As with most of my blog posts I had an incident that sparked this conversation. While riding to work yesterday I jumped on the sidewalk at the York Mills and Yonge Intersection. It is a busy intersection that has a subway/bus interchange to the east, to the north is the main highway corridor, Highway 401, and it’s at the bottom of a large valley. Add to that motorists and buses like to park in the westbound right hand turn lane to drop off and pick up passengers from the subway stop. As I approached the intersection a Canar bus was parked in the right hand turn lane. I had essentially come to a stop on my bike and was politely asking the passenger and driver if they could ‘excuse me’ and let me pass. The passenger boarded, the driver blocked the sidewalk to inform me that I wasn’t allowed on the sidewalk. Thanks but I’d rather not get squished by a car because your bus is blocking the intersection!

Tristin Hopper confessed to doing the same in the National Posts Urban Scrawl: Confessions of a Sidewalk Cyclist. At least I’m not the only one! If there is a bike lane I’ll be in it. If the road is free and clear of cars and safe I’ll be on it. But sometimes I need to be on the sidewalk too.

And when I’ve been on the sidewalk and seen the police no one has stopped me. In Toronto it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk if your wheels are greater than 61.5cm/24″. It costs you $110 if you get caught on the sidewalk or in a cross-walk. Don’t get caught!! Or ride respectfully and remember that the pedestrian has the right of way; slow down, make eye-contact, use a polite and respectful voice.

For now I’ll practice safe-cycling! I’ll use bike lanes where they exist. Stay on the roads where it’s safe. And use the sidewalk as a last resort when I feel the situation is too high risk!

A co-worker was going on mat leave so we all decided to have lunch together. We picked a restaurant close to work and agreed to meet at the lobby 15 minutes before our reservation. We congregated in the lobby chatting, waiting for the stragglers to come down from their offices, and then the debate over who was going to drive began!

Drive!? ‘You want to drive?’ I asked. I was absolutely adamant that I was walking. It was a beautiful sunny day. I wanted to stretch my legs. But my friends insisted on driving. I overheard ‘I want to make sure I’m back in good time.’

I just GoogleMaps’d the location and it is 850m! I think I arrived one minute after they did. Returning back to the office, with the left turns and the lights, I was back at my desk before my office mates.

We relate our cars to efficient, time-saving machines, but sometimes they are quite the opposite.

I decided to look up what the average distance people are willing to walk to amenities.

In order to get the points for being close to amenities under the CaGBC/USGBC LEED for New Homes one has to construct within a half mile/800m of a frequent transit stop or community resources. I also did a quick Google search and found on average people are willing to walk between 1/4 mile/400m and 1/2 mile/800m.

Physical and mental health is on the decline and obesity is on the rise. A simple way to help combat this is to walk to lunch.

Through the month of January Toronto was plagued by a string of tragic pedestrian deaths. In total there were 14 deaths in Toronto, some of them quite tragic. Between transport trucks, streetcars and busses the pedestrians stood no chance.

Who was to Blame?

The debate as to who was at fault in these accidents has been a topic of discussion in the media. Whether it is the cars or the pedestrians who are not paying attention is the question. But either way isn’t it both parties faults?

As a pedestrian I don’t think I’m would want to play chicken with a transport truck. Even a SmartCar!

In 2007 the City of Toronto did a study, The Pedestrian Collision Study. Here is a selection of the conclusions of the study:

• 83% of pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions resulted in either minimal or minor injuries
• 12% of pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions resulted in major injuries or fatalities
• 50% of fatalities in pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions were seniors (aged 65+).
• 72% of pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions involved male drivers versus 28% for female drivers.
• Pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions occurred most during the autumn and winter seasons.
• Pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions occurred more often in the downtown area.
• Pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions occurred more often along arterial roads.
• Pedestrian/motor vehicle collisions distributed as follow: at intersections (47%), at non-intersections (37%), and other/unknown (16%).

The City of Toronto did a similar bike-car collision study in 2006. The results can be found here.

What I was reminded of yesterday was does it really matter who is at fault? In the end the pedestrian ends up dead or seriously injured.

How Can we Prevent Future Deaths

1. Alertness: Most importantly both drivers and pedestrians need to be more aware – pedestrian’s in particular. Again as a pedestrian if you play chicken with an automobile the automobile always wins
2. Turning – Left or right, as drivers we should be more aware when turning. Right turns are often worse. On a red light drivers are only looking for on-coming traffic. When lights are green drivers often forget about pedestrians and rush to make the turn
3. Updating Our Intersections: The ‘Scramble’ intersections of downtown Toronto are great, but we can make them even safer. In New Zealand and Japan pedestrians are only allowed to cross when all lights are red. In this manner cars and pedestrians are not competing entities
4. Slow Down: the issue of decreasing speed limits in cities has been raised. Unofficially people in Toronto drive 15-20km/hr over the speed limit so decreasing the speed limit would give drivers more response time
5. Txt Msgs, Email and iPods: Pedestrian’s cannot just walk in oblivion. Be aware of your surroundings and focus on the busy road around you, instead of the latest gadget.

Here is what you can expect to see:

1. Pedestrian Deaths: Recently in Toronto there has been a spike in pedestrian-auto collisions, many resulting in fatalities. I’d like to explore some causes, some of the rational behind them and offer some suggestions as to how we can mitigate future fatalities.

2. Micro-loans: It should pave the way for brighter futures for those in Developing Nations, especially women. Micro-loans are designed to give people that first start they need to get a business rolling. In many of these countries women face many social injustices, micro-loans allow these women to try and overcome these barriers.

3. McGuinty’s Green Energy Plan: A lot of controversy has risen over the source of product for the renewable energy source. With much of it from Samsung and built off-shore Ontarian’s are criticizing McGuinty’s actions.

4. Environmental Assessment: In my last semester of my masters of engineering I am taking a class on environmental assessment. I will try and post weekly commentary on what is new and interesting

5. Book Review: I’ve read quite a bit over the last few weeks and on my new Kindle (thanks to @phryl).  While you may not be so intersted in my opinion of the twilight series I have read some more enlightening and engaging material. The next one I am hoping to read is Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty.

These will be out shortly, check back for updates.

Like many of the surrounding suburbs of Toronto, Burlington has larger homes on bigger properties and streets that seem to go no where. In addition to that parents of the Burlington area were worried about student safety (and who wouldn’t these days with two pedestrian deaths in the Toronto area yesterday). Each day more kids get a drive to school than walk.

The program in Burlington encourages teachers and student volunteers to ‘pick up’ students much like a bus would, but instead of a bus they all walk together. It is active transportation at its best. Plus it means more time for students to socialize with their friends.

There are so many benefits to students walking to school:

• It stimulates their bodies making them more alert and attentive at school
• It stimulates their metabolism; increasing their metabolic rates and food processing abilities
• It gets the ‘social bug’ out – instead of socializing in the classroom students socialize on the way to school
• It encourages life long lessons in exercise

Ontario is encouraging students to walk to school, as both a green community initiative and as an active transportation initiative. There are no 40 communities participating in the Active and Safe Routes to School Program, all the way from Windsor to Ottawa and up and over to Kenora.

How did your kids get to school today? Change up your routines and encourage your children to be more active.

No cars? Ok well it would make transporting food, goods and people impossible so Zermatt allows small electric shuttles – they look like mini buses. All the vehicles are made in the town. The goal is to minimize the air pollution and preserve the view of the Matterhorn by eliminating the combustion engine.

The first thing I noticed on my trip was the amount of electric vehicle congestion. The roads are very narrow in Zermatt and everyone walks, with their skis in tow, to and from the lifts. Our walk each day was almost a km and we frequently were halted as we had to wait for the vehicles to pass us and others coming from the opposite direction.

Zermatt is also in a construction boom, in every direction you look you can see a crane. This means even more vehicles are passing through the streets delivering construction materials. Plus they have now permitted large, diesel trucks to deliver concrete and other large machines (i.e. bobcats) to site. Some of the sites were so inaccessible that goods were delivered by helicopter. Overall is what congestion mania, in the sky with the cranes and helicopters, and in the streets with all the vehicles.

Overall Zermatt is pristine, preserving the air and it’s cultural heritage. Hopefully this construction will come to an end soon. I’v never been to Zermatt in the winter, when the slopes are fully covered, but even in my preseason visit I can see the majesty of the Swiss Alps.

I was absolutely shocked by the traffic of the Toronto bedroom community. It wasn’t the predictable congestion of downtown Toronto, it was chaotic and random and looked like it would drive any commuter to insanity. With it’s 6 lane roads with dedicated double left turn lanes and right turn lanes at intersections, why wasn’t the traffic moving?

I was also surprisingly amazed at the number of people that used the Mississauga transit system – it is after all archaic, completely surface routes with no dedicated transit or carpool lanes, i.e. it moves at whatever speed the traffic is moving.

Why is the traffic so congested in these outlier cities?

Mississauga, and many of the other bedroom communities, is no longer just a commuter city. They have vibrant industry that result in many people commuting to these bedroom communities. But the reason it doesn’t function well is represented by the picture above, long blocks, empty sidewalks and a million people trying to get around.

This problem will only get worse. According to Smart Commute already more people commute into Mississauga than out of Mississauga every day. Over the next 30 years it is predicted that Mississauga’s population will grow by 22% and the number of people working here will grow by 31%. Overall that means even longer commute times, denser congestion resulting in increased pollution and stress levels. And this is only data for Mississauga other jurisdictions will face similar growth.

It will be a combination of city planners, traffic engineers and visionaries to improve this situation. Otherwise Southern Ontario will be plagued with the traffic congestion and pollution from all the single commuter cars.

Sidewalks in the City

I’m talking about the ones in the downtown cores, you know the ones. The ones near the main public transportation stops. The ones in the financial district. The ones that always seem full of people. A couple of tips that might make these easier to navigate:

• respect the sidewalk like a road: For the majority of us that means walk to the right hand side. And if you are playing on your mobile, listening to music or even reading a book, stick to the right side. Leave room for those who want to travel faster in the ‘left hand lane’ or middle of the sidewalk (but be weary not to cross the centre line, it can be vicous!!)
• Wait for the bus on the bus stop pad: yesterday I watched a guy block the entire sidewalk as he waited for his bus. Granted the sidewalk wasn’t that busy but he had his back turned to some of the on-coming pedestrian traffic, who had to manoever awkwardly in the snow to avoid him
• don’t hog the middle: if you happen to be out when it isn’t that busy make sure you leave room for others. Too often are people walking with their heads down oblivious to others

The Suburban Story

Typically the sidewalks here are not as busy and usually they are narrower than the big city blocks of the downtowns.  And usually they are not as crowded. Lumped in with the traditional suburban sidewalks I am also going to include the residential ones of cities, again they are not usually as busy and are narrow. A few tips to remember:

• avoid walking in the middle: maybe the rules of the road shouldn’t necessarily apply, some drivers go really fast down those residential roads. Instead walk to the inside (the area closest to the homes). This gives people who are running, speed walking, inline skating, etc the chance to get by
• dog issues: please pick up any poo and please hold your dog to give ways to runners

Rural Sidewalks

Typically they do not exist. This is more as a driver. Please be aware of people who are recreationally using the side of the road (the shoulder area) since there is no sidewalk.

If we could all be more polite on the sidewalk (myself included) they would probably be more efficient.

Some drivers are now using the countdown as either a primary or secondary cues in their decision making process at intersections.

I’m guilty of it myself using the countdown as a measure of whether to speed up or slow down when approaching an intersection, but it is always a secondary source of information the traffic light is the primary factor in my decision making process.

Is it wrong that we combine both factors when determining what to do at a traffic light? Ultimately the traffic light governs what to do at the intersection but I wonder if these help to reduce the number of yellow and red light ‘runners’? Are there any studies on the impact of the countdown on the driver? What about for the pedestrian? Are there fewer pedestrians who get ‘caught’ in the intersection?

Apparently people are listening to music so loud that they cannot hear the approaching traffic. Or they have the headphones that cancel out the background noises, which again make it difficult to hear approaching traffic. Plus with all the new smartphones (blackberry, palm, iPhone, etc) people really are not intune with their surroundings as they talk, text and surf the web.

So what’s the problem?

According to Swinton insurance, as reported here, there has been a significant increase in auto accidents due to ‘podestrians.’ It is not so much the signalized intersections, but the smaller ones.

“The most common scenario involves a ‘podestrian’ stepping into the road without looking properly and failing to hear an oncoming car. This often forces the approaching driver to break suddenly and subsequently get shunted by the car behind.”

Are you a ‘podestrian’?

I’m guilty at times for listening to my iPod, especially when running. I am also guilty of texting while listening to music. But I certainly make a conscience effort near any street to be aware of traffic. In the end I know that an error on my part causing an accident could be far more costly to me than to the car.

I’m not giving up my iPod when running anytime soon. And I don’t believe that asking people to not use their mp3 players is the solution either. I think it is a matter of respect and both cars and pedestrians respecting the rules of the road.