City says it won’t close Yonge St. to cars to give pedestrians social-distancing space during COVID-19

Thestar.com
April 1, 2020
Ben Spurr

Other cities have reallocated their road space as car traffic dwindles as a result of the emergency. This past weekend Calgary began blocking off lanes of some streets to allow pedestrians and cyclists to follow social distancing recommendations while they move about the city. New York City has installed temporary bike lanes on busy routes as residents there take up cycling in order to avoid crowds on public transit.

Pedestrian advocates have urged Toronto to follow suit, and have singled out Yonge Street in the dense downtown as a corridor where residents who don’t get around in cars should be given more space during the pandemic.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 13, Toronto Centre), who represents the stretch of Yonge between Charles Street and the Esplanade, sent a letter last week to Mayor John Tory and emergency management officials asking about the idea.

Dylan Reid, co-founder of the pedestrian advocacy group Walk Toronto, supports the proposal and argued that shutting Yonge Streets to car traffic, or at least reducing the number of live lanes, would help protect the health of the tens of thousands of residents who live in the area.

Public health officials have advised residents to stay home as much as possible, but people can still walk their dogs and shop for groceries. Reid said residents who do those things on Yonge sometimes have to step into the street in order to follow public health directives to keep at least two metres away from other people.

“You can’t walk safely on Yonge Street’s narrow sidewalks and keep distance from people the way we’re supposed to,” Reid said.

In a statement Monday, Jacquelyn Hayward, director of project design and management for Toronto transportation services, said the city isn’t planning any measures “to provide extra space for pedestrians, or new bike lanes” on Yonge or any other street during the crisis.

Hayward said closing streets to car traffic could undermine Toronto Public Health directives against people congregating in groups.

Hayward said the “open streets” that result from cities banning car traffic are usually intended “to bring people together,” and “this is the exact opposite of what we need to see right now.”

The Ontario government has banned gatherings of more than five people.

Additionally, Hayward said city departments are working with decreased staff levels during the crisis, and the signage, road barriers, and enforcement required to safely implement a street closure “would divert resources away from where they are most needed.”

Councillor Wong-Tam said Monday she supported the city’s decision.

Even prior to the COVID crisis, there had been calls from some pedestrian advocates and others to limit car traffic on Yonge, and the city was examining the idea.

During normal times, daily pedestrian volumes on the street exceed 100,000, according to an October 2019 city staff report on options for redesigning Yonge between Queen St. to College St. Pedestrians make up 50 to 75 per cent of people using the street, yet less than 25 per cent of the corridor’s right-of-way is dedicated to pedestrians.