PATH of Least Resistance

 Official PATH Map   Jane’s Walk (printable) 

Wayfinding is one of the more overlooked aspects of any good public transportation system. Including not just signage, wayfinding is also the architecture that guides you where you want to go, interior design that makes you feel comfortable you are on the right path, and landmarks so you can see your destination. Poor wayfinding can obscure a system and make it feel exclusionary, like it’s “for experts”. Does the PATH do this?

Toronto’s downtown is home to two separate “street” networks: the public grid and the private PATH. Since 1987, the City has helped co-ordinate PATH development  (Toronto, 2017) , but implementation of the PATH is still up to private building owners.

However, is this a bad thing? Streets get clogged with snow, and bad curb cuts, streetcar tracks, and the like offer all sorts of obstacles to wheelchair or stroller users. The PATH has no weather, no gutters, and is wheelchair accessible.* However, being privately-owned, the PATH curates a certain type of clientele. It is famously labyrinthine. And unlike public streets, it has closing times.

So, is the PATH an accessible street network replacement encouraging office-dwellers to walk to work, or is it a private domain of shops masquerading as a pedestrian network?

*Some routes have an alternate accessible path.

The PATH is important to the economic survival of downtown Toronto and may have prevented the city centre from losing foot traffic to suburban malls such as  Yorkdale  or  Fairview . Its quiet, mostly-flat, climate-controlled interior allows for easy wheelchair, stroller, and suitcase use, and encourages walking to and from the office. The lack of cars means parents can feel safe walking with their young children.

Yet the use of the PATH requires giving the pedestrian public’s right-of-way to private developers where access, navigation, landmarks, and even opening hours are at the whim of the building operator. The PATH also removes retail life from the street and disadvantages buildings that are not on the network, and its labyrinthine layout creates a feeling of needing to rely on “insider” knowledge to navigate, creating a feeling of you don’t belong here for “outsiders”.

So maybe the PATH’s good-enough network is just enough PATH for Toronto.