Case Study In Toronto Research Articles

Cycle accessibility and level of traffic stress: A case study of Toronto

This paper examines the level of traffic stress for cyclists on the street and path network in the City of Toronto. Link as well as intersection stress is calculated to develop a citywide network of cycling stress. The cumulative opportunities reachable at four levels of cycling stress are calculated for each dissemination area in the city. The results show a low level of cycling access (<5000 jobs) across most of the city at low levels of stress (LTS ≤ 2). Only at level of stress three, where cyclists may be required to negotiate with vehicles and may be in proximity of high-speed traffic, does cycling accessibility rise above 15,000 jobs for a sizeable section of the city. The link between low-stress access to jobs and the decision to cycle from home is investigated using a binary logit model. The results indicate that the cycling accessibly measure has a significant effect on choosing cycling as the travel mode with larger effect for low-stress access. The low stress cycling accessibility to subway stations is calculated as an example of the practical applications of this method and illustrates the limited cycling access to many stations in the Toronto network. Further, a theoretical scenario analysis is undertaken comparing different bicycle network scenarios. Three scenarios are tested 1) removing all cycle tracks, 2) upgrading all bike lanes to cycle tracks, and 3) decreasing street speeds by 10 km/h on the road network entire network. Scenario 3 in particular drastically increases cycling access to jobs.

Flame retardants in urban air: A case study in Toronto targeting distinct source sectors

Based on distinct land-use categories, a sampling campaign was carried out at eight locations across Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area in 2016–2017. Source sectors’ dependent patterns of atmospheric concentrations of 9 organophosphate esters (OPEs), 9 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and 5 novel flame retardants (NFRs) showed dominance of OPEs and PBDEs at highly commercialised urban and traffic sites, while NFRs, were dominant at residential sites. Overall, average concentrations of Σ9OPEs (1790 pg/m3) were two orders of magnitude higher than Σ9PBDEs (9.17 pg/m3) and Σ5NFRs (8.14 pg/m3). The atmospheric concentrations of given chemical classes also showed a general trend of lower levels in winter as compared to summer months. Statistically significant negative correlations between the natural logarithm of concentrations and inverse of temperature for some OPEs and PBDEs highlighted the role of volatilization from local sources at given sites as primarily influencing their atmospheric concentrations. Overall, this study adds to the current knowledge of urban settings as a major emitter of the chemicals of emerging concern and their replacements, as well as the ongoing problem of phased out PBDEs due to their presence in existing inventories of commercial/recycled products. It is recommended that long-term monitoring programs targeting flame retardants (FRs) include urban sites, which provide an early indicator of effectiveness of control measures of targeted FRs, while at the same time providing information on emission sources and trends of replacement FR chemicals.

An approach for understanding human activity patterns with the motivations behind

ABSTRACTA mechanistic understanding of human activity patterns lays a foundation for many applications. The majority of the current research aims to outline human activity patterns mainly from spatiotemporal perspectives (i.e., modeling human mobility patterns), lacking of understanding of the motivations behind behaviors. The aim of this study is to model and understand human activity patterns within urban areas using both spatiotemporal and cognitive psychology methods to measure both human behavior patterns and the underlying motivations . We first propose a framework that enables us to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of urban human activities, infer the associated semantic patterns that represent the motivations driving human mobility choices and behaviors, and measure the similarity between human activities. We then construct a human activity network based on the similarity to depict human activity patterns. The framework is applied to a case study of Toronto, Canada, where geotagged tweets are used as a proxy for human activities to explore activity patterns. The analysis of the human activity network shows that 61% of tweeter users follow similar activity patterns. Our work provides a new tool for better understanding the way individuals interact with urban environments that could be applied to a variety of urban applications.

An exploration of the interaction between urban human activities and daily traffic conditions: A case study of Toronto, Canada

Understanding how citizens interact with transportation system is a key to solving a variety of urban issues in general and traffic congestion in particular. Recently, scholars have put efforts on the pertinent work ranging from developing traffic predictors to understanding human mobility and activity patterns. Multiple types of data have been used, of which crowdsourced data (e.g. social media data) plays an essential role. Due to the limitation of traffic information extraction from social media data raised in the existing work, this paper aims to develop an approach which allows us to explore the potential influence of human activities on daily traffic congestions through linking human activities derived from geotagged tweets to the daily traffic conditions. The result of a case study of Toronto, Canada exhibits that entertainment related activities are more likely to appear during evening peak hours, while it seems that morning rush hours are less sensitive to human activities. In addition, it is learned that the activities involved in international events tend to have a long-term impact on urban traffic. This work provides a new tool for urban planners and policy makers to deal with complex urban issues effectively using low-cost social media data and sheds light on the research on analyzing urban traffic and urban dynamics based on crowdsourced data.

Assessing fish consumption Beneficial Use Impairment at Great Lakes Areas of Concern: Toronto case study

Beneficial use of fish consumption was designated impaired in the 1980s in many Areas of Concern across the North American Great Lakes. Remedial Action Plans have guided the restoration of beneficial use impairments with the goal of delisting the Areas of Concern. Here we present generic re-designation criteria and a three-tier Assessment Framework to assess the status of the fish consumption beneficial use impairments using the Toronto and Region Area of Concern as a case study. Tier 1 assessment identified that consumption advisories for many resident fish on the Toronto waterfront are non-restrictive (8+ meals month−1). Advisory assessments in Tier 1 found that most migratory fish species, Carp and White Sucker are still restrictive in some cases preventing a ‘not impaired’ re-designation. Tier 2 Comparison with Reference Sites found that the advisories for most local fish are either non-restrictive or similar to reference locations in Lake Ontario, but some advisories due to elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyl are still more restrictive for the Toronto waterfront and do not favour a ‘not impaired’ re-designation. An evaluation of multiple lines of evidence in Tier 3 including fish contaminant trend analyses, time to reach target fish levels, sediment concentrations and fish consumption patterns resulted in outcomes ranging from neutral (not conclusive) to not impaired. As a precautionary approach, the impaired status of the beneficial use impairment should be maintained to ensure continued polychlorinated biphenyl declines in fish. It is recommended that the Remedial Action Plan team update the fish consumption survey, investigate where additional feasible actions can be taken including examining potential polychlorinated biphenyl sources on the Humber and Don Rivers, and collect new data to undertake a future assessment.

Identifying “Sensible Locations” for Separated Bike Lanes on a Congested Urban Road Network: A Toronto Case Study

Across North America, separated bike lanes have generated political challenges from drivers concerned that such facilities might increase their travel times. Toronto is one such city where vocal complaints have limited the development of a separated bike lane network. To address these issues, a new approach to evaluating the travel-time impact of installing a separated bike lane is proposed. Aided by a transportation geographic information system (GIS) and a GIS toolkit, we apply a method called the network robustness index (NRI) to scan the Toronto road network for changes in vehicular travel times. Additionally, we use the approach to evaluate the potential travel-time impact of adding a separated bike lane to a target corridor, one where plans have encountered political opposition in the past. These two applications demonstrate the value of integrating the NRI approach into cycling planning—a method that can be used to both identify potential separated bike lane locations and to measure the specific travel-time impacts of separated bike lanes.

An Investigation of GIS Overlay and PCA Techniques for Urban Environmental Quality Assessment: A Case Study in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The United Nations estimates that the global population is going to be double in the coming 40 years, which may cause a negative impact on the environment and human life. Such an impact may instigate increased water demand, overuse of power, anthropogenic noise, etc. Thus, modelling the Urban Environmental Quality (UEQ) becomes indispensable for a better city planning and an efficient urban sprawl control. This study aims to investigate the ability of using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to model the UEQ with a case study in the city of Toronto via deriving different environmental, urban and socio-economic parameters. Remote sensing, GIS and census data were first obtained to derive environmental, urban and socio-economic parameters. Two techniques, GIS overlay and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), were used to integrate all of these environmental, urban and socio-economic parameters. Socio-economic parameters including family income, higher education and land value were used as a reference to assess the outcomes derived from the two integration methods. The outcomes were assessed through evaluating the relationship between the extracted UEQ results and the reference layers. Preliminary findings showed that the GIS overlay represents a better precision and accuracy (71% and 65%), respectively, comparing to the PCA technique. The outcomes of the research can serve as a generic indicator to help the authority for better city planning with consideration of all possible social, environmental and urban requirements or constraints.

Rhythms of gentrification: eventfulness and slow violence in a happening neighbourhood

Gentrification involves the transformation of neighbourhood social spaces in ways that remake place in line with the needs and desires of new residents and capital investors. While spatial transformations have been well documented in the gentrification literature, temporality has rarely been foregrounded, although social space is also altered by privileging new rhythms and tempos of everyday life. Using a case study of Toronto’s gentrifying Junction neighbourhood, this article explores the restructuring of everyday neighbourhood rhythms around consumption-oriented and place-making events that draw on a collage of ideas about the timespace of ‘authentic’ urban street life. I argue that the reorganization of neighbourhood social life through the creation and privileging of specific temporal landscapes functions as a means of excluding, marginalizing or rendering invisible certain community members and their needs. The inability of some to participate in the new temporalities of the neighbourhood becomes a barrier to recognition and representation, one that both hides and enables the ongoing ‘slow violence’ of gentrification.

Interrupting the symphony: unpacking the importance placed on classical concert experiences

ABSTRACTThe Toronto Symphony Orchestra presents a series of youth concerts each year to introduce and attract younger audiences to the symphony. Music teachers often attend these concerts with students, and the importance of such experiences is frequently emphasised and normalised. This article explores the historical roots of the following relations, attitudes, and practices: (1) the tendency of teachers to privilege Western European music in the curriculum; (2) the attitude that classical music is somehow ‘good for’ students; (3) the race relations that operate within a youth symphony concert; and (4) the normalisation of Western classical music in music programmes and concert-going choices. Drawing on Asante’s [1991. “The Afrocentric Idea in Education.” The Journal of Negro Education 60 (2): 170-180] concept of Afrocentric education, I look to pedagogical choices made by participants of a multiple case study in Toronto, Canada to make implications for how music educators might (1) select a wide range of music that include, but are not limited to, classical music; (2) situate such experiences within a broader global, sociopolitical context; (3) consider these Western classical concert experiences as one musical possibility of many; and (4) unsettle the power hierarchies embedded in classroom musical choices.

Modeling urban solar energy with high spatiotemporal resolution: A case study in Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACTThis research presents a method to determine the maximum potential for the capturing of solar radiation on the rooftop of buildings in an urban environment. This involves the modeling of solar energy potential and comparison to historical building energy demand profiles through the use of 3-D solar simulation software tools and geographic information systems (GIS). The objective is to accurately identify the amount of surface area that is suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations and to estimate the hourly PV electricity generation potential of existing building rooftops in an urban environment. This study demonstrates a viable approach for modeling urban solar energy and offers valuable information for electricity distributors, policy makers, and urban energy planners to facilitate the substantial design of a green built environment. The developed methodology is comprised of three main sections: (1) determination of suitable rooftop area, (2) determination of the amount of incident solar radiation available per rooftop, and (3) estimation of hourly solar PV electricity generation potential. A case study was performed using this method for Ryerson University, located in Toronto, Canada. It was found that solar PV could supply up to 19% of the study area’s electricity demands during peak consumption hours. The potential benefits of solar PV was also estimated based upon hourly greenhouse gas emission intensity factors as well as Time-of-Use (TOU) savings through the Ontario Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program, which allows for better representation of the positive impacts of solar technologies.

A Methodology for Constructing Marginal Abatement Cost Curves for Climate Action in Cities

As drivers of climate action, cities are taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which if left unabated pose a challenge to meeting long-term climate targets. The economics of climate action needs to be at the forefront of climate dialogue to prioritize investments among competing mitigation measures. A marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve is an effective visualization of climate action that initiates a technical and economic discussion of the cost-effectiveness and abatement potential of such actions among local leaders, policy makers, and climate experts. More commonly demonstrated for countries, MAC curves need to be developed for cities because of their heterogeneity, which vary in their urban activities, energy supply, infrastructure stock, and commuting patterns. The methodology for constructing bottom-up MAC curves for cities is presented for technologies that offer fuel switching and/or energy efficiencies, while considering technology lifetimes, city-specific electricity and fuel prices, and emission intensities. Resulting MAC curves are unique to every city, and chart the pathway towards low-carbon growth by prioritizing measures based on cost-effectiveness. A case study of Toronto’s climate targets demonstrates the prioritization of select technologies. Leveraging MAC curves to support climate programs enables cities to strategically invest in financing climate action and designing incentives.

Nonadditive Public Transit Fare Pricing Under Congestion with Policy Lessons from a Case Study in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

With increasing urbanization and the development of technologies that support automated fare collection, policy makers need decision-support tools to evaluate differentiated public transit fare pricing policies. However, the state-of-the-art tools that consider congestion effects account only for additive fares. A stochastic user equilibrium model with elastic demand was extended to handle nonadditive station-to-station–based fares and was solved by using a method of successive averages. In this paper, an illustrative example is used to show how simple price elasticities alone are not enough to predict the effects of a fare on demand within even a simple eight-node congested network. The first case study of a fare pricing policy was conducted in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; in this case, a distance-based policy was used for the Toronto Transit Commission subway system with respect to downtown and nondowntown subpopulations. The analysis found that compared with the base scenario of a Can$3 fixed fare, there are Pareto-improving fare policies (e.g., fixed rate of Can$2 and variable rate of Can$0.06/km), but the same policy might not be Pareto-improving for all subpopulations. These findings call for more sophisticated fare pricing policies for Toronto (e.g., zone-based) that can cater to specific needs of subpopulations.

Impact of Global Warming on Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Relationship of Precipitation: A Case Study of Toronto, Canada

Annual maximum rainfall intensity for several duration and return periods has been analyzed according to the Gumbel distribution. The Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves before and after 1980 have been computed and compared. For the city of Toronto, it is shown that the rainfall intensities after 1980 are lower than those from before this date. This is especially clear for those of short duration. Comparing our results with those of other authors, it appears that, for the moment, no general law on the impact of global warming on the curves intensity duration frequency cannot be made. It appears that the impact of global warming on rainfall varies with geographic location and that it is not possible to draw some general conclusions across the planet.

Logistics Sprawl in North America: Methodological Issues and a Case Study in Toronto

This paper focuses on the spatial patterns of freight and logistics activities in North America. The recent interest in logistics and warehousing and its impact on the urban environment has prompted research investigating the ‘sprawling’ nature of these firms. Logistics sprawl, i.e. the spatial deconcentration of logistics facilities and distribution centers in metropolitan areas has been examined for several metropolitan areas (Dablanc and Ross, 2012; Dablanc 2014; Dablanc et al., 2014), yielding contrasting results: Atlanta and Los Angeles have experienced strong logistics sprawl between 1998 and 2008 while Seattle has not. The objective in this paper is two-fold. An additional case study (Toronto) is investigated to expand the current understanding of North American logistics sprawl and methodological issues, particularly related to facility identification and location data are discussed. An updated method for analyzing spatial patterns of logistics activity in North American cities is subsequently proposed. This updated method may then be used in the future to re-examine former case studies (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle) as well as to investigate new ones.

Impact of EV Charger Load on Distribution Network Capacity: A Case Study in Toronto

This paper presents a study of the impact of the electric vehicle (EV) charger load on the capacity of distribution feeders and transformers of an urban utility. A residential neighborhood of the city of Toronto, Canada, is selected to perform the study based on survey results that showed a high tendency for EV adoption. The two most loaded distribution transformers of such a neighborhood are studied along with their cable feeders via steady-state simulations in CYME software. A worst case scenario of full EV penetration is studied, where all chargers are connected to the system simultaneously at the peak summer or winter load. The effect of increasing the rate of EV adoption on the performance of distribution networks is examined with correlation to the ambient temperature. Finally, the impact of increasing the charger size on system performance is explored. The results send a few warning signals of potential equipment overload to utility companies under certain system loading and EV charging levels as EV use grows, impacting utility future planning and operation. This will assist utilities in taking appropriate measures with respect to operating the existing system and also planning for the future.

Is There Racial Discrimination in Police Stop-and-Searches of Black Youth? A Toronto Case Study

Our study investigated racial profiling of Black youth in Toronto and linked this racial profiling to urban disadvantage theory, which highlights neighbourhood-level processes. Our findings provide empirical evidence suggesting that because of racial profiling, Black youth are subject to disproportionately more stops for gun-, traffic-, drug-, and suspicious activity-related reasons. Moreover, they show that drug-related stop-and-searches of Black youth occur most excessively in neighbourhoods where more White people reside and are less disadvantaged, demonstrating that race-and-place profiling of Black youth exists in police stop-and-search practices. This study shows that the theoretical literature in sociology on neighbourhood characteristics can contribute to an understanding of the relationship between race and police stops in the context of neighbourhood. It also discusses the negative impact of racial profiling on Black youth.

Is There Racial Discrimination in Police Stop-and-Searches of Black Youth? A Toronto Case Study

Our study investigated racial profiling of Black youth in Toronto and linked this racial profiling to urban disadvantage theory, which highlights neighbourhood-level processes. Our findings provide empirical evidence suggesting that because of racial profiling, Black youth are subject to disproportionately more stops for gun-, traffic-, drug-, and suspicious activity-related reasons. Moreover, they show that drug-related stop-and-searches of Black youth occur most excessively in neighbourhoods where more White people reside and are less disadvantaged, demonstrating that race-and-place profiling of Black youth exists in police stop-and-search practices. This study shows that the theoretical literature in sociology on neighbourhood characteristics can contribute to an understanding of the relationship between race and police stops in the context of neighbourhood. It also discusses the negative impact of racial profiling on Black youth.

From Toxic Wreck to Crunchy Chic: Environmental Gentrification through the Body

This paper takes up the challenge of extending and enhancing the literature on environmental gentrification by considering bodies and embodied practices as significant dimensions of this process. In considering the question of how a polluted past can be mobilized as an asset for neighbourhood rebranding and gentrification, this research suggests that the conflation of both pollution and ‘health’ with different kinds of urban bodies and practices is an important strategy for solidifying a clean and green neighbourhood future. I argue that some bodies are constituted as ‘dirty’ by the symbolic and substantive displacement of environmental pollution onto those bodies, in ways that allow the neighbourhood to redefine itself as clean (whether it is environmentally clean or not) once those bodies are displaced, contained, or made invisible. This perspective requires us to consider the radically coconstitutive character of representations and materiality, bodies and cities, nature and social relations. Based on a case study of Toronto's Junction neighbourhood, this paper maintains that bringing bodies to the foreground attends to the power of embodiment in producing and reproducing urban change and, critically, urban inequalities.

Stopping the ‘War on the Car’: Neoliberalism, Fordism, and the Politics of Automobility in Toronto

This article interrogates the politics of automobility in Toronto under the regime of mayor Rob Ford, who came to power in 2010 promising to ‘stop the war on the car.’ The election of Ford, and the thrust of his subsequent agenda, came as a surprise to many in the city, due to Toronto’s reputation as a cosmopolitan diverse transit-friendly global city. The Toronto case study allows for the analysis of the relationships between Fordism, automobility, and the politics and rationalities of neoliberalism. Instead of seeing neoliberalism as something external or imposed, its contested politics are rooted in diverging social and economic interests directly derived from Fordism and the system of automobility, with opposing political-economic factions both drawing on different elements of neoliberalism. Authoritarian populist neoliberal regimes like the Ford administration in Toronto, and the roll-back austerity they promote, are not antithetical to automobile Fordism, but on the contrary represent an attempt to protect and reinvigorate it in the face of the forces of de-industrialization and financialization. As such they receive their support from social groups irrevocably invested in the continuation, and irrationalities, of the Fordist system of automobility. This has implications for how the politics of neoliberalism might unfold in the future.

Racially biased policing and neighborhood characteristics: A Case Study in Toronto, Canada

This study investigated race-and-place profiling in Toronto within a neighborhood context. It explored the spatial association between race-specific drug-related stops and neighborhood racial and socio-economic characteristics. The findings of this study suggest that Blacks are subject to disproportionately more stops for drug-related reasons in neighborhoods where more Whites reside and are less socio-economically disadvantaged, therefore confirming race-and-place profiling of Blacks in Toronto. However, race concentration and socio-economic disadvantage arguments fail to explain the spatial variations in drug-related stops of Whites. This result could be caused by the diverse ethnic origins and socio-economic backgrounds of White Torontonians. This article argues for the importance of a contextualized examination of racial profiling within the spatial context of neighborhoods and calls for democratic policing in Toronto. It also discusses the negative impacts of race-and-place profiling on Blacks in Toronto.