Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Toronto. A recommendation to install suicide barriers along subway platforms is among the items being considered as city council continues its two-day meeting.
The motion, which was tabled following a report from Toronto Public Health, asks council to direct the TTC to install platform edge doors “or other means for restricting unauthorized access to the subway tracks” at all new stations.
The motion also calls on council to direct the TTC to retrofit all existing stations with the doors.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Ward 2 Coun. Rob Ford delivered a lengthy speech, slamming the price of the move, however Coun. Sarah Doucette predicted that improvements to subway service would make the startup cost well worth it.
“The barriers are good for several reasons. For one we heard from public health that it can help people who are looking at committing suicide and not to be crass but when someone does jump in front of the train that subway is shut down for a long time,” she said. “On the other side of it with automatic trains those barriers will allow the train to come into the station a lot faster because people are kept back from the edge of the platform, which will increase our capacity to carry passengers.”
44 items on agenda
There a total of 44 items left on the agenda for today’s council meeting.
Included among those items is a new strategy whereby staff would rents blocks of motel rooms in order to reduce crowding in the shelter system.
The move, which is expected to cost $845,000 in 2015, comes following the deaths of two homeless men in the frigid cold last month.
Discussing the idea in January, Coun. Joe Mihevc said it would provide a “stop-gap solution” that would allow the city to reduce its overall shelter occupancy rate to 90 per cent from 93 per cent, meeting a commitment council first made in April, 2013.
“It basically allows us to make sure that no Torontonian who needs shelter will be left out in the cold,” Mihevc said at the time.
In addition to shelter space, city council will also consider a number of other motions, including one from Coun. Anthony Perruzza asking transportation services to report back to the public works committee on the feasibility of providing live updates on the city’s snow removal efforts online.
Today is the second day of city council’s monthly meeting. On Tuesday council voted in favour of an additional $1.65 million to widen the scope of the review of Mayor John Tory’s transit proposal.
