It is maybe comforting to know that even Europe wrestles with the decision of whether a grand urban space should be used for pedestrians, or turned into a parking lot. Take, for example, the Grand-Place in Brussels (pictured above).
Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important tourist destinations in the city. Perhaps its most famous. But during the 1960s, in what Wikipedia calls a "low period of appreciation," it was a parking lot.
This lasted until 1972, when a bunch of people from the community got together and lobbied for it to, you know, not be a parking lot. Not surprisingly, local shop owners were worried, at the time, that this would hurt their businesses. This is often the concern.
Here in Toronto, where we continue to debate the pedestrianization of Kensington Market, we have surveys showing that 94% of visitors to the area support pedestrian-only zones, but that this number drops to 55% when you narrow to people who live/work/own stuff in the area.
But if your goal is to sell more things to people, then there's something to be said about listening to what your visitors want. In the case of Grand-Place, pedestrianizing the square made it far more popular as a tourist destination. And I think the same would be true of Kensington Market.
For some photos of iconic public spaces in Europe being used as parking lots, check out this Politico article.
Image: Wikipedia Creative Commons
This morning I rode out to Toronto's new Leslie Lookout Park, which opened two weeks ago. I came down Cherry Street, crossing the new north bridge, and then I went all along Commissioners Street, crossing its new bridge.
It's great to see the Port Lands area continue to develop. Every time I'm down there, it feels more and more real -- like an extension of the city. Now we just need to start developing within the blocks.
If you find yourself at Leslie Lookout, make sure you locate Claude Cormier's heart up in the tower. Claude's firm CCxA was the landscape architect behind the project; but sadly, he passed away last year.
Exactly 1 year before the opening of this park.
In Google's guide to its maps, there is a section on live traffic congestion, and in it, this image is used:
It is a map of the Toronto region, and not surprisingly, it is showing traffic congestion on the 401 highway. But what's interesting about this image is that there's no traffic at all on the 407 express toll route. (This is the green highway running generally parallel and north of the 401, for those of you who aren't familiar with Toronto.)
This is, of course, accurate. A 2019 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis called the Economic Impacts of Highway 407 found that, at the time, an average of 413,000 drivers were using the 407 highway each weekday. And of these trips, more than 85% of vehicles were travelling at or above 100 km/h. This translates into a traffic congestion index of almost zero.
During this same time, the highway 401 through Toronto showed that about 85% of vehicles were travelling below 50 km/h. Meaning, lots of congestion. This also had a significant impact on collision and fatality rates. On the 407, both were about half of what they were on the 401. (I couldn't find any more decent data, but if you have it, please share it in the comments.)
The reason for these differences is simple: the 407 charges for congestion. Here are the current per kilometer weekday rates for light vehicles travelling westbound:
Naturally, there are people who think the 407 is too expensive and that it shouldn't have been privatized. But the reality is that it works; really well in fact. And this is the only method that has been proven to reliably combat congestion. We can go ahead and spend a gazillion dollars building a new tunnel under the 401, and double the number of lanes (it's already 18 lanes at its widest point), but we already know that it won't solve our congestion problem.
Either we price roads and congestion, or we don't. But if we don't, then we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about the economic trade off that we are making: free/underpriced roads = traffic congestion, and accurately priced roads and congestion = less traffic. The choice is ours. But know, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
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