The Future Fix: Safe Streets

For our second season, we wanted to begin with a challenge that faces many cities, large and small, that has been given a higher sense of urgency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That challenge is the need for safe streets and active transportation routes for pedestrians and cyclists. To create these spaces, you need to be able to communicate the problem, and pinpoint where an intervention can provide the most benefit. That's where data comes in. In this episode, Walk Toronto co-founder Sean Marshall tells us how the advocacy group used things like Google Maps to crowd-source sidewalks too narrow to social distance, and help influence policy. Shabnem Afzal, road safety manager for Surrey, British Columbia, overseas that city's Vision Zero program — a global effort to reduce the amount of road injury and death to zero. She explains how data was used to generate support for a safe streets program and to identify problem areas. And Halifax City Councillor Waye Mason tells us about that city's mobility response, and an interactive map that lets citizens identify spots where safe street interventions for walk, cycling, and social distancing are needed.