Introduction
Transportation plays a key role with autonomous living. We need to move ourselves in order to survive in this socioeconomic society that we’ve built over the last century. Heading to and from work, picking up groceries, or visiting the doctor requires us to move from one location to another. Unfortunately, within Toronto, we’ve built our transit system with a lot of barriers in place, essentially blocking those who wish to use public transit due to the lack of accessible features. While progress has been made to break these barriers, there is still much more to do. Within this proposal, and for my final research project, I will be observing the TTC’s accessibility, and its implementations. I want to focus on two specific stations, as these are the most heavily used stations within the network, yet fail to be accessible: Islington Station and Dundas West Station. Access Now identifies Islington as not accessible, while Dundas West is flagged as accessible. My final project proposes that both stations, and the area on street level, needs to be reworked and redesigned before it can be considered ‘Accessible’.
Deep Accessibility and the TTC
Deep Accessibility is an essay written by Star Ford, which explores the concept of “levels of accessibility” within an environment: movement, sense, architecture, communication and agency. (Ford, 2015) The goal is to redefine what “accessible” means, and rather than focus on one type of disability, we redesign our spaces so that it can systematically include as many people as possible, without the need of specific accommodations. (Ford, 2015) In relation to the TTC, I will be focusing on three of the five levels: movement, communication, and agency. These levels have been ignored when building the initial portions of Line 1 and Line 2, making life harder for those with disabilities in Toronto.
Access Now – A guide towards accessibility
Access Now is an application that provides resources to search an area, and tracks what is and isn’t accessible. In Toronto, the application shows you restaurants, buildings, and public infrastructure that users can or can’t access depending on their accommodations. In the case of my Final Project, here is what Access Now says for Islington and Dundas West stations:
- Islington Station – Not Accessible
- Dundas West Station – Accessible
While the entry for both Islington and Dundas West Stations do not go into detail as to why they’re accessible/not accessible, this Digital Report is meant to fill in the gap and explain the issues of accessibility with said stations.
David vs Goliath, The Fight for Accessibility
Prior to 1994, the TTC was in a predicament. Canada was going through a deep recession, which hit Toronto hard. Unfortunately, this meant that the TTC had to make significant cuts with subway service, abandon expansion plans, and remove their remaining trolleybus network. One major cut that happened was the retro-fit and implementation of train announcements across the entire network.
Then comes in David Lepofsky, a lawyer who’s vision deteriorated over time. He heavily relied on the TTC to do his daily activities, keeping track of how many stations the train has passed due to a lack of accessibility. After a trip to New York, he questioned why the TTC never announced their stops from the beginning. After writing a letter to the Chief General Manager, the response was a generic “we’ll look into it” answer, with no plan in sight on implementation. (Lepofsky, 2014) That’s when David had enough.
September 1994, Lepofsky registered a complaint with the Human Rights Commission along with suing the TTC “for the discrimination in the provision of services because of [Lepofsky’s] disability.” (Lepofsky, 2014)
A new age for Ontario, and the TTC
After a lengthy 10 year battle with the TTC and the Province, Lepofsky won his first major battle. It led to many changes provincially, and the creation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. (Kalinowinski, 2007) Locally, the TTC had begun to take accessibility seriously. Stop announcements were rolled out on buses, streetcars, and the subway. (Kalinowinski, 2007) Low-floor streetcars were ordered to replace the non-accessible and ageing CLRV streetcars, stations were being equipped with elevators, and a new approach for wayfinding was developed with Universal Design in mind. (TTC Board, 2020) Things are looking up, but that doesn’t mean that everything has been fixed.
Eugenic Design – Fixing what needs to be fixed
Jay Dolmage discusses the history of Eugenic Design in the 20th century as “the focus of design has been on streamlining, on speed, and on normative ideal types—ideal bodies for which designers sought not only to create products for but sought to sell products to create.” (Dolmage, 2017) That is, we design our spaces for those who don’t have any disabilities, and are abled-bodied, and we expect only those to use said space. In recent times, we’ve started to have discussions on making our spaces accessible, however, our approach on retrofitting may also contribute to Eugenic Design. Dolmage notes that spaces that are being retrofitted to be “accessible” may continue to perpetuate E.D, as it doesn’t fix a need, but to make its users behave in a certain way. (Dolmage, 2007)
In contrast, the antithesis of Eugenic Design would be that of “Transformative Access”, in which we rethink the very construct of “allowing”. We build spaces that have Universal Design in mind, and try to accommodate as many people as we can by default. (Dolmage, 2007)
In the case of the TTC, the initial subway was built only for those who have the ability to walk and see out the train window. While things are changing for the better, the TTC still has a lot of work to do in reversing their original eugenic approach when building infrastructure.
Islington Station – Unsafe Platform Design
When going below platform level at Islington, it may look like a normal station for able-bodied people, however there are many issues with the station.
First, the station layout is a single platform with both Eastbound and Westbound trains stopping on each side. Lepofsky notes that single platform subway stations are unsafe for those with visual disabilities, as there are two dangerous drop-offs at both sides of the platform. While there are tactile indicators to show where the edges of the platforms are, depending on their wear, it might not communicate that there’s a pitfall. (Lepofsky, 2018, 8:30)
Next, there are wide pillars in the middle of the platform that block users from walking. With no indicators of said pillars, it makes it very easy for those who have visual disabilities to collide and hurt themselves. (Lepofsky, 2018, 9:39)
Lepofsky mentions the proper design of walking surface indicators, to help those with visual disabilities navigate the platform. Unfortunately, Islington lacks these features, making navigation much harder. (Lepofsky, 2018, 5:02)
Islington Station – Lack of Accessible Entrances/Exits
Islington Station is one of many stations across the TTC that does not have any accessible entrances and exits to street, and platform level. There is a long pedestrian tunnel on the corner of Islington and Bloor Street, however it does not have any ramps or elevators at its entrance.
Islington Station – Outdated Wayfinding
When Phase 2 of the Bloor-Danforth Subway was completed, wayfinding signs were made with Eugenic Design in mind. Text is small, and is not bolded. Signs have no colour coding at all, along with using compass-like directions (eg. Westbound to Kipling, Eastbound to Kennedy). This makes it very hard for those who are new to Toronto, or have disabilities which increases the difficulty of reading. (Munro, 2013) Wayfinding approaches should not only use Universal Design principals, but also prioritize accessibility information when walking towards the station (i.e, Signs on Entrances to show what accommodations are available) (Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, 2023)
Dundas West Station – A significant improvement
In contrast, Dundas West station has fixed many of the issues that Islington Station has. There are two platforms for each train direction, signs have been updated with Universal Design in mind (focus on barrier-free icons, wide bolded text), and there are elevators that take you from street level to the subway platforms. The TTC took it a step further, and redesigned the streetcar platforms at Dundas West to not only accommodate multiple streetcar routes (504 King, and 505 Dundas), but the platforms have tactile floors along with an accessibility ramp. This allows users who utilise mobility devices to hop on the streetcar effortlessly.
Thinking Beyond the TTC – Accessible Neighbourhoods
While stations like Dundas West have been redesigned with Transformative Access in mind, that doesn’t mean anything if the neighbourhood has inaccessible design. Laurence Parent, who has been an advocate for an anti-ableist society, has written a guide on the actions we need to take in order to develop an anti-ableist Montreal.
Actions Include but not limited to (Parent, 2021):
- Improve the accessibility of sidewalks
- Promote the use of bike-paths by mobility aid users
- Improve accessibility during winter
- Improve accessibility in and around subway stations and bus systems
- Examine the structures, practices and policies of political parties to ensure that they are not discriminatory
Many of these actions can also apply to Toronto.
Dundas West Station – Accessible Station, Inaccessible Neighbourhood
Taking a step back, we discussed the many improvements that the TTC has done to make Dundas West accessible, however the neighbourhood has many problems. Along Dundas Street West, the streetcar stops between Dundas West and the King-Queen-Queensway-Roncesvalles (KQQR) are inaccessible due to the stops being configured for the old CLRV fleet. Not only that, but the storefronts have no accessibility ramps to help those with mobility devices to enter. Designs like these across the neighbourhood are made to conform to the non-disabled, along with stigmatising the disabled to say “you’re not welcomed in this space” (Hansen & Philo, 2007).
On the east side of the neighbourhood, along Bloor Street West, there’s many construction projects going on that require traffic to be diverted. Unfortunately, this also means that pedestrians are diverted from the core-construction area as well, however signages and accommodations were made in a “vehicle-first” approach. Pedestrians are pushed off to the road on the bike path, with no protective barriers at all. Not only is this a danger to able-bodied persons, but it significantly makes navigation worse for those who use mobility and visual aids to guide them.
Islington Station – A road to nowhere?
Islington, and many other suburban subway stations are often built to be feeders for the bus system. That is, the area itself not only has the issues noted above, but there is often little to no density surrounding the neighbourhood. This is an issue, because it makes using transit not viable when commuting long distances. We usually tend to think of travel distance as a consistent, linear fashion (If it takes 5 minutes towards location “x”, then it must take 10 minutes to travel twice as far), and while it might be true for many people, we tend to ignore those with disabilities who might have many barriers in place which can add more time to a commute. (Koch, 2008).
Headway times for buses leaving Islington Station are quite frequent, but not the best. Buses during off-peak run at 20 minute headways, and while that might not seem bad at first, when you add in random factors such as broken accessibility lifts, or inclement weather like snow, it makes travelling much harder. One study found that accessible bus usage drops during abnormal weather conditions due to the uncertainty of reliability. One user had to wait nearly 3 hours in the cold due to inadequate buses and infrequent headway times. (Pfeiffer, 1990)
Toronto-wide changes – Redesign Streets
Unfortunately, this sort of Eugenic Design isn’t excluded with subway stations and neighbourhood storefronts. Our intersections were built to serve the car first, and people second. While we’ve made some additions like tactile curb indicators, and audible crosswalks, they’re usually retro-fitted in and using said infrastructure is optional (pressing a button to get the audible sound for the crosswalk). It is very important to consider Transformative Access, and questions on accessibility in future policy work when reconfiguring public spaces. Scholars and Urban Researchers had focused on the concept of invisibility of infrastructures, however, the current approach, our streetscapes are paradoxically invisible, due to the exclusion of Universal Design. (Velho, 2021)
What needs to be changed? Recommendations for the TTC and the City of Toronto
While progress has been steadily progressing, more needs to be done. My recommendations are the following:
Toronto Transit Commission –
- Change outdated Wayfinding Signs with the latest standard with Universal Design in mind.
- Add multiple accessible entrances and exits to take users to platform level
- Add tactile flooring to help guide those with visual disabilities towards the exits
- Add a second platform for the different directional trains to reduce pitfall risks
City of Toronto –
- Design and Construct Complete Streets (bike paths, protected pedestrian crosswalks)
- Configure Traffic Lights and Crosswalks with Accessibility in Mind
- Implore the use of universal signages and accessible detours
- Force storefronts to comply with the AODA, and allow accessible entrances
Summary
Toronto is changing at a fast rate. While there are improvements towards accessibility in recent years, a lot more needs to be done. Thankfully, things are looking up on the horizon, but that doesn’t mean we should stop at making our transit & city accessible for all! To quote the TTC: “If you see something, say something!”
Email to the City of Toronto
On April 21st 2021, Mayor Tory with the support of Toronto City Council established the COVID-19 Accessibility Task Force to help the needs of those with disabilities gain access to vaccines. (City of Toronto, 2021) While efforts towards accommodating those who wished to get vaccinated was nothing but stellar, it is very disappointing that such effort wasn’t made towards making an Accessible Toronto. We still have TTC Stations that are inaccessible for those who require mobility, visual, and behavioural accommodations. Wayfinding across the TTC is inconsistent, and many stations still have signages that are well over 40 years old with deprecated standards. (Munro, 2013) We have stations like Islington where there are no accessible entrances and elevators, no tactile flooring for those who require visual aids, and a platform design which has two pit-falls compared to the directional platforms that you see across the first iteration of the Bloor-Danforth subway. (Lepofsky, 2018) The city knew that Islington needed to be redesigned and accessibility plans have been drawn up for over two decades, with the project finally breaking ground Q2 2023. (TTC Board, 2013) Other inaccessible TTC Stations are not planned for redevelopment until 2025, with unknown completion dates. The TTC has made strides to bring the system towards making their entire network accessible, but there are many roadblocks, most of which comes from the infrastructure that the City has built. For example, the City has gone to build pedestrian streetcar platforms for their older non-accessible CLRVs on Roncesvalles, only for it to block the accessible ramp for the new low-floor streetcars. During the King-Queen-Queensway-Roncesvalles (KQQR) reconfiguration, the City has not funded the removal and reconfiguration of said platforms, with no plans of doing so at a future date. Mayor Tory, and Toronto City Council had stressed the importance of Vision Zero and make the City accessible for all, but decisions like this really hamper that vision. A few blocks past the KQQR, on Bloor Street, construction on the West Toronto Railpath and Bloor GO not only block the sidewalk, but push pedestrians on the road with cars. If we are serious with Vision Zero, and complying with the AODA, these issues must be fixed immediately. The longer we delay such projects, the more we show that we don’t care about the disabled. A suggestion towards solving these issues is to work with Metrolinx in terms of fast-tracking some of the projects mentioned above. During the tunneling of Eglinton Crosstown, streets have been redesigned to put pedestrians first, and that was done with co-operation between the City, TTC, and Metrolinx. GO Expansion, the Line 2 Extension, and the Ontario Line are currently being constructed, so it makes sense for the City and the TTC to continue working together in accomplishing the goals of Vision Zero. The more we delay, the harder it becomes for those with disabilities trying to live an autonomous life.
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