September 26th, 2006
Pedestrian advocate resigns in frustration
By Dylan Reid // No Comments
Long-time pedestrian advocate Helen Riley, one of the activists who was instrumental in getting a Pedestrian Charter for Toronto, resigned her post as co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee ahead of the committee's September meeting. In an email to fellow committee members, she expressed her frustration at the lack of resources given by the city to pedestrian issues, and the consequent delays that beset pedestrian initiatives. She also expressed frustration that the city did not take the citizen's committee sufficiently into account when considering pedestrian issues.
The last straw was another delay to the city's Pedestrian Collision Study, which is supposed to look for patterns in vehicle-pedestrian collisions with an eye to finding measures to improve pedestrian safety. The original version the committee saw over a year ago was deeply flawed, and later versions have been delayed over and over again. However, Helen's message ends with a note of hope that a new generation of activists are taking up the cause.
Her letter reads, in part:
I am tired of shouting into the wind, and it is not doing me or anyone else any good.
The last straw was the phone call telling me that not only would the Collision Study be delayed again, but that it would not contain any countermeasures and, in fact, would be very little different from the analysis we saw a year ago.
...
We have no advocates on Council.
Any suggestions of budget increases for pedestrians are squashed before they are even discussed.
In short, there is no commitment to involving us in any real change. We are window-dressing, to give the appearance of public input and consultation.
Perhaps that is true of all advisory committees.
Anyway my patience has run out.
There is good work being done by the Public Space Committee, the Active Transportation group, and Spacing magazine. All are efforts of younger and more energetic people. More power to them. Car-free day is again being celebrated on September 22 and [October 29] is the last Pedestrian Sunday of the year in Kensington Market. Community groups continue to fight for pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods. So there is still reason to hope for eventual progress toward the livable city in spite of all the obstacles and setbacks.
I and many others hope that Helen will continue to provide the benefit of her wisdom, experience and passion to the pedestrian cause through other avenues.
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