Jane's Walk

Singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer
pitches in with an acapella song on
the Front Street Jane’s Walk in Toronto.

Get out and walk, jog or ride!
Jane’s Walks have included all
types of active transportation.

Ned Jacobs leads the Little Mountain Walk
in Vancouver.

Pedestrians in the suburbs often face greater obstacles and hazards in their walking environment, most commonly, multiple lanes of fast moving traffic.

Credit: Katherine Childs

“I like to walk in the neighbourhood because
I get to know people. I talk to everybody.”

Walkability Workshop Participant

“Jane’s Walk is brilliant. I learned so much, met some great neighbours, and topped it off by going to a pub together!”

Poor connectivity causes walkers to
take risks and use unsafe routes.

A chai break on the Jane’s Walk tour of Girangaon, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Mumbai

“The youth guides were smart and funny and full of stories. We felt incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to meet them and see their ‘hood through their eyes.”

Manhattan seen from the South Bronx with Jane’s Walk guide Omar Freilla of Sustainable South Bronx.

Jane’s Walk creates friendly, thoughtful spaces where people can discover their cities and neighbours, like Dorset Park, Scarborough.

68 cities - 424 neighbourhoods

Walkers in Rexdale in Toronto's north west end.
Wow, what an incredible weekend – thanks to everyone - walkers, guides, volunteers and organizers - for doing a phenomenal job of creating the biggest and best Jane's Walk ever. Jane's Walk strolled into 68 cities worldwide (29 in Canada, 32 in the U.S, 7 internationally) including San Juan Puerto Rico, La Paloma Uruguay, Goa & Mumbai India, Dublin Ireland and Madrid Spain.

The walks were the talk of the town – bloggers, tweeters, waitresses and taxi drivers weighing in on how great it was to have so many people out exploring, talking, connecting. The commonly heard refrains were “I love this”, “I never knew my neighbourhood was so exciting”, “I finally met my neighbours", “how come this only happens once a year!”
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The Littlest Eye on the Street

Story and photo by Josh Fullan

On Tuesday morning, April 27, as their school day began, a group of about 50 kids gathered in the basement of the Grove Community School on Gladstone Avenue. Teachers and a few parents tried to control the frenetic energy as they led smaller groups outside then distributed clipboards and black-framed plastic glasses. The kids, a mix of JK through grade 3 students at the school, were gearing up for the youngest Jane Jacobs Walk ever. The clipboards were for the kids to record their observations as they walked around the neighbourhood, and the lense-less glasses were to help them look and see more like the eponymous urban thinker herself.
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Letter from Coboconk, Ontario

photo by Vic Gedris

"Just a quick note to say our first Jane’s Walk was a huge success. We had about 80 people show up and everyone participated and left with a smile on their face.

We started off at the old Lime Kilns, and two people who were in their 80’s talked about the strike that took place there in the 1930’s. My uncle also confessed that the lime kilns were where everyone went to smoke when they were teenagers. From there we went down to the docks where the local councillor, Emmet Yeo, talked about a festival that the municipality is organizing for Summer Solstice include a fair and boat rides.
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Where did you walk? What did you see?

Walkers take part in adding some 'greenery' to Queen Street West on the CORE Struts Big walk in Toronto. photo by Devon Ostrom.

We want to hear about your Jane's Walk experience. What did you see, hear, think or say? We're eager to know how we can continue to develop and shape Jane's Walk. Send us an email or fill out our Feedback Form on the orange tab at the top of this home page.

And please send us your pictures. Don't forget to note what the pictures depict and the appropriate photo credit. Please upload a selection of your Jane's Walk photos to our Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/groups/janeswalk2010/
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122 Ways to Walk Toronto

Click here for a two page, printable schedule of Toronto Jane's Walks
Toronto is where Jane's Walk started in 2007 and once again, the local tour guides have outdone themselves. 122 walks were offered, giving Torontonians an exceptional opportunity to get out and meet their neighbours, explore your city and deepen your connection to the city. “For Jane Jacobs, the best way to get to know the city and the neighbours was on foot,” says Jane Farrow, executive director of Jane’s Walk. “Jacobs encouraged everyone to just get out and look around, to walk the sidewalks and talk about what they thought needed to happen to make their neighbourhood better.”
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Jane Walk 2011 set for May 7 & 8

Jane’s Walk is a thriving Canadian innovation that has gone global. In 2011 Jane's Walk will roll into more cities and towns than ever before on May 7 & 8 - the closest weekend to Jane Jacobs birthday on May 4. Celebrating the legacy of Jane Jacobs, the foremost urban thinker of recent times, Jane’s Walks inspire citizens to get to know their city and each other by getting out and walking. Jacobs famously declared that walkable, diverse and mixed used neighborhoods are the hallmark of a healthy city and its people.
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Crossing the street deadly but not illegal

photo by Paul Hess
A tragic string of fourteen pedestrian deaths in and around Toronto in the first couple weeks of January has highlighted the perilous walking conditions people face everyday in our cities. In an attempt to lower fatalities, the Toronto police have responded with a crackdown on pedestrians, handing out hundreds of tickets to people simply making their way to and from work, shops and schools. Jane’s Walk director Jane Farrow and walkability expert Paul Hess have responded by pointing out that making cities safe for people on foot is a matter of street design and planning priorities, not criminalizing routine pedestrian behaviour.

“Crossing streets in the middle of the block is not illegal” says Jane Farrow, Executive Director of Jane’s Walk, “you can do it as long as you don’t interfere with traffic, and you’re not standing right beside a traffic light or crosswalk.”
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Jane Jacobs’ Audio Tour

The Annex is one of Toronto’s most storied neighbourhoods. Its tree-lined streets have inspired writers and artists, its old houses have watched as wave after wave of immigrants from all over the world passed through, and over the decades, generations of people have loved to both live in the Annex and visit it. One of the Annex’s most famous residents was urban thinker and writer Jane Jacobs. Jacobs, who moved to the neighbourhood in 1968 from New York City and stayed until her death in 2006.
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