Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Toronto ON
Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.

Planned by Waterfront Toronto and designed by The Planning Partnership, Trolley Crescent was the first woonerf introduced in Toronto in 2014. This U-shaped street is located in the West Don Lands and runs east from St. Lawrence Street, past River Street then south along the eastern edge of River City, then turns west running parallel to Underpass Park back to St. Lawrence Street.


Never heard of a woonerf before? It’s a relatively new street concept in Toronto that has experienced great success in Europe. This innovative approach to street design places equal priority on pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. “Woonerf” is a Dutch word that roughly translates to “living street”. While cars are intended to use the street, the specially designed paving—with no curbs or defined sidewalks—encourages vehicles to slow down and consider the other uses of the space. Essentially, woonerfs are designed to prioritize pedestrians.

A Dutch woonerf, image by Erauch, via Wikimedia Commons

 
What a novel concept in Toronto where cars rule!! I doubt this would make any difference to the selfish drivers.


6 comments:

  1. Although unnamed here, we have a few woonerfs. Interesting that spell checker is happy with the word.

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  2. ...the term woonerf is new to me, but I easily found its meaning. Thanks Jackie for increasing my vocabulary.

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  3. Woonerf sounds like an interesting concept, although I can't see it taking off here in the US. People are in too big a hurry and too self-absorbed. Sad.
    Thank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/12/celebrate-season-with-stollen.html

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  4. We have bike lanes in Wichita, but they are not equal to car lanes. I think Toronto is very forward thinking and I really like this concept.

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  5. I love how Toronto is rethinking and redesigning streets. Innovative.

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