Taking steps to make Greater Sudbury pedestrian friendly

The Rainbow Routes Association is working to make Sudbury a more pedestrian-friendly city, and is looking for the public’s input in doing so.

In 2007, city council passed a resolution to become the most pedestrian-friendly city in Ontario by 2015. The Rainbow Routes Association was named as the lead agency to conduct research and collect input on how to make the city more walkable and safer for cyclists, in order to develop a Sustainable Mobility Plan for the community.

Sustainable mobility or active transportation involves any form of human-powered transportation: walking, running, cycling, wheelchair use, in-line skating or skateboarding.

“You need to get information from people who are on the ground, walking it, and cycling it,” Deb McIntosh, executive director, Rainbow Routes Association, said. “One-third of the population doesn’t drive a car, so how can they get around safely?”

She said the affected population includes children, teenagers who don’t have cars, seniors who can’t drive, don’t want to drive or never learned to drive, and people who don’t own cars because they can’t afford it.

“And there’s people who actually choose to ride or walk into work to get their daily exercise,” she added.

McIntosh said there are a number of initiatives the city can undertake in order to make the city safer and more accessible for pedestrians.

“One of the things we need to do — it’s also recommended in the official plan for Greater Sudbury — is to come up with a bicycle route plan for the city, of which roads we should designate that need cycling infrastructure,” she said. “We also need to investigate safer ways of getting across intersections and start implementing some safe street features, such as raised crosswalks, count-down crosswalks, and refuge islands in the middle, because some of these intersections are far too big.”

As part of the research, the association is conducting public input sessions for the next three weeks at locations across the Greater Sudbury area. The next session is scheduled for tonight in the amphitheatre at Lasalle Secondary School.

The session is scheduled to run from 6:30-8 p.m.

Following the public input sessions, the Rainbow Routes Association will combine all the collected information, along with literature on what other cities are doing, and create a draft of the Sustainable Mobility Plan. The group is aiming for the end of March to have the document completed and ready for review, before presenting the plan to city council on May 19.

McIntosh said she hopes some items are implemented immediately. “Some things don’t cost a lot of money. When they talk about fixing the roads, under that umbrella comes fixing the intersections and sidewalks. What we’re asking for council to say is ‘a percentage of the money we put toward roads has to go toward ... pedestrian safety and accessibility.”

Funding for this initiative has come through the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the city and donations from partners. For more information on the Sustainable Mobility Plan, visit www.rainbowroutes.com.

Public input sessions are scheduled for the following dates: