Social distancing circles being painted at Trinity Bellwoods Park

The City has decided to go ahead with social distancing circles in a Toronto park that has proven to be problematic with the onset of warmer weather.

Park staff were at Trinity Bellwoods Park on Thursday painting circles on the grass. The circles are eight feet wide and spaced 10 feet apart.

Crews are now painting white circles in Trinity Bellwoods Park. The circles are 8-ft wide/spaced 10 ft apart. It’s an experiment to see if they help people practice physical distancing. No circle for you? Keep walking. If effective these circles could appear in other parks pic.twitter.com/SU2SdIwuVe

— carl hanstke (@carlCityNews) May 28, 2020

Mayor John Tory said the circles will help to further illustrate proper physical distancing requirements which in turn should see greater compliance.

Tory said this will be a pilot project and that staff will evaluate its effectiveness and it could possibly expand to other parks in the city.

The move comes after thousands of people flaunted social distancing rules at Trinity Bellwoods park on Saturday.

Chief Matthew Pegg, the head of the city’s Emergency Management team, said there will be a “strong enforcement presence” in parks across the city this coming weekend to ensure this type of behaviour doesn’t happen again.

“Our enforcement team will be present at Trinity Bellwoods park to greet park users, to remind them about the importance of physical distancing and to take enforcement action as required,” Pegg said.

South of the border, large white circles are utlized in parks in San Francisco and New York City to help with physical distancing measures.