Toronto

Toronto's first scrambled intersection at Yonge/Dundas

The City of Toronto has made enormous strides in creating a culture of walking since the Walkability Roadshow. They approved their walking strategy, a comprehensive plan for increasing walking in the City through a series of enhancements, education and infrastructure - the walking strategy can be viewed here. In January 2008 the City launched a Walking Website to provide "one-window" access to comprehensive, up-to-date information on walking policies, programs and services; and to encourage walking by Toronto citizens and visitors. The City’s first Pedestrian Priority Phase intersection was launched at Yonge St./Dundas St. A Pedestrian Priority Phase is a feature that allows pedestrians to cross the road safely in any direction while traffic is stopped for all vehicles. In these selected intersections, a red light is shown to vehicles in all directions while the pedestrian "walk" sign is provided to pedestrians to travel in any direction they wish including diagonally across the intersection in the first phase. October in Toronto has been designated The Toronto Walking Festival, aimed at celebrating walking throughout the city and presented as a calendar of City and community-organized walking activities across the city. Likely the most important decision to positively impact Toronto’s walkability is the announcement of an Office of the Public Realm, a new unit within the Transportation Services Division that will allow the city to coordinate and deliver pedestrians improvements in a more timely fashion, as well as managing the City’s walking strategy.

• Roadshow Case Study Adobe PDF (6 MB)