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September 21 and 22

2 days, 2 disciplines, 2 ways to participate – defining our professional roles and uniting to build more equitable, accessible and inspired communities.

#2GETHER2022

Beyond 25 Banner

September 21 and 22

2 days, 2 disciplines, 2 ways to participate – defining our professional roles and uniting to build more equitable, accessible and inspired communities.

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#2GETHER2022

308A - Military Trail & Ellesmere Road: An Accident Waiting to Happen

October 07, 2020

12:30PM - 12:45PM

Over the past few years, there has been a cornucopia of public concern due to a spike in traffic collisions with pedestrians and cyclists resulting in serious injuries and fatalities throughout the City of Toronto. In response to the increase in these types of collisions, the City of Toronto implemented the Vision Zero: Road Safety Plan in 2016, seeking to completely eliminate pedestrian related injuries and fatalities. Despite its implementation, very little has changed, pushing the need to create safer, “pedestrian-first” environments, starting at the neighbourhood level. 
 
Similarly, this project looks to create a safer intersection for pedestrians and cyclists at Ellesmere Road and Military Trail (two Minor Arterial Roads), a heavily utilized pedestrian corridor at the University of Toronto - Scarborough. The built environment and design of the intersection has not changed since the current configuration from the mid-70s, yet the population of the institution has grown exponentially. 
 
Individual pedestrian and cyclist counts were conducted from Monday January 20th, 2020 to Friday January 24th, 2020, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily, analyzing multimodal interactions at the intersection between pedestrians, cyclists, cars, and public transit. Over the span of five days, a total of 42,246 counts were observed, of which 104 were cyclists, with the rest being pedestrians, as well as most hourly counts being over 1000. 
 
Learning objective

  • The findings and qualitative observations show that pedestrian and cyclist interactions with vehicles at the intersection of Military Trail and Ellesmere Road are indicative of an unsafe environment for pedestrians and cyclists, leading to an inevitable collision causing severe injuries, or even fatalities. 
  • This project analyzes the current state of the intersection, ultimately providing best practice solutions that change the urban design and improve the lives of those who use the intersection

Speakers