Should Toronto erect barriers to prevent vehicular attacks?

So-called “Jersey barriers” — lengthy low concrete partitions designed initially to present site visitors separation and crash safety on highways — have gotten a typical sight in Toronto. Days after the Yonge Avenue assault, they’ve begun popping up round Union Station, the Rogers Centre and different high-traffic public locations as a precautionary measure to deter automobile assaults.  It is undoubtedly not a use for which they had been supposed, nevertheless it’s higher than nothing, say metropolis workers. In an e mail to CBC Toronto, Jennifer Wing, a senior communications advisor with the Metropolis of Toronto, says the barriers went up at Union Station in session with Toronto Police Service, however there was already a plan for everlasting bodily safety measures there. The barriers, now seen round Union Station and the Rogers Centre, are meant to act as a deterrent to vehicular assaults. (CBC) “Whereas work on the everlasting design is being carried out, there have been already plans in place to set up interim mitigation measures later this spring,” says Wing. “The dialogue that’s being had now’s if whether or not the jersey barriers will come down or stay in place till the interim mitigation measures, that are designed to slot in with the streetscape, are put in throughout the subsequent month or so.” The April 23rd assault was the most recent wherein a automobile was the weapon used to incur mass casualties, and cities worldwide have been attempting to discover efficient methods to prevent deaths and accidents. Skepticism in the direction of effectiveness At a vigil for the victims held at Mel Lastman Sq., Sean Lee, 18, is not so certain barricades would assist prevent future assaults. “If somebody had been to try this once more, if there have been concrete barriers, would not he simply kill individuals in one other method?” he says. Keisha Johnson says Toronto has joined a not so enviable worldwide membership of cities the place autos have been used as blunt weapons to kill. “It is naive to suppose it would not occur right here,” she says. “I view the road otherwise now — it makes me extra conscious of my environment.” Keisha Johnson and Sean Lee attend a memorial in Mel Lastman Sq. for the victims of Monday’s van assault. They are not certain Toronto ought to observe the lead of different cities world wide which have erected barriers within the wake of comparable assaults. (Philip Lee-Shanok) 11 automobile assaults since 2016 Since 2016, there have been a minimum of 11 such automobile assaults, together with in cities like New York, Good, Berlin, Stockholm and London, and usually some kind of vehicular barrier have gone up within the aftermath. After 12 individuals had been killed and a minimum of 48 injured at a Christmas market assault in Berlin in 2016, authorities put in concrete and steel bollards in lots of Germany cities. Equally, on Bastille Day 2016 when a truck assault on a beachfront promenade in Good killed 86 individuals and in England after a automobile rammed pedestrians on London Bridge June 4, 2017, automobile barriers had been seen as the answer. “Which may work in some locations and Europe has achieved this fairly successfully,” says former Toronto chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat. After two automobile assaults in 2017, New York Mayor Invoice de Blasio introduced the set up of hundreds of bollards across the metropolis to defend pedestrians. Higher city design an answer, former chief planner says However Keesmat cautions towards creating a hoop of metal and concrete right here. “Throwing up barricades across the metropolis isn’t in our DNA. It isn’t who we’re and, fairly frankly, I do not suppose that is going to make us a lot safer,” she says. Large planter in Yonge-Dundas Sq. does double obligation as a crash barrier. (Philip Lee-Shanok/CBC) As an alternative, she says higher city design, together with avenue furnishings, concrete tree planters, seating areas and public artwork installations, may act as a deterrent. Keesmat factors to the lengthy low concrete flowerbed alongside St. George Avenue on the College of Toronto downtown campus for example of how high-pedestrian areas might be separated from site visitors. Nevertheless, Barbara Robinson, an infrastructure skilled and president of Norton Engineering in Kitchener, says security barriers might be very costly. For instance, New York Metropolis budgeted $50 million US for steel bollards in midtown — or greater than $30,000 US every. “However in fact we can not probably put this type of design on each avenue. It will simply be prohibitively costly,” she says. Robinson says including bollards in downtown Kitchener additionally added to the town’s working price range. “Clearing snow from downtown may be very costly as a result of it has to be achieved by hand now. You possibly can’t simply run an enormous machine down the sidewalk.” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/vehicular-barriers-solution-to-vehicular-attacks-1.4640417?cmp=rss