Now in its eighth year, the Complete Streets Forum will
kick off September 30.
“What we’re really attempting to do is push the envelope in terms of the information that’s out there, and pushing the practice around incorporating pedestrians and cyclists around road design,” explains Nancy Smith Lea, director of the Complete Streets Forum and co-founder of the Toronto Centre for Active Transportation.
The forum will take place at Buddies in Bad Times, where Veronica O. Davis, co-founder of Black Women Bike, will speak about her experience challenging the idea that only white people cycle. The kick-off party will include a cash bar and the chance to network with local and international active transportation experts. Davis will continue her speaking streak the next day at the Hart House, where the Complete Streets Forum will host discussions, panels, and workshops on a variety of issues in the active transportation community.
New this year, the Forum will split its program into Foundational and Advanced tracks. Introductory sessions devoted to pedestrian scrambles will be offered alongside more technical discussions about cross-sectoral collaboration. “We’ve been doing this for some years now, so people who are returning have a really great grasp of the issues. We wanted to keep it interesting for them after they’ve grasped the foundational issues,” Smith Lea says. There was also a special effort to appeal to engineers: “There’s really a lack of training available for engineers when it comes to active transportation, and we really want to reach out to them,” says Smith Lea.
Smith Lea says that, since the forum’s inception eight years ago, the event has advanced the conversation. "There’s a lot more acceptance of the idea that pedestrians and cyclists are an integral part of the streets.”
However, she says there is still plenty of work to be done, especially in translating an academic understanding of the issues to how cities really structure their streets. But their work is starting to have an impact. “What sticks out to me is that Toronto has adopted a complete streets policy in their official plan, and are working on complete streets guidelines. I know for a fact that the work that we’re doing has had a real impact on those decisions,” she says. The conference will help move that conversation forward even more.