The recent decision by City of Toronto Council and its compromise solution with the two marathon race organizers will resolve some on-going issues about marathon course/traffic congestion. This year, everything stays the same but beginning in 2011, Toronto will have a Spring and Fall marathon. City Council and the staff in the Economic Development Department recognize the value of this growing activity and came up with some solutions to encourage this healthy lifestyle, but will enable the two major running events to grow and contribute to the economy of Toronto.
Almost everyone agrees that the marathons were too close together in September and October. Although we love it when the streets are opened to our events, it will be easier running in events separated by more than a few weeks. I think this compromise goes a long way in recognizing the other side while still promoting Toronto as a running city.
Perhaps there’s something happening along our waterfront that can improve the downtown running situation. The waterfront is a natural running route, not only because it’s flat, fast and starting to look better, but it doesn’t cut off the city in a manner that can negatively impact cross-town traffic flows.
The successful bid to host the 2015 Pan Am Games and use the West Don Lands as the athlete village provides an opportunity to kick-start the development of these lands in a way that should complement the planning, community consultation and cleanup work that’s been taking place by Waterfront Toronto. The Don Valley Trail (DVT) will be linked to this development by the subway under the rail tracks that’s presently blocked. Runners, walkers and cyclists should see improvements to the trail and other safety concerns all along the DVT.
Additional commercial and residential developments have been announced in East Bayfront including the new Health Sciences campus for George Brown College. Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Parks are under construction and will be completed this summer. In the near future, even more development and parklands are planned further east.
As these projects move forward it might be possible to integrate design features that could support some of the running, cycling or water-based events that are happening along the waterfront. These events don't necessarily have the budgets and staff to close down major roads and deal with the car/traffic conflict. Some of the issues identified by City staff could be resolved by early consideration of the needs of these events and plan for them as development moves forward on the waterfront east of Yonge Street. They need marshaling areas, start/finish lines but also access to parking, transit, sports facilities that have the least direct impact on traffic.
I’m sure as we move toward 2015 and the Pan Am Games, the running community and other interested stakeholders will begin to talk about their needs along the waterfront. Maybe we can even see some water fountains sprouting up.
Tallow Beach is located just south of Byron Bay. Byron Bay in New South Wales is about 1 hour south of Brisbane. Tallow Beach is 6km's long so today, after the sun goes down a little, I'll do a 12 km run. I did my long run of 25 Km's yesterday. Tomorrow is a quality workout with interval training.
