[URBAN NOTE] "The Don Mills Safety Village taught kids to drive"

[rfmcdonald]

Chris Bateman at Spacing Toronto details an unusual effort in the 1960s to try to get young Torontonians accustomed to the rules of the road.

Plans for the Don Mills Safety Village were revealed to the public in February, 1963. A $5,000 model town was to be built in the parking lot of the Don Mills shopping centre. It would include miniature plywood buildings, realistic streets with functioning traffic lights, and little battery-powered cars.

When it opened a few months later, the village consisted of five streets, two houses, eight stores, a service station, bank, schoolhouse, and church. The electric cars were replaced with pedal-powered alternatives, perhaps as a cost saving measure, but no expense was spared on the design of the roads.

The 780 square metre site—touted as the only one of its kind in the country—had functioning crosswalks, stop signs, and almost 200 metres of painted yellow and white roadway.

“No one expects a child to understand all the intricacies of traffic problems,” said Inspector Charles Pearsall from the Metropolitan Police traffic safety bureau. “But the age they learn to walk is the age they should be getting acquainted with the basic safety rules.”

Kids were taught how to understand basic crossing signals and react in potentially dangerous circumstances. If a ball rolled into the street, for example, officers told the youngsters not to run out after it. The curriculum also included advice on how to safely wait for and board the school bus.