reaperexpress
Senior Member
Yes of course.Is there really any way to adapt the Dutch model here though?
Obviously a 100% separation of cycle/pedestrian routes from through traffic routes is pretty difficult to achieve anywhere other than greenfield developments like Houten or Almere, but the principles of separating destination streets (retail, residential etc.) from movement roads (highways, arterials) is applicable in all planning contexts. After all, it's not like all Dutch cities were built since the late 70's when the current planning principles were introduced. Pre-1970's areas of the Netherlands didn't historically separate movement functions from place functions any more than their counterparts in Toronto. But in the subsequent years Dutch cities have systematically been diverting motor traffic away from areas with higher pedestrian activity towards areas with lower pedestrian activity, ideally to grade-separated motor traffic infrastructure such as the N201 arterial road bypassing Alsmeer and Uithorn (opened 2014), the A2 motorway through Maastricht (opened 2016), the Victory Boogie Woogie Tunnel in Den Haag (opened in 2021), and the A-16 motorway northern extension in Rotterdam (under construction).
For example in the downtown core of Toronto, one would try to identify routes where motor traffic has a relatively low per-vehicle impact on the surrounding urban area (University Ave, Richmond, Adelaide etc) and areas where they have a particularly high conflict with urban life (King, Queen, Yonge), and try to divert traffic from the latter to the former. The King Pilot is an example of a project which aligns well with Dutch Sustainable Safety principles, since King Street is a hotspot of pedestrian activity.
An example of a City project which goes totally against the principle of separating movement from place is the Allen District development plan, which envisions turning Allen Road into an 'urban boulevard', adding sidewalks and buildings fronting directly onto it, thereby creating new pedestrian-vehicle conflicts where few/none currently exist. According to Sustainable Safety principles, Allen Road should instead remain as a limited-access road, and those developments should be centered around the new internal collector streets within the development. The two sides of the development would be linked across Allen Road using pedestrian/cycling underpasses.
Last edited: