Barbara Gray is the general manager of Transportation Services at the City of Toronto and an advisory board member of the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute. She is an expert in urban transportation and urban transit.[1][2][3][4][5] Gray has been working as a municipal civil servant since 1999, first in Seattle, and, since 2016, in Toronto.
Barbara Gray | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1966 (age 57–58) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Municipal civil servant |
| Known for | Expert in transportation and transit issues |
| Spouse | Alfred Silva (m. 2000) |
| Children | 2 |
Early life
editGray was born in Manhattan, before moving to New Jersey. She attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania before moving to Seattle Washington to earn a graduate degree in Urban Planning at the University of Washington.[1]
Seattle Department of Transportation
editBen Spurr, writing in the Toronto Star, described Gray as an advocate of "Progressive transportation policies".[1] He reported she was a defender of the rights of pedestrians and cyclists. Spurr wrote that Gray played a central role in getting the Seattle electorate to vote to support the Move Seattle levy, an additional tax Seattle taxpayers would pay to build improvements to Seattle public transportation infrastructure.[6]
Toronto Transportation Services
editSue-Ann Levy, writing in the Toronto Sun, asserted that Gray was engaged in a "war on the car", in both Seattle and Toronto.[7][8]
In May 2017, CBC News reported that Gray had announced the retirement of four senior subordinates.[9]
IT Business magazine interviewed Gray in December 2017 about two traffic light systems, that relied on artificial intelligence, that Toronto was experimenting with.[10] Toronto's current system uses car-sensing inductance loops, and fixed algorithms, to detect and modify light timing.
References
edit- ^ a b c
Ben Spurr (2016-12-09). "Barbara Gray, the city's incoming director of transportation, comes to the job after a stint in Seattle". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2019-08-27. Retrieved 2019-08-20.
A 50-year-old Manhattan native, Gray comes to Toronto by way of Seattle, where she has worked in the public sector for 17 years, for the past two as deputy director of the department of transportation.
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"Barbara Gray overseees 5,000 km of roads, 7,000 km of sidewalks & 2,500 traffic signals". Toronto Savvy. 2017-01-10. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
SEATTLE's loss is TORONTO's gain as BARBARA GRAY becomes this city's new General Manager of Transportation (operating budget $400-million). At a time when pedestrian deaths are climbing, gridlock is an hourly occurrence and a battle royal is underway between bicyclists and motorists, Mrs. Gray will have her hands full.
- ^ John Oakley (2018-03-19). "Barbara Gray, General Manager, Transportation Services, City of Toronto talks about several new initiatives to improve road safety". John Oakley Show. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
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Rahul Gupta (2016-12-27). "Q&A with new Toronto Transportation GM Barbara Gray". City Centre Mirror. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
My strategy is to meet people where they are at. I like to go out and be very engaged with communities and hear about problems they're trying to solve. There's always a scenario where plans and vision want to move faster than residents are comfortable with. Sometimes you have to move fast, especially when you're looking at equity. People who are the most dependent on walking and transit in particular, kids, seniors, people with disabilities, for me we have to make decisions (which benefit those groups). If the systems are reliable, more people will be willing to walk, bike or take transit, and the more space there is for people to drive or get goods to market.
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Sue-Ann Levy (2020-01-31). "Vision Zero has turned into another City Hall industry". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
The target, of course, is the car, so much so that one wonders if the goal of transportation general manager Barbara Gray is to drive cars completely off city streets.
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"Barbara Gray". University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-30. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
As Deputy Director of the Transportation Department in Seattle she led the development of the first city-wide Pedestrian Master Plan and Complete Streets policy and oversaw daily operations for policy, planning, and right of way management. She launched the plan to include a public realm activation program, a Project Coordination Office and a 24/7 Transportation Operations Center.
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Sue-Ann Levy (2019-07-17). "LEVY: Council sets wheels in motion for more gridlock". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 2019-07-19. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
City transportation czar Barbara Gray and municipal cycling guru Jacquelyn Hayward must have thought they died and went to heaven Wednesday. First council's pack of car haters gave them approval to lower speed limits down to horse-and-buggy pace on a variety of arterials Tuesday — as part of their Vision 2.0 plan.
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Sue-Ann Levy (2019-08-19). "LEVY: The war on the car road show, courtesy of Seattle". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
'It is fair to say that there's a 'war on the cars' in Seattle,' says resident David Preston. 'That war ramped up considerably during Ms. Gray's tenure here.'
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John Rieti (2017-05-12). "4 high-profile transportation managers no longer with the City of Toronto". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
Gray's letter thanked all four for their "significant contribution" to the city and that the change was the result of realigning management. City spokesperson Wynna Brown declined to say why the managers are no longer working at the city.
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Eric Emin Wood (2017-12-18). "Toronto's transportation manager on the city's 2 digitally-driven traffic reduction pilot projects". IT Business. Archived from the original on 2018-02-18. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
That's when the first Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique (SCOOT)-driven traffic control system was installed in Toronto. Designed to optimize traffic signal operations based on real-time traffic conditions, it was a boon at the time but is sorely in need of an update – which is why the city's transportation services division is running two pilot projects designed to choose a technology to replace them, manager Barb Gray told ITBusiness.ca during parent company ITWC's recent Technicity conference.