of all road users, particularly students and seniors. It is great to see suburbs like Mississauga and Brampton rethink their streets to better serve all of their residents.

    Bloor Street, looking east from Havenwood Drive. Note the “school route” sign and the cyclist using the sidewalk in the distance.
    Yellow lawn signs with the slogan “Save Bloor Street.” Note the SUV parked in a way that partially blocks the narrow sidewalk.

    Bloor Street, whether it be a residential roadway in Mississauga, or a commercial street in Downtown Toronto, is not a place where drivers should expect nor be given ultimate priority over pedestrians, cyclists, or public transit riders.

    Luckily, many Mississauga politicians already get it. Reporting for the Mississauga News, Steve Cornwell noted that fellow councillor and mayoral candidate Alvin Tedjo “stands by the approved Bloor project”, while Carolyn Parrish, another city councillor running for mayor declared that a reversal of last year’s council vote would not pass, saying that the “issue’s dead” at one mayoral debate. Ward 3 Councillor Chris Fonseca — whose ward covers most of Bloor Street — championed the changes.

    Though Parrish has led several polls (with Damerla and Tedjo in second and third place), it is unfortunate to see a top-three candidate and sitting councillor using the Bloor Street redesign as a wedge issue. Mississauga is growing up. Some of its politicians should too.

  • The continuing history of Dundas Street

    The continuing history of Dundas Street

    Yonge-Dundas Square in early 2021

    Nearly three years ago, I wrote about the complicated history of Toronto’s Dundas Street. Calls to rename the street, which honours Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, came during a time of reckoning in Canada and the United States with racism, colonialism, and our ongoing relationships with First Nations. Ryerson University (my alma mater) changed its name to Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) in 2022, in acknowledgement of Egerton Ryerson’s role in developing Canada’s system of residential schools.

    After a petition was sent to City Council on June 27, 2020 calling for the renaming of Dundas Street, given Henry Dundas’ role in delaying immediate abolition of slavery in the British Empire, city staff came back to council with a report offering four options:

    • Do nothing
    • Retain the legal street names with additional interpretation and recognitions
    • Retain the legal street names but rename those civic assets with Dundas in their name, except TTC facilities (there are three parks and one library branch that include the Dundas name, and Yonge-Dundas Square; there are two TTC subway stations and one streetcar line that also bear the Dundas name)
    • Rename the streets and all other civic assets now carrying the Dundas name (including Dundas Street East, Dundas Street West, Dundas Square, and Old Dundas Street).

    In 2021, Toronto City Council voted 17-7 in favour of the fourth option, renaming Dundas Street and all associated city assets, such as the library, the two subway stations, Yonge-Dundas Square, and three city parks. At the time, the estimated cost was $8.6 million, but by Fall 2023, it had grown to $12.7 million. There was also a significant backlash to the renaming, which included several conservative city councillors.

    In the end, council voted to approve a compromise that would include renaming Yonge-Dundas Square, Dundas and Dundas West subway stations, and the Jane-Dundas library, but retain the name Dundas Street itself. There would also be a public education campaign “to acknowledge the historical impact of Henry Dundas’s actions and that of slavery more generally.”

    Yonge-Dundas Square would be renamed Sankofa Square, while Dundas Station, directly below, would be renamed with financial support from TMU. “Sankofa” was one of four shortlisted names considered by the Recognition Review Community Advisory Committee (CAC), which was made up of Black and Indigenous leaders, including business owners and residents along Dundas, with the participation of local city councillors.

    Sankofa, a concept that originates with the Akan people of Ghana, “refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past which enables us to move forward together.” The CAC’s short list notes the concept’s connection to West Africa, which represented a major portion of the origins of Africans trafficked to the Americas — including Upper Canada — during the slave trade.

    Dundas Street, looking east from Dovercourt Road

    This compromise will not make anyone especially happy, but Mayor Olivia Chow will have to make many more compromises to properly address the fiscal and social crises Toronto is facing. But this is one compromise I mostly agree with. At first I thought Yonge-Dundas Square should have an Indigenous name, but after reading the background materials, I learned that the First Nations elders on the CAC preferred a name that focuses on the Black historical experience.

    Until recently, few people gave the name “Dundas Street,” named over 200 years ago, much thought. Now more people are aware that there were slaves here, in Ontario, despite Governor John Graves Simcoe’s abolitionist leanings. Our understanding of history evolves as we as people evolve — this is the reason why we have historians.

    Nearly three years ago, I wrote about the history of Dundas Street. It’s a really interesting one, by the way, as it continued to change and grow right up until the 1950s. In 2023, we continue to add to the history of the colonial-era road.