Toronto's new info pillars block sidewalk with ads

Newly installed InfoToGo pillar at Bloor and Spadina

Yesterday, I mentioned AstralMedia's street furniture contract with the City of Toronto in relation to community message boards, but they also are responsible for installing what are called InfoToGo pillars around the city. These pillars are supposed to help with wayfinding, allowing tourists to orient themselves.  The new design, however, contains very little info. And by little info, I mean it has no info. Nada. Unless of course you count learning about FibeTV from Bell information.

The two largest sides of the pillar contain spots for advertising, while the skinny spine on the side is the part that is going to eventually contain some sort of map (right now it just says: Welcome to Toronto).

The advertisements encroaching into public space is one thing, but the awful and inconsiderate placement of these new pillars is another thing entirely. I first noticed this after a pillar was installed on Bloor and Spadina just outside of Fresh restaurant. The pillar takes up about one third of the sidewalk for no other purpose than to advertise. This is in a busy intersection that sees a lot of pedestrian traffic in the city, which could potentially create problems for people using assistive-mobility devices or those with strollers.

Street furniture placed in the public right of way, like benches, bus shelters, and bike racks, at least have a purpose. About 80% of the purpose of the info pillar is to display advertising, which makes this a poor use of the public right of way. If we have to have these things in Toronto, more thought and care needs to go into their placement and orientation on sidewalks to make sure they don't impede on pedestrian flow.

Compare this to Vancouver's info pillars, which the city began installing before the 2010 Olympics and continued afterward. As I wrote a few months ago, the vast majority of the pillars contain no advertising (ads are placed on one side of larger info pillars on some downtown commercial streets). The pillars are also skinny and oriented in such a way so they don't take up a lot of sidewalk space. Score one for Vancouver.

You can read more about these in this article by Steve Kupferman over at Torontoist.

Summer Streets Gets New York Moving

(This article originally appeared on Spacing Toronto, August 15, 2011)

On my recent trip to New York I found myself walking Broadway on a sweltering Saturday afternoon, negotiating the sidewalk amidst hordes of people and attempting to stay out of the way of what I have come to think fondly of as the dance between New York’s homicidal drivers and its suicidal pedestrians and cyclists.

So it was with much relief that my travelling partner and I stumbled upon the fourth annual Summer Streets, a Saturday shut down of Park Avenue and connecting streets between Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park (roughly the equivalent distance of shutting down Yonge St from Front St all the way to Eglinton Ave). As a Streetsblog NYC video shows, shutting cars from the street allows for cyclists, pedestrians, joggers, rollerbladers, and parents with children from all over the city and the surrounding area to flood out into the normally hectic street and enjoy themselves.

We rented—if you can call a free rental a rental—bikes and suddenly the open road was ours for the next hour (if we didn’t bring back the bikes in an hour they charged our credit card one dollar per minute. Ouch).

There are five rest stops along the route where, if you are so inclined, you can partake in activities like the “Belly, Butt, and Thigh Workout” or “Barefoot Running” or “Salsa Lessons”. Since we only had an hour before we began to lose our lunch money with each late minute, we zoomed past these rest stops, which were packed with people and music.

Many cross streets were also shut down, but since the stretch of closed roadway cut through so much of lower Manhatten, a few remained open to allow traffic through. There were volunteers at each of these crossings holding Stop/Go signs as well as traffic police posted to make sure cyclists and pedestrian didn’t accidentally coast through. It might have been the only time in New York that I saw cyclists stop for red lights. Or drivers and pedestrians, actually. The only thing crazier than New York cyclists are New York drivers and New York pedestrians.

After the experience of New York’s famously clogged streets, it was amazing to fly down this wide road with thousands of other cyclists. This was a great way to see a large swath of New York and experience the city in a way that is impossible on a regular basis. As we made our way through the elevated roadway around Grand Central Station, we were treated to a view of the normally busy New York streets.

Could we do this in Toronto? When I moved to Toronto, I was immediately impressed with the amount of street shut downs in the summer for street festivals, but would the city be so keen on shutting down multiple kilometres of central roadway so people could ride their bikes and walk?

Spurred on by Bogotá's Ciclovía, these car-free events have been popping up all over the world. Vancouver is attempting their version of this with LiveStreets, which sees eight kilometres of roadway shut down to cars from Kitsilano to Commercial Drive through the downtown core. Not only does this encourage people who may be too timid to get on their bike and ride, but it shows a different kind of possible city, one that gives space back to people.

I went back to Park Avenue a few days later. It was filled with cars, the pedestrians all crammed onto the sidewalks. I saw few cyclists. The air was filled with the sounds of honking.

The Queen's Park Sidewalk to Nowhere

Pictured above is a sidewalk that extends out from the south grounds of Queen's Park, dumping pedestrians out onto the busy University Avenue. After I ventured across--craning my neck down the bend of University to make sure I wouldn't become roadkill--I stood and watched as several people, a family, and a woman with a stroller did the same--each one darting across like deers.

There is a crosswalk just a short walk south of here by College, but there is nowhere to really get there safely from the south end of Queen's Park, short of walking back north until you find a crosswalk, crossing over, and walking back down again on either side of University. And the structure of the two forking sidewalks makes it seem as though you are supposed to cross University Avenue there, but without providing any infrastructure to help you cross. In other words, the city will help you get to the edge of the road, but once you step off the curb you're on your own.

At the very least they should install some zebra-stripes, or perhaps a button pedestrians could push which would flash lights up ahead of the curve to let drivers know that someone was crossing. I have no idea if anyone has ever been hit here, but it seems like a possibility considering how many people scurry across.

The Richmond St West Sidewalk is Awesome. Except For One Thing.

A few months ago, I wrote about how the south side of Richmond St West between Spadina and Peter got a much needed sidewalk. I work in 401 Richmond, the huge, converted tin factory-turned artist studio building which sits on the corner of Spadina and Richmond and every time I wanted to walk east to get a delicious burrito I had to cross over to the north side, use the thin strip of a sidewalk there, and then cross back over.

So when it was announced a sidewalk would finally be constructed, everyone in the building awaited its completion with much anticipation. The building management, Urbanspace Property Group, even started a blog that chronicled the construction process. People were really excited about this sidewalk.

However, now that the weather is warm and thousands more cyclists are out on the streets, bicycle parking in the area has become scarce. The City had a really great opportunity along this new sidewalk to put in a whole bunch of much needed bike parking. The space between the trees is perfect for a post-and-ring, but instead they sit empty, forcing bikers to lock up to the cages that protect the trees they've planted.

Why wasn't bicycle parking incorporated into the design from the beginning? It's not like the addition of the post-and-rings will inhibit pedestrian flow. It seems like only a matter of time before they are added, especially if the street is actually going to contain a separated bike lane. These seem like the types of design elements that should be included in every streetscape redesign, so it's all done at one time.

Footsteps in the Snow: A Pedestrian Map

Coming from Vancouver, it's a strange experience to have snow stay on the ground for so long. I'm used to light dustings that melt and disappear, usually within a 24 hour period. But it's amazing how fast you become used to something, and now that snow on the ground has become just a part of the city for me.

It also serves the purpose of unveiling the walking patterns of everyone in the city, something that is usually invisible on grass and pavement. Sure, there are some dirt paths carved through grassy areas in the spring and summer, but generally people's footsteps go unrecorded as soon as they pass through. It takes a good amount of snow on the ground in order for people to begin to leave little trails of themselves all around the city.

One thing that's obvious is people's hate for 90 degree angles. It's also interesting to find all the spaces where people cross mid-block, thus carving out a little space amidst the piled up snow at the curb. There is probably a lemming effect to all of this as well. I know that when I have to cross an area that is covered in snow and there are already one set of footsteps, I will literally follow in the footsteps of that former person.

And a note to the paranoid: if you are going to be away from your house for an extended period of time in the winter in Toronto be aware that everyone will know you're not home due to the unbroken field of snow before your front doorsteps. Someone could probably make a few bucks renting themselves out as front-door walkers, leaving their footsteps up and down the yard, stamped into the snow to say: someone was here.

Richmond Street Gets a New Sidewalk

When I first started working in the 401 Richmond building at the corner of Richmond and Spadina I was surprised to find that the stretch of Richmond between Spadina and Peter had a sidewalk only on the north side of the street. Not only was there no real sidewalk, but drivers on the one-way Richmond street would zoom down the road as if it was some sort of urban highway. So I was happy when we got the notice that the City was going to be constructing a sidewalk starting in September. That sidewalk is now pretty much finished. And it's amazing what it has done to the experience of walking that one block. The experience has been documented by a blog operated by Urban Space, the property group that owns 401 Richmond.

Not only was it annoying to have a full sidewalk only on one side of the street, but the big mostly blank wall of the 401 Richmond building coupled with the not so interesting facade on the north side of the street made for an unpleasant experience dodging hidden driveways and attempting to walk the block as quickly as possible. Basically, the road wasn't stroll-worthy. It was a way to get somewhere, but nothing else.

The introduction of not only a fairly wide sidewalk but also street trees (and lights I think to come as well as bike parking hopefully) has done amazing things to the feel of the street. What was once a stretch of barren, car dominated road now has the potential to be a pleasant experience. Not only that, but I'm willing to bet that simply the presence of pedestrians walking on a legitimate sidewalk will slow the drivers down coming around that curve. Suddenly, it's not just a place for cars, but people too.

The above pictures shows the sidewalk under construction. The drainage grate line is the previous sidewalk edge and shows how much the space was widened when the parking was removed.

A recent fire alarm at 401 Richmond demonstrated the usefulness of the new sidewalk when fire trucks pulled up against it and people used the now increased pedestrian space to gather and wait.

I can't wait to see what the street looks like in the Spring when the trees start to bud. Next up for Richmond Street? Separated bike lanes perhaps? Hopefully? Maybe?

Street as Sidewalk

One of the things about living on a busy street in a downtown neighbourhood is that there are always people outside. I have gotten used to opening my front door and being immediately caught up in a stream of people on the sidewalk; however, I was unprepared today when I went out to buy cat food and stepped right into what was a fairly robust street festival.

It's always a bit strange when you see a street, usually reserved solely for cars, taken over by hordes of pedestrians and sticky-fingered children. For one, I got a perspective of my street that I have never seen before: right down the middle. It's a view of the road only seen from those in cars or those navigating Google's street view. Normally, as bipeds, we aren't treated to this perfectly symmetrical cleaving of our streets, having to choose one side or the other to walk on, and it's quite pleasing to the eye to be able to stare right down the middle to the vanishing point.

It's funny, too, that when the streets are closed to cars people still tend to gravitate toward the sidewalks. It's as if streets have some intrinsic centrifugal force that spin the pedestrians out towards the edges. The thing is: people like order. We like knowing that on escalators you stand right and walk left. And street closures, by definition not-ordinary, upset this order. They're chaotic. People bump into each other not because they work against the stream, but because there is no stream. There's just a bunch of people walking. Slowly.

And I like interacting with the street in a way that I normally can't. It's a good reminder that streets don't simply have to be a way to get around, but can be a place to gather. I never realized how fast I walked down the sidewalk until today, when, as I slowly made my way down the five closed blocks, I actually noticed buildings I hadn't even seen before. Usually, I'm in search of a can of beans for dinner, powering through slow-walkers and dreaming of having my own personal jet pack. Or at least wider sidewalks.

I went out later as the festival was in take-down mode. Vans, cars, and trucks wound their way slowly through the stragglers on their way to be loaded up with disassembled tents and BBQs. Seeing your street closed to cars is kind of like seeing someone naked for the first time. I'm not sure if I'll be able to look at it quite the same way again.