Project 1 – Complete Streets: The proposed research is designed to stimulate discussion about the potential for short, medium, and long-range plans to improve facilities for walking and cycling for both recreation and utilitarian purposes in Scarborough. The project surveys existing pedestrian and cycle infrastructure in Scarborough and develops proposals for significantly improved walking and cycling infrastructure in Scarborough, guided by City of Toronto Vision Zero, Complete Streets, and Green Infrastructure policies (Principal Investigator: Andre Sorensen).
Project 2 – Accessibility and the 15-minute city: The proposed research evaluates the 15-minute city in Scarborough, examining the accessibility results in greater detail by considering spatial, socioeconomic and demographic inequities. The results can reveal how normative access standards compare against the ways in which the residents of Toronto’s suburban neighborhoods are travelling to reach amenities and highlight areas in need of further policy and planning interventions. Such results will also provide a critical foundation for future research within the Suburban Mobilities research cluster and beyond (Principal Investigator: Christopher Higgins).
Project 3 – The Scarborough Survey: This project aims to study mobility and built environment barriers, automobility, access to services, politics, social capital, and health outcomes among zones and population groups in Scarborough. The cross-cutting theme of this survey is related to equity issues, including the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in exacerbating existing barriers and inequalities. The survey seeks to connect and explore relationships between the topics above, generating a unique instrument to connect multidisciplinary research interests (Principal Investigator: Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken, Steven Farber, Nicholas Spence).
Project 4 – Cycling Potential Toronto: Considering the City of Toronto long term plan (75% of trips under 5 km should be walked or cycled by 2050), this research project seeks to explore what is the potential cycling growth in Toronto considering its current travel patterns and how big is the gap between current travel mode and cycling for different areas, travel purposes, income, gender, among other key dimensions (Principal Investigator: Steven Farber, Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken).
Project 5 – Newcomers Access: The research goal of this project is to map walking, cycling and transit accessibility to agencies that provide different services to newcomers in Toronto. The agencies already collect data regarding client postal code and service type, and basic demographic information as country and gender, and this input will be used as part of the analysis (Principal Investigator: Andre Cire).
Project 6 – Active Transport and Older Adults: Since COVID-19, data suggest that physical activity levels among older adults have decreased due to restrictions in regular social participation, community groups and family activities. Although there are reports of increased active transportation due to public transport avoidance, this may be offset by reliance on virtual spaces and car usage, particularly in suburban areas. This research aims to investigate how has COVID-19 impacted the use of active transportation among older adults and what are the barriers and facilitators to active transportation among this subgroup of older adults after COVID-19 (Principal Investigator: Michelle Silver).
Project 7 - Scarborough Greenway Network: This project aims to develop an ambitious vision for a complete network of off-road multi-use trails in Scarborough. Scarborough has many existing corridors that offer excellent potential for an interconnected network of off-road trails. A major opportunity outlined in this proposal is the transformation of a number of public corridors currently serving as concrete-lined drainage ditches through industrial areas into linear parks with trees and multi-use trails that link together to create a connected off-road network. We want to persuade Toronto City Council to increase their ambition for active transportation infrastructure in Scarborough and ensure that no further public land corridors are privatized before a complete network plan is agreed and established as official policy. This project hopes to facilitate the shift from car culture in Scarborough to a mobility culture in which active transportation plays a meaningful part. We believe that the reasonable fear of dangerous roadways is an important obstacle to a greater share of active transportation for mobility in Scarborough, and that our proposed off-road network can contribute to building a walking and cycling culture for everyday mobility (Principal Investigator: Andre Sorensen).