Howard Tam is overjoyed today because the city of Toronto has decided to walk his way.
A community council meeting held last Tuesday saw city staff discuss the idea of installing a crosswalk on St. George St., between the Galbraith Building and the Bahen Centre.
“When a student approaches us, we want to do our best to ensure that they can be heard—it’s encouraging for all of us that way,” said Toronto city councillor Olivia Chow.
Previously, the city’s works department rejected a crosswalk at the site, saying it was 5 metres too close to College St. for the crossing to meet city standards for a signalled pedestrian walkway.
The community council meeting let city councillors to take a second look at the issue, and the crosswalk was approved unanimously.
“Various residence associations, along with the Graduate Students’ Union and several engineering associations, were on our side,” said Tam. “And now that the city supports us we can proceed.”
The crosswalk will cost about $75,000 and could take up to two years to complete.
“I moved three motions at the meeting, the first being a ‘yes’ to the crosswalk, the second being engaging in dialogue to U of T to speed up the process by asking for money in the sum of $37,000,” said Chow.
If a crosswalk is to be built without delay, money from U of T’s administration is needed. “I would like to get in touch with the proper people before the amount of students increases next year due to the double cohort. $37,000 is not a lot of money in terms of how many lives you could be saving,” said Tam.
The community council meeting resolved to take a campus-wide look at traffic safety, to see if other intersections could benefit from signalled crosswalks.
“We have asked the city staff to look at traffic in the downtown campus, looking at other streets such as Sussex and St. George and 1 Spadina Circle, and other different places that would warrant a crosswalk,” said Chow.
The old Knox College building at 1 Spadina Circle, an 1875-era Gothic Revival structure in the middle of Spadina Ave., is a possibility for a crosswalk, Chow said. Students are often seen jaywalking across the streetcar route, two busy lanes of traffic, and a row of parked cars to get back and forth from the building.
St. George St. and Sussex Ave. is another busy crossing, with students negotiating St. George between Innis College and the Rotman School of Management. The nearest traffic signal is several hundred metres south, at Harbord St
“I really appreciate everyone helping out. The amount of student unity is remarkable. It shows that the power of one can get things done,” said Tam.
For Mike Foderick, a member-elect of the Governing Council who helped lobby the city with Tam, the crosswalk issue is better late than never. “It’s about time the city took student safety seriously. Someone was about to die,” he said. Foderick added U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Science is considering chipping in on the cost of traffic signals with the city, to speed up the installation of signals at U of T’s busiest intersections.
