Should cars be banned from Queen St.?

There is much talk about creating cities for people and not just for car mobility. There is lots of talk about improving pedestrian safety, promoting cycling, improving public transportation, but not much doing.

The World Car Free Day celebration presents a wonderful opportunity to be innovative and actually do something relevant and bold in Toronto. Why not open Queen Street to pedestrians, cyclists and street cars and close it to motor vehicles during the week of September 20th to the 26th?

Queen Street is already poor for car mobility. It’s narrow, has too many parked cars and the street car makes it even slower. The amount of cars using this street could easily be absorbed by Richmond and Adelaide, from Niagara Street in the west to Parliament Street to the east. It’s just 3.8 kilometres but could be a magnificent pilot project that if successful, could become permanent in 2011.

Queen Street is a good street, but it can be better. It can become a world class street. The transformation of Queen Street, along with car diversion to parallel streets, can be a learning experience for many communities. Similar actions in comparable cities have proven to be extraordinary for local business, and magnificent for people of all ages and levels of ability who enjoy a great public place. In the process, we can imagine what a Toronto for people can look and feel like.

A great complement to this pilot project would be to do a ped/bike friendly treatment on Yonge St., by opening the right lanes in both directions exclusive for bicycle riders from Bloor St. to Lake Ontario, leaving the two centre lanes for cars and buses. This would complete the east-west and a north-south bicycle connection.

Smaller interventions should also be used to connect these two arterials to educational institutions, parks, Union Station, and other points of origin and/or destination.

This would be a celebration of Car Free Week with a great deal of impact, which would get everyone thinking about the role of the pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and cars, in a sustainable city. Special projects could be developed from elementary schools to PhD students, media coverage, public forums, etc. The monetary cost is small, as all you need are some signs, pylons, and politicians who have guts and aren’t afraid to think and act big.

Other cities have taken similar measures.

• In Bogota, Colombia, Car Free Day is celebrated on a Thursday in February by not allowing circulation of cars anywhere in a city of 7 million people (approved by referendum);
• in Brussels, Belgium, they also have a total ban on cars one Sunday per year.
• NYC transformed Broadway around Times Square into an exclusive pedestrian and cycling way.

Copenhagen, Paris and Portland also enjoy car free streets and closer to home, one of the nicest experiences for Vancouverites during the Winter Olympics was to have multiple streets open to people and closed to cars during the games; the experience was so successful for community building as well as for the business owners that Administration is evaluating the possibility of making it permanent.

Change is hard and it does not happen by consensus. We must change if we want to combat global warming, the obesity epidemic, economic crisis and traffic congestion, elements that are creating a perfect storm. We cannot expect different results by doing things the same way.

Why not take up this challenge and together, elected officials, city staff, and community members look for solutions to the problems that might arise with this pilot project and not for problems to the solutions and make it a wonderful celebration of life in Toronto?

Queen St. could really become the Jewel of the City, and in the process, contribute to having a cleaner environment, more vibrant business, nice recreation for all, real alternative transportation modes and more physical activity improving public health.

About Gil Penalosa

Comments

[the dispatcher]

Kensington Market should be a car-free zone.

[Alan]

Queen Street? How about Kensington Market? If anything that whole area should be car free. The roads are so narrow now that it's constantly jammed with cars and people are filling into the streets because the sidewalks get so busy.

Do what other cities such as Hong Kong has done, designate a certain period of the day each and every day to be no car time so that people can get around easily and safely. This way, the shops can still get their deliveries and serviced during non peak hours.

Similarly this can be done on Queen Street or any other street for that matter. Keep the street cars running but close off the street to cars for a period of time every day or start with every weekend say between noon and 5pm. On Queen Street it could be between Spadina and John Street as that's where most of the shops are located.

[Tanya]

This is the best idea I have heard in a long time.. Its pretty much a parking lot anyway. I am not sure why anyone would want to drive there.

[Hans from Parkdale]

This is a brilliant idea. I walk Queen street every day to work and am terrified for the darring cyclists who squeeze between packed street cars are racing drivers. Queen street could work exactly like the Zeil in Frankfort although with public transportation running down the middle of it. The long central pedestrian street in Frankfort is a hub of shopping activity and a tourist draw. Those businesses who believe all their shoppers arrive in cars parked out front are wrong. They'll do better business if their shop is along a pedestrian way that draws crowds because of how pleasant and beautiful it is to linger there. Make this happen!

[Guenther Moeller]

I fully agree! Enjoying the City Hall square and the Osggode Hall park without the cars racing past would be wonderful! Imagine the outdoor cafes. And even in winter, it could be an area of calm, for passing pedestrians.

Ironic; so many people enjoy the old cities of Europe, with their pedestrian zones and piazzas. Why not build them here? And once we ban cars on the Queen Street section, let's see if a few other streets qualify for the same treatment.

I drive a car, but fully favour this approach. We need a better balance downtonwn!

[ndrawl]

Gil must have been up early today. I just saw him at a talk last night. It's a bold idea, and something that Toronto sorely lacks. It always seems as though we, as a city, are afraid to take a chance on big ideas like this. Something that would make an event, like Car free day, meaningful. I say let's take a chance!

[Brian]

We simply do not have the infrastructure to allow commerce to function at acceptable levels if we start blocking off streets. It's as simple as that.

[JT]

This guy is really out to lunch and it's too early for that! Too many businesses and residents along the entire stretch of Queen St for it to become a pedestrian street. This plan might make the street more beautiful and clean and pedestrian friendly but the fact is there will be much less pedestrian traffic in general over teh course of a day because people won't pass it on the Streetcar and in their cars anymore. It might be too far for some to travel via bike who would otherwise use the streetcar to get there.

[Steve_YYZ]

So... the war on cars continues and gets more stupid all the time. You'll get me out of my car only when you pry my cold dead fingers off the steering wheel.

[Duke]

interesting idea. i think the key point here is near the end of the post - "we cannot expect different results by doing things the same way." but we do. we talk about climate change, poor air quality, obesity, pedestrian deaths, peak oil, and any number of other reasons to do things differently. and then what do we do? we do things the exact same way and expect that somehow all of these problems will miraculously disappear.

at least there are some other cities out there leading the way, allowing Toronto to follow kicking and screaming. curitiba, brazil, is a good example. back in the 70s they created a pedestrian only street right downtown. there were howls of protest at the time, but now they would never go back. they often survey the local population on the idea of opening the street back up to cars, and there remains over 90% support for the pedestrian street. they also have great public transit there.

it's time for some new ideas here and this blog is a start.

[Anders]

I'm in the Netherlands at the moment and it's shocking how far behind Toronto is when it comes to creating people-friendly and bicycle-friendly streets. Yes, take the cars off Queen Street. It will be a much more pleasant environment and, with safe bike lanes and a right of way for the streetcar, also be a more effective transportation route.

[blob]

I recently returned from a visit with family in Holland. I found it remarkable how well the cycle traffic there is integrated with city life. To call the country bicycle-friendly is an understatement. Dutch cities (actually, the whole country) have long had separate bicycle lanes, making for efficient, safe commuting on two wheels. The larger cities (The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam) actively discourage automobile traffic by limiting parking space and restricting traffic lanes. If the Dutch can do this in cities that are denser and far older than Toronto, why on earth can we not do the same?

[Brent Sienna]

"Change is hard and does not happen by consensus" - Consensus is defined in English as, firstly - general agreement and, secondly - group solidarity of belief or sentiment. So from that little statement we can see that Gil doesn't believe in taking other opinions views, or even facts into account only his own view and those like his count while the rest be damned. Gil, I hope your statement is only evidence of poor writing skills and not evidence of something far worse.

[CanadianBiker]

If you REALLY want to improve Queen (or any other street), ban the hipster-bags.

[Diane Jennifer]

Years ago when I lived in Montreal, they made a few streets pedestian malls and they were great. I'd love to see it here.

[JOE MAYO]

Keep the cars on Queen St. it's not that special a place, Kensington Market is a great idea for an area that should be car-free. I often have to commute downtown from the east end and Queen St is important for my commute. If you want to improve Traffic, get rid of the streetcars on Queen St. that block cars, and threaten streetcar passengers lives' with impatient drivers trying to cut off streetcars all the time. There's no good public transit option there.

I think the people on Queen St. just want the beaches for themselves and are trying to get rid of "outsiders", since there's no real good public transit option for going to the beach... (Streetcar? lol).

[Ryan]

How do you set aside Queen St for pedestrian traffic when it has East and Westbound street cars 24 hours a day? Sure it's a busy street weekday afternoons and Saturdays, but otherwise it's fairly quiet in terms of car traffic. No need to choke off businesses that require couriers, deliveries and customers.

[Bike Me]

There is no war on the car. Have you ever been to Europe, or even to the US? Santa Monica, California, has one of the most popular pedestrian-only streets. Feel free to do a poll of the shop owners there, I think you'll find that they aren't complaining.

Also, blob, you're misunderstanding your own quote. And course Gil's opinion piece is from a perspective-- that's the point of an opinion piece.

[Thomas Patricio]

This is a great idea whose time has come over 20 years ago. Toronto remains one of the few large cities in the world without a pedestrian only street. Roads dedicated to car traffic only (highways) are fine, but try giving just one street for pedestrians only and outrage ensues with ridiculous "war on car" claims. Another thing that I find hard to understand is opposition from shop owners. In other cities, businesses along closed off street that are pedestrian friendly flourish and are more successful than does that are on car busy streets. And as for the delivery issue, delivery trucks have usually full access and once at their destination, they can take their merry time since they're not obstructing traffic,something that constantly happens nowadays to the annoyance of drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and transit users.

[BrianV]

I'm not sure it would make sense to have the entire stretch of Queen Street closed to vehicles (nor am I sure that is what the writer is suggesting) but to have a stretch of Queen West, I think wuold be a great idea. Depending on the stretch, it would only add to to the foot traffic along the shops along Queen West. What stretch would we close? How about University, west to Bathurst or Spadina?

[Ryan M]

I would take the cars completely off of Queen, and take the streetcars off King right through the entire city. They are close enough together to support each other, whereby cars could utlize King Street without the interference of Streetcars, and we could double the amount of streetcars on Queen and expand the sidewalks to create a very walkable street. It could be our Las Ramblas of Toronto, with trees, cafes, shops, transit. It would be magnificent.

[tim isherwood]

You are certainly right to reference other cities, even Berlin which has a similar climate to Toronto's has an extensive network of designated bike lanes throughout the entire city.
However, those major cities also have extensive subway systems on a grid system accessing the entire city. Here, we have one east-west line and 2 south-north lines in the same vicinity. What we need is a Queen line connecting the Beaches to Roncesvalles. Then pull the cars off the street. Fat chance.

[Ryan]

Brilliant! Of course, there will be tremendous opposition from the car-loyalists (imagine admitting you're in that category?!). We are still plagued by North American-itis which has us believe the American dream with excess living space and a big car is proof of luxury. Plleeeeaaassseee people, pull your heads out of the sand and lets move this city forward!

[SDN]

Making Queen pedestrian/streetcar only is a great idea - in a vacuum. Unfortunately, when you combine that with the City's latest bike lane kick (part of which which was mercifuly delayed last week by mistaken voting), the conversion of Adelaide and Richmond Streets into 2-way traffic (which will make the only 2 streets that you can still move on during rush hour as slow as molasses), and the lack on expanded public transit from the outer fringes on Toronto into the downtown core, and closing main roads to cars is suddenly not so smart? Think of the environment, you say? Well, having tens of thousands of cars idling in bumper to bumper traffic is a whole lot worse than having them actually moving. Take your pick! In the meantime, until public transit is vastly improved, these ideas need to pushed to the back-burner.

Sorry, but it's true.

[Jose]

This is a matter of common sense, and a matter of natural steps. When a place becomes so populated and dense, it is only natural that space becomes narrow and smaller, that cars no longer fit in the environment and have to take a backseat. This would define a CITY, such as Toronto. That is what a city is. Dense. It's silly and pathetic to have cars and roads acting as highways, in the downtown core. Why deny it or try to fight it? There's no point in trying to be in denial and no point in trying to keep a country-rural mode in a CITY (use of cars to get around) when it is not that at all. Not just for Queen St. but for many of the downtown streets such as King, Front, and downtown parts of north-south downtown streets as well. I think it's time to put the main zones of Queen Street as car-free, and to make it as a cycling/pedestrian/streetcar zone only. It would even be better if there was a subway under Queen Street, to help create options for people. And yes, like many have mentioned, Toronto is behind compared to European cities - in many planning and attitude ways from cycling/pedestrian culture to the subway system. And Europe is even the "old world" while we're the "new world." We are expected to be innovative and taking advantage of being new. What a shame!