Finding ways to improve cycling in Toronto

Toronto has a transportation problem, especially in the car-centric suburbs due to the lack of infrastructure, political initiative, and public awareness.

In Toronto, cycling infrastructure in the suburbs are mostly off-road, recreational trails that have gaps in connecting to schools, shopping malls, and recreational centres. Ideally, cyclists as well as pedestrians should have as much safe and well-connected infrastructure for them as drivers of automobiles have taken for granted for decades. Connecting neighbourhoods and promoting alternative year-round safe transportation to reduce the reliance on the automobile should be a priority for long-term sustainability of Canada’s cities.

Through wayfinding, the goal is to create a sense of place and encouraging people living in the suburbs to explore their neighbourhoods, so that they can be vibrant, safe, and attain a sense of community.

The existing Toronto Cycling maps were studied for any improvements. For the Bike Thru map, routes are coloured and numbered based on their context to the neighbourhood, connections to existing routes of the Toronto Bikeway Network, and type of route based on cycling infrastructure.

The map emphasizes the location of the Activity Hub, where the neighbourhood’s commercial and recreational activity is located as well as where public transit is easily accessible and where Bike Thru information kiosks can be found.

In order to provide as much information pertaining to landscape-based landmarks and navigational aids in a suburban setting, parkland and recreational trails are clearly marked to provide cyclists and pedestrians familiarity with their neighbourhood.

I created process maps and sketched ideas where I explored how wayfinding signage uses new technologies such as E-Ink and using mobile devices with augmented reality to create a more interactive experience in navigating and exploring the built environment.

Process maps for bike routes on individual neighbourhoods within Scarborough. Four types of routes are drawn: inter-neighbourhood (blue) routes using residential roads, (orange) routes for neighbourhood “activity hubs” containing amenities, (green) multi-use pathways on parkland or green space, and (purple) long distance regional routes based on current City of Toronto bikeway network routing.

“Pedal Thru” was supposed to be the brandname of the entire project and outcome. However, the problem was to design for the lowest common denominator, to keep everything simple and to make sure that my design outcomes work without bombarding users with information that they need but will take a lot of time for them to simply decipher and understand.

I decided that “Bike Thru” is better suited for the demographics of the neighbourhood; the system is cycling-centric though it is designed to serve pedestrians as well. It is easy to understand. The use of the word “thru” is from the appropriation of the drive thru car culture that the suburbs are practically built on.We have conveniences where we don’t have to get out of our cars to be able to live our lives. Re-contextualizing the word “thru” from thruways (freeways) and drive thrus and to the concept of “going thru your neighbourhood by bicycle” made sense as a brandname for my thesis.

It felt like I was practically doing everything a team of designers, planners, and architects were doing. By zero hour, I was still working on the finalized base maps, the sign schematics and hierarchy, and the core project was not 100% done.

Another roadblock, I should say, are the sign systems for the core project. I started getting my hands dirty with Google SketchUp, two weeks before the deadline. This became both the best of times and the worst of times for me. Beforehand, I was struggling with the list of signs, and the sign schematic, the latter of which I was hand rendering. However, I found myself expressing my creativity to the fullest when it comes to using a 3D CAD program; without any engineering or architectural experience, I tried to at least make my designs coherent and structually sound while keeping with the suburban aesthetic and linking the overall look and feel of the wayfinding systems with the signs themselves.

I decided by the last week that I integrate the Bike Thru logotype with the signs themselves. The letter ‘b’ as the main structural element with the anthomorphic shape of the mapboards. At this time, I’ve only managed to make the Activity Hub and Multi-Use Pathway mapboards, serving as maps to inform users how the Bike Thru network works based on their designed purpose.

It all proved to be the most difficult design process that I’ve ever embarked on. I shed tears, I destroyed a chair, and I tried to bike from Scarborough to Downtown Toronto just to express the sheer emotional stress and mental capacity that got me to realize that I was a one-man show.

I learned a lot during those 6 months of trial-and-error, it all helped me become a graphic designer who had the focus and the drive to carve their niche and experiment with both failure and success to solve the problems we have in society that can be solved through design.