Transportation - Public Transit
Transit Oriented Development and Sustainability
June 2006
These two concepts have not been established in Toronto.
However, the recently selected design of West 8 & du Troit Allsopp Hillier, urban design and architectural firms, to revitalize the city’s Waterfront, beamed a ray of hope. The emphasis of the design on a human scale environment, may set an example for our congested, polluted and environmentally declining city to follow suit in other areas.
Cars dictate our life and space.
Our car dependence in the city is equally supported by the provincial government’s recent announcement to fund a new $3.4 billion highway construction program in its Smart Growth Plan… (Smart Growth or Fool’s Gold?)
Integrated transit system, priority to cycling, pedestrianization and complementary land uses to reduce car dependency, have been virtually ignored.
The combined factors of lack of leadership, councillors’ antiquated mentality, and conflicting community-driven parochial interests in Toronto, have stunted progressive development. An overemphasis on community consultations, however important they may be, can have a corrosive effect on the needs of the whole city in an effort to accommodate local interests. A balanced view with proper perspective that is beneficial to the public realm per se, should prevail. This is the responsibility of Mayoral leadership. Toronto’s fragmented and micromanaged urban planning has been socially and economically divisive and imprudent.
In contrast, European cities have prioritized public spaces, cycling facilities and wel-coming streets for pedestrians in order to overcome car congestion. Transit-oriented development has enhanced local economic activity, reduced air and noise pollution and improved the urban environment for non-motor users. The successful Bus Rapid Transit in Curitiba, Brazil, a government sponsored system development in partnership with the private sector, has decreased auto-transportation to a minimum.
The following photos of progressive urban planning in other cities in the scholarly work: Traffic Calming, by: Dr. Jeffrey Kenworthy, <Techniques for Urban Sustainability> can be viewed in detail at: http://wwwistp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/e_public/Case%20Studies_Asia/tcalming/tcalming.htm
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| A residential street in Christchurch, New Zealand after being treated with traffic calming. This was a resident-based initiative. |
| Photo by: J. Kenworthy |
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| In Frankfurt's Bockenheim districts, pedestrians cross the street at will due to the slow speed of traffic and the friendly pedestrian environment. |
| Photo by: J. Kenworthy |
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| Economic activity booms along a street in Hamburg under a strong traffic calming strategy. |
| Photo by: J. Kenworthy |
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| It is important to remember the broader picture in traffic calming and that is the development of land use patterns that are pedestrian and bicycle-friendly and which do not require a car.
This has been achieved, for example, in False Creek in Vancouver. |
| Photo by: J. Kenworthy |
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