Playing in the Middle of the Street

2010 Photo of Kensington Market, Copyright 2012 by emilydickinsonridesabmx

The new "car-free" zone around the Kensington Market here in Toronto is drawing mixed reviews. Ignoring the idiots in the comments who think that this is some plan by Councillor Adam Vaughan to drive out business to make more condos, the actual idea behind removing cars from the equation is to see if the environment can be more attractive to pedestrians (and as a note, they've always had a few days a year that are car-free; this is basically an expansion).

Downtown Toronto flirts with "car-free" areas fairly often due to all the festivals, parades, and events that occur in any particular year. My favorite is Nuit Blanche, where you can literally walk down the middle of Yonge Street (one of the busiest streets in Toronto!). As a pedestrian, there is an extremely liberating feeling about walking on a road. It feels like you're breaking some sort of rule!

Ryerson (name drop!) has itself sectioned off a small area of roads in the heart of their campus year-round. It was eye-opening the first time I saw it, although admittedly the effect quickly wore off once winter came. During the summer there are several tables set up for students to sit and grab some shade, which helps transform the very look of the streets (very important!). During the winter, I (and as I observed, others) always had the urge to stick to the sidewalks, even with the knowledge that cars were unable to travel on these bare streets. You just didn't feel welcome on them.

This is (perhaps), the biggest problem against closing off streets like this; you need more than planters barring the way to make an area "pedestrian friendly". It's like looking at an optical illusion; no matter how much you rationalize what you're seeing, a part of your brain is always screaming at you that "you shouldn't be here! This space is for cars!" And your brain is kind of right, because roads aren't designed for pedestrians.

I'm not ragging on the idea per se; there is certainly a sense of novelty to closing off a street for pedestrian use (and full disclosure: I've never been to Kensington Market when they've closed off some of the roads). What I want to convey is that changing how people "use" something often requires a visual component to make them feel comfortable in the space. On the low end, it could be taking a cue from Ryerson (who undoubtedly took a cue from somewhere else) and put something on the road that is meant to be used by pedestrians (such as tables and chairs). On the high end, changing the colour/texture of the ground surface to differentiate it from your typical city pavement can be just the trick, even if (six other days of the week) cars travel on the surface too.

Perhaps even more importantly however, you need reasons for people to be walking there. Intimate storefronts, big sidewalks, and convenient public transit are all factors that can invite people into a neighbourhood. And yes, they can't be competing for space with cars; you get into walk-ability trouble once you have more than two lanes of traffic.

The good news for Kensington Market is that is possesses a lot of great aspects that make it a fun place to visit, such as vendors whose goods spill onto the sidewalk (which are wide enough in many places to stop and chat at without disrupting traffic), great places to eat and a variety of specialty stores, and minimal disruption from traffic thanks to there only being one lane + parking. There's a lot to like about the market already, and I think that is why they're expanding their "car-free Sundays" to the rest of the summer.

The jury's still out at this point whether it's a net positive for the neighbourhood, but it's a noble experiment that many neighbourhoods in Toronto should try out. I would love to see something similar in the St. Lawrence Market area!