Complete Streets Forum PreConference Mobile Workshop: St. George Street 15 Years Later
St. George Street was one of the first examples of comprehensive traffic calming in the City of Toronto. In 1997 traffic lanes were reduced from four to two and the space was reallocated to bike lanes, trees, wider sidewalks, sidewalk bulbouts and new pedestrian crossings. As a result, speeding was reduced and traffic collisions decreased by 40% between 1997 and 2003. The consultants insisted on referring to the process as "re-balancing" of traffic in the city. The project has served as a model for psychological calming and there are important lessons to learn from it in terms of durability, maintenance and integration with the city. It is now referred to as "son of Bloor Street", the City's next major streetscape project. Please note: This workshop is led by Eric Pedersen, Urban Design, City Planning Division, City of Toronto and John van Nostrand, Founding Principal, Planning Alliance and is available on a first-come, first-serve basis to 20 registrants of the Complete Streets Forum (http://torontocat.ca/main/completestreetsforum2010/registration).
