While walking the streets of Toronto, each of us has spotted the “No Exit” road sign more than once. These signs were posted as warnings for drivers and often do not apply to pedestrians.

The city of Toronto is gearing up to redesign the hundreds of traffic signs that walking advocates find confusing.

Toronto City Councilor Paula Fletcher submitted the “I’m Walking Here” motion, which was approved at the council meeting this week.

“I think during the Covid-19 pandemic, people walk as they have never walked before,” said Fletcher, who represents Ward 14, Toronto-Danforth.

“So, let’s do something for the city we are in, which is a city of pedestrians, cyclists and, as you can see, a city of drivers.”

Her request calls on the city to identify those ‘No Exit’ streets which are in fact routes that pedestrians can pass through and to change the signage to something more relevant to reality, such as ‘No Exit Pedestrians Excepted’.

The idea was born after the Walk Toronto project developed a crowd-sourced map, where about 450 such dead-end streets and cul-de-sacs have been identified so far, which just did not indicate that pedestrians may pass through.

Dylan Reid, the founder of the Walk Toronto project, said he wanted to find a way to publicly identify pedestrian thoroughfares in dead-end streets and presented the idea to the map maker and Walk Toronto co-founder Sean Marshall.

“We asked people for examples and they flooded us with them,” he said. “I asked Sean if he would like to take care of it and he was totally keen.”

In her application, Fletcher argued that many of these locations are neighbourhood ‘secrets’, known only to residents who walk there every day but hidden from anyone not very familiar with the area. According to her, finding a simple solution will make the city more pedestrian-friendly, more accessible and welcoming.

According to Toronto City Hall, they have identified “thousands” of streets with “No Exit” signs. A city spokesman said that city staff would replace signs in nearly 400 locations where pedestrian exits, i.e., ways through dead-ends, have been identified. They also announced that work would start at the end of April.

To check where the “Dead End” road signs with pedestrian thoroughfares

are, go to the link: No Dead Ends For Pedestrians

Or copy and paste the following link into your web browser:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1N-ekzo0OP4EP1z7zvC6bAkYcH5beGWmB&usp=sharing