One of the
rituals before the season’s first snowfall arrives is remembering
how to navigate the city safely. When roads and sidewalks suddenly
become slippery, Torontonians must recall the right way to drive and
even walk. With millions of feet tracking slush and snow through the
subway, staying upright gets trickier. Earlier this year, a group of
nursing students at Ryerson University became concerned about
stairways leading to Dundas station downtown.
The students
conducted an informal survey of 98 people who use the stairs that
link street level and the TTC station. A large majority of those who
responded felt the stairs were slippery. A very small number said
they had fallen on the stairs at Yonge and Dundas, and around a
third said they had slipped. While the survey was not scientific, it
prompted the student nurses to contact the TTC and In Transit, in
hopes of directing attention to the issue.
A few of the
entrances to the 50 year old Yonge subway are still exposed to the
sky, but they are apparently as safe as other stairwells. The TTC
superintendent of plant maintenance, Don Legere, says “We’ve looked
at patterns of people slipping on stairs and ... we haven’t seen any
statistical pattern on these things.” He adds, “Actually some of
these stairways are probably a little bit safer because people pay
more attention when they go down.
“I’ve taken
those downtown stairwells quite a bit. They’re fairly deep and they
don’t give you a sort of a comfy feeling when you’re going down the
stairs. But technically they are safe, in terms of the type of tiles
that we use and ... the way they’re maintained and cleaned.” Legere
says the stair materials used at Dundas exceed federal safety
requirements, and although the angle may be steep, the stairs
conform to provincial building codes.
He says stairs
are a primary target for janitors and maintenance staff, who will
modify their schedules “to meet the weather conditions outside.” If
someone does slip, patrons can notify the ticket collector, who will
report it. “If there’s an incident then we want to know, and we’ll
react to it right away,” says Legere.
I recently
checked the entrance on the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas.
Perhaps my shoes are getting worn, but the dry tiles did feel more
slippery than those used in other stations. On Monday I told TTC
chair and city councillor Howard Moscoe about my experience and he
said he would go visit Dundas station himself. It is TTC policy, he
says, to eventually replace older, exposed subway stairwells with
larger, covered entrances.
TTC development
coordinator Domenic Garisto tells In Transit that the open stairs on
the southeast corner will be replaced by next spring, as part of the
Dundas Square park development. The steps will be wider, contain
heating cables to melt ice, and lie beneath a solid canopy.
On the
northeast side, a long-awaited cinema complex is supposed to be
completed by late 2006. Transit riders will then trade a cramped
streetcar stop and stairwell for new escalators and an elevator, all
contained in the building that will rise on the corner. Chair Moscoe,
who will likely preside over the opening of new elevators at Main
station today, tells In Transit that plans to beautify more downtown
stations are “humming along.”
One exciting
proposal is to better link Museum station with the neighbouring
Royal Ontario Museum, which is now being transformed. While the
future possibilities are inspiring, let’s first get our feet back on
the ground. If you have concerns about slippery stairs contact the
Ryerson students at
ttcsteps@hotmail.com.