Free Lecture, "Learning from Toronto" with Elyse Parker, November 26
Frank Pacella
Transportation, Health and the Built Environment
Sponsored by the Bombardier Foundation and the Active Transport Lab at the University of British Columbia and BC Recreation and Parks Association.
Learning
from Toronto
Thursday, November 26, 7 pm
Venue: UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver
Free admission; reservations required. Call 778-782-5100 or email cstu...@sfu.ca
Elyse Parker, as the Director of the Public Realm Section for
Toronto’s Transportation Services Division, is helping to actively re-envision
streets and public spaces for city greening, sustainable practices, beautification
and active transportation. Find out how Toronto is taking designs for a healthy
city — and healthy people — to the streets.
Luis Bernhardt
Thanks for the reminder, but unfortunately I’ll be attending a Vancouver Opera dress rehearsal that night. But were I there, I would have requested the answer to two questions:
- Will all Toronto buses have bike racks in the foreseeable future? (In late 2007, at least, they lagged far behind Translink/Coast Mountain, which had bike racks on just about all the buses in the system two years ago – although a bunch of the buses were getting retrofitted with racks that would keep the bikes from blocking the headlights….)
- What are you going to do about Mississauga? (This is without a doubt one of the worst places to ride a bike ever. All the major routes are multi-lane high-speed motorways that criss-cross the city, creating large islands of residential areas whose side streets go nowhere. Quiet bike routes on side streets (like the Adanac) are not possible in Mississauga, and the one separate bike path they have doesn’t really go anywhere that anyone would want to go.)
Quite frankly, I don’t think Toronto has got anything to teach us. At least not in the way that Seattle or Portland (of the major North American cities) could. Too bad I’ll miss this.
Luis
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Carmen Mills
Luis Bernhardt
Yes, we already know this. And who said anything about waiting? New York taught us to try things just to see if they work, instead of waiting for the results of endless studies. The Burrard Bridge worked because a few people finally showed some leadership and decided to go ahead with it, and it’s unfortunate they didn’t go the full nine yards and close off a lane of auto traffic northbound as well..
“Learning from Toronto” for me has the unpleasant odor of the typical arrogance exuded by the Center of the Universe: “Here’s what we’ve come to teach you.” Montreal, Seattle, Portland, Davis, Missoula – they could come here and say this, but Toronto?
So my cynicism is a response to this colonial arrogance. But, as I mentioned, I would have eagerly attended because there’s always the possibility that I would have been surprised. It’s been two years since I rode a bike in Toronto. They have a nice off-street MUP that starts at Humber College (?) and takes you along the waterfront all the way downtown (although I destroyed a front tire hitting a partially-buried stanchion that was impossible to see at night with a 1-watt headlight). I didn’t get to ride over the streetcar tracks in the rain, so I would be curious to see how they deal with these. And I’m really curious about their bike parking.
But I still think we are doing better. Good example: I wanted to spend a weekend in Montreal. I rode to Toronto’s Union Station to catch the first Via Rail train of the day. They told me that only the mid-day train had a baggage car! So I got to Montreal early in the afternoon, and my bike arrived at about 17h, leaving me just enough time to ride over Mount Royal in the dark (which is still quite pleasant). On the return trip, I took the evening train back to Toronto, and I had to come back to the Union Station the next evening to pick up the bike and ride it back to where I was staying in Mississauga.
At least now in Vancouver, you can take the early train to Seattle with your bike, and come back on the late train with the bike. But then two years ago, there was no early train that ran from Vancouver to Seattle, only the other way around. So a lot can happen, and it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised. Toronto can only have gotten better (unless they let the maniacs who designed Mississauga have a hand in planning Toronto!).
Luis
From: Carmen Mills
[mailto:car...@emeraldcity.bc.ca]
Sent: November 23, 2009 21:51
To: trans-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [trans-action] Free
Lecture, "Learning from Toronto"
with Elyse Parker, November 26
Every city has things to teach every other city. If we wait for the Perfect City to come tell us all the answers, we will be waiting a long long time.
On Nov 23, 2009, at 9:34 PM, Luis Bernhardt wrote:
…
Quite frankly, I don’t think Toronto has got anything to teach us. At least not in the way that Seattle or Portland (of the major North American cities) could. Too bad I’ll miss this.
Luis
From: Frank Pacella [mailto:fpac...@sfu.ca]
Sent: November 23, 2009 15:13
To: BEST, trans-action listserve
Subject: [trans-action] Free
Lecture, "Learning from Toronto"
with Elyse Parker, November 26
Shifting Gears II Free Public Lectures
Transportation, Health and the Built Environment
Sponsored by the Bombardier Foundation
and the Active Transport Lab at the University
of British Columbia
and BC Recreation and Parks Association.
Learning from Toronto
Thursday, November 26, 7 pm
Venue: UBC Robson Square,
800 Robson Street, Vancouver
Free admission; reservations required. Call 778-782-5100 or email cstu...@sfu.ca
Elyse Parker, as the Director of the Public Realm Section for Toronto’s
Transportation Services Division, is helping to actively re-envision streets
and public spaces for city greening, sustainable practices, beautification and
active transportation. Find out how Toronto
is taking designs for a healthy city — and healthy people — to the
streets.