Highway Expansion

[Chuck]

You don't have any evidence to back up that view.

You seem to say this a lot. To play devil's advocate, what evidence do you have to back up your own opinion that halting all highway construction will be the best thing for Toronto?

 

[adma]

You seem to say this a lot. To play devil's advocate, what evidence do you have to back up your own opinion that halting all highway construction will be the best thing for Toronto?

Maybe an alternate question is, best for whom?

Like, if you're the sort who's blithely proposed eliminating the Lansdowne/Jameson jog like it's still 1963 or something and you can get away with it easily, I'd suggest you'd be the *worst* thing for Toronto...

 

[MisterF]

You seem to say this a lot. To play devil's advocate, what evidence do you have to back up your own opinion that halting all highway construction will be the best thing for Toronto?

Toronto already did halt all new highway construction, 40-odd years ago. And like I said, downtown has grown substantially since then. The disadvantages of new highways in the central area have been covered by several forumers in this thread.

 

[adma]

Arguing that stopping highway construction is the worst thing for a city is like arguing that historical landmark registries are the worst thing for a city. Ultimately, the only people that hold that view are hardcore Wendell Cox-loving Libertrollians...

 

[GTS]

This isn't a post on expanding our highway system but rather, improving what we have.

Please, Toronto, take down the elavated section of the Gardiner. Construct am eight lane boulevard with 60k speeds from the DVP to about Dufferin. Sell the remaining Gardiner from the 427 to Dufferin and let the province take care of it. This 8 lane at grade boulevard will still allow a fast enough commute for goods and people and it will improve the livability of the downtown core. The remaining Gardiner, from the 427 to Dufferin could become part of the QEW and if the city decides to keep that highway- toll it so we can get some more needed revenue for Toronto's transit system.

 

[Kitsune]

The Gardiner is grid lock in the morning and afternoon rush most of the time, tearing it down and replacing it with at-grade intersections would be a huge mistake and make traffic issues a gazallion times worse in the core.

 

[kEiThZ]

This isn't a post on expanding our highway system but rather, improving what we have.

Please, Toronto, take down the elavated section of the Gardiner. Construct am eight lane boulevard with 60k speeds from the DVP to about Dufferin. Sell the remaining Gardiner from the 427 to Dufferin and let the province take care of it. This 8 lane at grade boulevard will still allow a fast enough commute for goods and people and it will improve the livability of the downtown core. The remaining Gardiner, from the 427 to Dufferin could become part of the QEW and if the city decides to keep that highway- toll it so we can get some more needed revenue for Toronto's transit system.

Take this to the thread on tearing down the Gardiner....

 

[xstatik]

This isn't a post on expanding our highway system but rather, improving what we have.

Please, Toronto, take down the elavated section of the Gardiner. Construct am eight lane boulevard with 60k speeds from the DVP to about Dufferin. Sell the remaining Gardiner from the 427 to Dufferin and let the province take care of it. This 8 lane at grade boulevard will still allow a fast enough commute for goods and people and it will improve the livability of the downtown core. The remaining Gardiner, from the 427 to Dufferin could become part of the QEW and if the city decides to keep that highway- toll it so we can get some more needed revenue for Toronto's transit system.

I'd love to see how livability will improve with 8 LANES of at grade traffic, with expressway traffic levels dividing the city from the lake would improve livability over walking under 2 pillars holding up a highway!?!?

If the Gardiner is to go, the only logicial solution is a BIG DIG Underground Expressway such as the case in Boston and Montreal

 

[ShonTron]

The trouble is that we have both an overhead highway and 6-8 lanes of at-grade traffic as well. Not just a matter of "walking under 2 pillars holding up a highway".

The Big Dig carries Interstate 93 - a major expressway connecting Boston's south suburbs, Cape Cod as well as Providence, RI with Boston's northern suburbs and Manchester, NH. The Gardiner isn't the through route that the Central Artery was.

 

[adma]

And Montreal's answer to the Big Dig has tended to be seen as more of an urban villain typifying the latter days of Drapeau...

 

[unimaginative2]

Only because they never finished burying the thing. They've done a magnificent job of covering it in the Square Victoria area. Now they just have to fill in behind City Hall.

 

[Archivist]

And what did Montreal rip out in the process? What was lost? 50 years later, the scar that it left in the city is still being healed.

 

[unimaginative2]

You're right, of course, but I was thinking of it as an alternative to the previous plan for an elevated expressway along de la Commune, which would have been even more disastrous.

 

[borgo100]

any one else see the EA about the 407 in the star today?

 

[jks]

any one else see the EA about the 407 in the star today?

No, I didn't please elaborate.