Residents may have seen recent media about the proposal to add a second sidewalk when Athlone is re-built and the opposition that has sparked among some neighbours. I’ve also heard objections recently with respect to other renewal projects in the ward that are currently in their planning phase. Sidewalks have unexpectedly emerged as a flashpoint in this term of Council, and I wanted to follow up on the CTV story. The Athlone sidewalk will be going ahead, and I’d like to explore the issue a little.
Council over the course of the previous two terms made two important decisions for which many of us advocated: when most residential streets are re-built as part of renewing the pipes underneath, they’re re-configured with traffic calming measures that discourage traveling above 30 km/h, and they’re designed with sidewalks. It’s worth unpacking that a little.
Addressing traffic speed and pedestrian safety
Traffic speed on residential streets is the single-biggest complaint my office receives. We can respond to some extent with temporary traffic calming measures such as the centreline flex sticks you’ve seen pop up all over the ward. But streets should ideally be designed to constrain speed, which is something we can do when they’re ripped up to replace the pipes. Residential streets are now automatically built with features such as narrowings, bulb-outs, speed tables and others to slow traffic down.
Pedestrian infrastructure is also critical in a walkable neighbourhood. We’ve now written our sidewalk policy into our Official Plan, and when the City re-builds streets, depending on their context, it adds sidewalks appropriate to the context. In the case of Athlone, those sidewalks will lead directly to the new Westboro LRT station. We can expect lots of foot traffic on Athlone and having sidewalks on both sides of this busy street simply shouldn’t be a question.
Designing the right streets
Much of Westboro was built to “rural” standards without sidewalks and drainage has relied on ditches (often, these days, inappropriately filled in). “Urbanizing” those streets is critical, both to manage stormwater and also to match the demands new residents have for appropriate pedestrian infrastructure. It is prohibitively expensive to add sidewalks and drains to streets retroactively.
There are streets in our ward that have been rebuilt in just the past 20 years or so without sidewalks due to neighbour opposition. New residents move here, often younger families, and they understandably demand sidewalks. When those requests cross my desk, the financial reality is that there’s little I can offer them. The time to build sidewalks is when the streets are being re-built. When a project to replace the pipes under the road is already underway, the cost of re-building the street with traffic calming features and pedestrian infrastructure is a fraction of the project cost, and it’s a fraction of doing the job as a standalone project.
Once a street is re-built to replace the pipes, those pipes will last 70, 80, 90 years. Re-builds are a multi-generational opportunity to get it right.
Respecting policy
When a street is identified to be re-built – and we have lots of those in Kitchissippi as our pipes age out – City staff and our consultants follow Council’s policy and draft a preliminary design for public consultation that includes traffic calming measures and sidewalks if that’s what the policy calls for. Sometimes some neighbours object. They may like the aesthetic of their street without sidewalks, be concerned about tree loss, and in some instances may no longer be able to tandem park their vehicles into the City’s right-of-way. They’re concerned about snow removal, and they may worry about room to back out of their driveways.
Residents have the chance to object during the consultations on the draft design. I want to be clear, though, that the final design must adhere to the policies that Council has set. I know that there has been a recent instance where a councillor asked staff to re-consider the timing for a proposed sidewalk as part of a renewal. That matter is likely coming to Council in the new year, and it’s expected that the proposed sidewalks will move ahead.
Expectations of how streets are configured and what the priorities are for those change over time, and a road’s lifespan is measured in decades. Our Official Plan and Transportation Master Plan recognize the emphasis residents have today on safe, walkable streets. Sometimes implementing those policies may be controversial, but I will always be pleased to support them for the sake of the generations who will move into the neighbourhood in the decades to come.