July 24, 2012

24 Jul 2012

Recent TCAT activities and news items:

  1. TCAT Positions Available
  2. TCAT's Complete Streets for Canada program in Ottawa
  3. Webinar: Using Health Impact Assessments to connect bicycle and pedestrian safety and health
  4. Event: Designing Cities for Health and Happiness 
  5. Article: "Walking the Walk on Toronto's Pedestrian Charter"
  6. Measuring Congestion in Canada

1. TCAT Positions Available

TCAT currently has two short-term positions open. We are looking for skilled and dedicated people to help us complete key deliverables for our Complete Streets programming. One of the positions is paid and the other is volunteer.
  1. Photographer (paid)
    TCAT requires original photographs showcasing Complete Streets for its newly launched website. The purpose of this project is to provide TCAT with Complete Streets photographs in different urban environments across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and beyond that will be used in our research reports, case studies, and other web-based resources. We are interested in photographs that showcase pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, and drivers of all ages and abilities co-existing on urban, suburban, and rural streets but are also in need of photographs that showcase conflicts between different users. The full posting is here.
  2. Researcher (volunteer)
    The volunteer assignment is a short-term project to assist TCAT in our strategic planning and to document the history of the term "Complete Streets" in Canada. The volunteer researcher will examine relevant trends in the field of active transportation, using research tools such as benchmarking, and competitive analysis. The analysis will involve developing a matrix that will compare active transportation research capacity in non-governmental, educational and government organizations either locally, regionally and nationally.  A separate but related volunteer task will be to establish a timeline of the evolution of the term "Complete Streets" in Canada. The full posting is here.

Scheduling is flexible but both assignments must be completed by September 21. The deadline for applications is August 10, 2012, submitted electronically to Ryan Anders Whitney (ryan.whitney@tcat.ca), TCAT's Complete Streets Researcher and Project Manager.


2. TCAT's Complete Streets for Canada program in Ottawa
Ryan Anders Whitney, TCAT's Complete Streets Researcher and Project Manager, will be based in Ottawa for the month of August at The Hub. Please get in touch with Ryan (ryan.whitney@tcat.ca) if you are in the Ottawa area and would like to learn more and/or have a presentation on TCAT's Complete Streets for Canada program in your community. Ryan will also provide a presentation on TCAT's Complete Streets for Canada program on Thursday, August 2 from 12-1 p.m. as part of The Hub's bi-weekly Brown Bag Lunch speaker series ($8 drop-in fee for non-members; Location: The Hub, 71 Bank Street 6th Floor, Workshop Room - free coffee, bring your own lunch).

3. Webinar: Using Health Impact Assessments to connect bicycle and pedestrian safety and health
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Centre in conjunction with the American Public Health Association presents a free webinar, July 24, 3:30 - 5:00 PM. The webinar will explore connections between Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) and pedestrian and cyclist safety. The webinar will include a presentation by Bethany Rogerson, senior associate for the Health Impact Project, and two case studies from planners and community health specialists discussing how HIAs have been successfully used for planning purposes in two local governments.  

Register for the webinar here. Information about upcoming and archived webinars in the Livable Communities Webinar Series is available online.

4. Event: Designing Cities for Health and Happiness

8-80 Cities presents a free event featuring Helle Søholt, founding partner and Managing Director of Gehl Architects, discussing the lessons Toronto can learn from international projects in Copenhagen, Melbourne, and New York that have transformed public space to prioritize health, life quality, and an inclusive environment for all people. A panel from Toronto will include Monica Campbell (Director Healthy Public Policy, City of Toronto), Shawn Micallef (Spacing and Toronto Star Contributor), Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, and a representative from the Daniels School of Architecture.

The event takes place July 25th, 7-9:00 PM at Design Exchange. More details are available on the 8-80 Cities website.

5. Article: "Walking the Walk on Toronto's Pedestrian Charter"

Former Chair of the TTC Adam Giambrone, writing for Now Toronto, has recently published an article discussing the importance of investment in infrastructure and policies that support pedestrians in Toronto. Giambrone points out that most citizens walk regularly, whether exclusively or to connect with transit, and that improvements to the walking environment will help the city meet economic and environmental challenges. The article includes several ideas that would contribute to a walking culture in the city, such as benches, drinking fountains, better snow-cleared paths, and ground-level retail on main avenues. He challenges Toronto to build on the success of the Toronto Pedestrian Charter, unveiled by Toronto City Council in 2002.

6. Measuring Congestion in Canada

A GPS device manufacturer recently published a ranking of the most congested major cities in North America and Europe based on the speed of automobile travel during peak travel time versus non-peak travel time. Canadian headlines drew attention to Vancouver's ranking as the worst in Canada. Toronto ranked 9th in North America.

Measuring congestion is more complex than simply measuring one variable. A congested route for automobiles may be efficient for other modes. Furthermore, cities with motor-vehicle traffic congestion during ‘peak hours’ may be investing more in cycling, transit, and pedestrian infrastructure and improving travel times for these modes. Vancouver, lauded as one of the most sustainable cities in Canada, is a case in point of this.

Last year, researchers at the University of Toronto released a report finding that expansion of the U.S. Interstate would result in more vehicles. A 2012 research paper by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute shows how roadway expansion comes at the expense of other modes and can increase long-term transportation costs.

Creating a network of Complete Streets helps improve congestion by reducing the demand for driving while encouraging other modes. But the reality is that the great cities around the world that people love to live in or visit are not typically characterized by high levels of free-flowing motor vehicle traffic.