COVID-related transport measures in your city

[Gabmtl]

I'd like to know what are the temporary/ permanent measures your city has done to make space for pedestrians and cyclists for this summer, regarding the pandemic context.

I know a lot of cities in Quebec have pedestrianized their downtown streets for the summer and Montreal is said to have the world's biggest plan on this matter (327 km of transformed streets like pedestrian streets, streets closed to non-residents, bicycle-priority streets, etc) :

https://csc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/web....6227%2C102100

Is your city implementing these kind of measures? Are they permanent or temporary?

[WhipperSnapper]

Not sure. The pandemic is too exhausting for many Torontonians. I don't know if something similar would be good. Too many rewards already handed out for barely doing the minimum and being a whole lot of lucky.

This also defeats the purpose of cancelling summer events to keep people at home.

[J.OT13]

At first, the City of Ottawa resisted any such measure to close down streets. Urban Councillors had to fight for the little they got. Councillor Jeff Leiper from the urban west end had to take out money from his office budget to make part of Byron local traffic only. Two lanes were closed on the Bank Street Bridge to allow for physical distancing. He tried to get some on-street parking removed along Bank, but the Mayor blocked him with a motion and Menard was eventually kicked off of the Glebe BIA (with the Mayor's support) for working in the name of residents instead of the BIA.

Since the City was fighting any attempt to provide more space for pedestrians and cyclists, the NCC closed down Parkways (parts are closed all day, every day while others on weekends only) in the City and Gatineau Park.

Once businesses started re-opening, the City drafted plans to add space for patios in the Byward Market, closing a few streets in the area for the summer. Patio fees throughout the City have been waived and the application process has been made easier.

Most of Bank north of the Queensway and a block of Somerset close on weekends, thanks to the local BIA.

In Gatineau, the City closed down Jacques Cartier along the Gatineau and Ottawa Rivers, but I'm not aware of anything elese.

Ottawa was the first municipality to make masks mandatory on transit in early June.

[Taeolas]

Fredericton hasn't really done much; but our downtown is already fairly pedestrian friendly. If restaurants wanted to extend out the front for patios, we already had a lot of the infrastructure and rules in place for them to do so.

Moncton and Saint John apparently have pedestrianized a lot of streets (esp main street Moncton). I'm not sure how that is going for them.

Otherwise, the only other thing of note is the Transit. Masks are mandatory on buses in all 3 cities, and they are operating at 50% capacity now.

[zahav]

Vancouver has done a decent amount of that but not sure how much is km. They have put shut down lanes of traffic everywhere for new patios, which I love! They are all over the city now. But in terms of fully shut down streets (as opposed to just lanes of a street), I'm not sure

[MonkeyRonin]

Some streets have been pedestrianized, traffic lanes given over to restaurant patios, masks required on transit, the usual stuff.




https://www.blogto.com/slideshows/be...en-in-toronto/



The city also seems to have taken this as an opportunity to install new permanent bike lanes, most notably on Bloor St. and along University Ave.


https://twitter.com/Penalosa_G/statu...56949532815361

[Peggerino]

Winnipeg has turned a few streets into local traffic only which has done a great job of connecting the city's bike infrastructure up together. They were originally going to go away in early July but City Council voted to keep them until Labour Day. I could see a few of them sticking around full time once the pandemic is over since they're very well used (most notably Wolseley and Wellington Crescent).

[urbandreamer]

^Idea: you know those squeaky toys kids and dogs like to play with? What if every 10-20 feet the city installed larger squeaky pads between the bike and car lanes so cyclists would have a warning of a possible accident?

[Architype]

Vancouver had shut down traffic around Stanley Park, which is partially open again now, also had partially shut down Beach Avenue.

[manny_santos]

In terms of public transit, I’m not seeing a whole lot in Vancouver. I used the Skytrain and the Canada Line for the first time on Friday since arriving here earlier this month, and aside from signage telling people to keep to the right, there was nothing to enforce distancing. Fortunately I was there when it wasn’t busy so I had no trouble keeping away from others.

On the Canada Line which I took from Oakridge to Waterfront, everyone except for one passenger was wearing a mask. On the Expo line from Waterfront to Commercial-Broadway, mask usage was lower. On the R4 Rapibus I took the same day, almost everyone was wearing a mask.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

The city also seems to have taken this as an opportunity to install new permanent bike lanes, most notably on Bloor St. and along University Ave.


https://twitter.com/Penalosa_G/statu...56949532815361

By permanent, do you mean barriers that aren't traffic cones?

[Prairiedawg]

Something I've been hearing more of this year is incidence of rattlesnake bites in BC and the Prairies due to more people utilizing park paths and trails but also trying to maintain social distancing by stepping off paths to maintain distance when coming upon others.

CTV Calgary reported this in April.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/warm-weat...ters-1.4919810

and I've heard of envenomations just this week.

https://infotel.ca/newsitem/kamloops...labour/it75215

Pacific & Prairie rattlesnakes typically come out of hibernation end of March and early April. Ontario's Mississauga rattlers usually come out of hibernation in May so not sure if there has been any increased snake encounters there in the last couple months either.

[Innsertnamehere]

Toronto has installed quite a few "temporary" bike lanes that I fully expect to remain indefinitely before eventually becoming permanent.

The additions have been quite good too, they filled in a lot of the gaps in the cycling network. After the installations are complete I think the city could finally start to claim that it has a robust cycling network.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Toronto has installed quite a few "temporary" bike lanes that I fully expect to remain indefinitely before eventually becoming permanent.

The additions have been quite good too, they filled in a lot of the gaps in the cycling network. After the installations are complete I think the city could finally start to claim that it has a robust cycling network.

The classic Toronto "pilot project" in full effect! The new University lanes are incredible, ditto Bloor. There's some kinks to be worked out but just get them in there and figure it out moving forward. I can't imagine any of these lanes being removed.

I feel like it's probably part of the Vision Zero initiative, but I've also noticed so many new traffic light installations (most not operational yet) to give some priority to pedestrians on cross streets. Also new contra-flow bike lanes throughout the city being set up. I think this was all planned but it does seem to be fast-tracked.

Overall I think Toronto has done more during COVID than in the past 5 years!

[MonkeyRonin]

Mark posted this in the transportation section, showing bike lanes that are being expanded: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/202...e-network.html



(not specifically Covid-related, but it hasn't hurt)