jxmith_
Active Member
Glad you brought up the whole walking distance thing. Because it IS a perception vs reality thing.Except, that as I have clearly shown with actual distances it is not within walking distance as most Torontonians would envision it.
I did so in this post, among others:
Lower Don Lands Redevelopment | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto
One example of something that may help is the carsharing proposal that just passed committee. I think this might just shift 3-5 points of modal share within a couple of years and reduce car ownership rates. I have to think that planning for car ownership similar to today in buildings that...urbantoronto.ca
From said post:
View attachment 566816
The 700M is within but pushing most people's idea of walking distance........but that's the closest measured point. The median distance 1.2km or about a 17 minute walk at a good clip.
Hasn't happened and wont' happen..........would be a starting point there.
A 45 minute walk at average healthy adult walking speed. Of zero consequence for modal split.
The proposal at Villiers is serious density, and significantly higher density that St.James Town which you repeatedly have said, in print is too dense.
You will will have to make up your mind.
I grew up with a bus stop across the street, and a bus stop down the block. Both were considered by my family to be within walking distance. If there was a road problem (accident or construction) there was another bus line a handful of blocks away, but that was never a first choice or regular option because of distance. If things were reaaally tight, my parents would offer a drive to the station, because it was seen as unreasonable to walk that far.
Eventually I’d look it all up and see that the choice bus stop was 20m away. The secondary option was 200m away. The last resort bus was 450m and the subway station 1km.
So having lived that, my experience says that everyone likes to talk about “only 1km” but nobody likes to walk that.
It’s the same as when everyone would talk about Canary/Distillery as having sooo many grocery stores and pharmacies within walking distance and I’d argue that unless something was across the street, everyone was getting in their cars because 750m-1+km was not a desirable distance for most, especially with a couple bags of broccoli and laundry detergent.
We should have new game, but instead of “F$&!, Marry, Kill” it’s “Walk, bus, car” then have folks make decisions about destinations before knowing the distance.