Categories
Roads Toronto

Let’s rock out for Vision Zero

The Major Street Boulder On September 18, Toronto Star columnist Jack “The Fixer” Lakey wrote about a boulder that was dug up during construction in the Annex. Bloor Street is currently being dug up between Bathurst Street and Spadina Avenue as the city replaces watermains and reconstructs the roadway. New parkettes at Major Street and Howland […]

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Maps Toronto Transit

A departure from TTC wayfinding improvements

Despite many recent improvements to TTC design and wayfinding standards, two recent changes miss the mark.

Categories
Politics Toronto Transit

How TIFF lost the plot

504 King Streetcar diverting onto Spadina on Thursday, September 5 For the sixth year in a row, King Street between University and Spadina Avenues was closed for four straight days. This closure was for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) “Festival Street,” which took place between Thursday September 5 and Sunday September 8. In addition, […]

Categories
Roads Toronto Walking

The dangers of Don Mills Road

Don Mills Road looking south towards McNicoll Avenue, North York On the afternoon of Tuesday July 16, a woman was struck and killed by the driver of a left-turning waste collection truck as she was crossing the street. The tragedy happened at the corner of Cliffwood Road and Barkwood Crescent, in a quiet North York […]

Categories
History Toronto Transit

The last run of the Rogers Road Streetcar

Westbound Rogers Road Streetcar at Old Weston Road, 1972. Photograph from Toronto Archives – Fonds 1526, File 72, Item 61 Forty-five years ago today, on Friday, July 19, 1974, the Rogers Road Streetcar made its last run. The route ran from a loop at St. Clair and Oakwood Avenue to Bicknell Loop, located on Rogers […]

Categories
Infrastructure Politics Toronto Transit

A “fantastic bonanza:” another transit plan up in smoke?

“Bonanza’s” opening credits, where a burning map gives way to the show’s cast, is a great metaphor for Toronto’s transit planning.

Categories
History Toronto Transit

The story of Toronto’s streetcar “bull’s eyes”

Replica of Toronto Railway Company streetcar #327 operates at the Halton County Radial Railway museum, with the unique glass bulbs visible below the metal “Belt Line” sign. Photo taken June 2012 In 1891, the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was created, taking over the city’s streetcar system from its predecessor, the Toronto Street Railway. The TRC […]

Categories
Infrastructure Toronto Walking

A year later, progress on Canongate Trail

Canongate Trail, February 2019 In February 2018, Duncan Xu, an 11-year old boy, was struck and killed crossing a residential street in North Scarborough on his way home from school. He was one of forty-two pedestrians unintentionally struck and killed by motorists in Toronto last year. Not long after Duncan’s death, I visited the neighbourhood […]

Categories
Election Maps Politics Toronto

Voter turnouts in the 2018 Toronto municipal election

2014 was a watershed year for municipal voter turnout in Toronto. After a disastrous four years of Rob Ford as mayor, 54.7 percent of all eligible voters went to the polls, electing John Tory. That was the highest voter turnout in decades, even higher than 1997, when Torontonians elected Mel Lastman to lead a newly […]

Categories
Election Maps Politics Toronto

Mapping the Downtown city council races

At the end of 2014, despite some disappointing results in that year’s municipal election, I was feeling optimistic about 2018. In 2014, there were a number of great candidates running for city council, and I expected many would try again in 2018. After council finally approved the recommended 47 ward model for the 2018 election, […]