King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[ShonTron]

Really? I thought in North America only NYC and Montréal (island) still banned right on red.

Mexico City recently instituted a no-turn-on-red prohibition.

Right turns on red were legalized in most North American jurisdictions the 1970s as a supposed fuel saving measure. With modern cars - especially those with automatic engine stops, hybrids, and electrics, this has become almost moot.

We only justify it as a convenience for motorists these days.

 

[turbanplanner]

What is more important, Cars or Pedestrians??

How many Pedestrians are crossing that intersection today??

Seen there is no right turn sing all over the place and nothing new for the past number of decades.

Right now, TTC only has one bus using the curb lane every 30 minuets.

miWay has their 26 route turning at that intersection every 15-35 minutes depending on the day and time of day.

I'd say if there are zero pedestrians then it's a great way for the city to lose faith with people.

Almost all the pedestrians deaths in the city (outside downtown which is mostly due to construction trucks) are in Scarborough but minus lowering speed limits I've seen zero changes there.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Toronto's curbside patios made nearly 50x more money than the parking spots they took up​

See link

One of the best things that the many painstaking months of lockdown brought us was the innovation of curbside patios that have become an enduring norm in cities like Toronto, where the streets now feel absolutely alive with all sorts of bustling new outdoor dining spaces.

Taking up sidewalks, parking lanes, and private property space not previously allocated to patios, the CafeTO program was a boon for restaurants, bars and cafes that were struggling to operate under orders that only permitted outdoor dining at points.

Many got creative with their space, making it an extension of the indoors that customers so dearly missed, especially during the colder months.

And, it was an absolute hit — but we didn't really know to what financial extent, until recently.

A new comparison by The Globe & Mail shows that while residents spent a whopping $181 million at curbside patios during summer 2021 alone (13 weeks from June 30 to September 22), only about $3.7 million would have been earned from the parking fees associated with the spaces those patios took up during the same time period.

That's a staggering 49 times more revenue, all of it going into the pockets of local businesses.

And, anyone who's sat on or even just walked by these patios over the last few summers will be able to say that they enrich the vibe of the city and enable more people to enjoy it — and the outdoors — in a new way.

It's not the only way that public space usually designated for cars has been transforming in the city, either, with parking lots turning into pop-up parks, lush green spaces taking up former parking lanes on major roadways and entire thoroughfares shutting down on certain weekends for bikes and pedestrians to take over.

There is also the famed King Street Transit Priority Corridor, which, though it has looked better, designates curb lanes to transitgoers and pedestrians, and prohibits left-turning and straight-through car traffic on a stretch of King.

Though many of these initiatives are temporary, some of them — like the King Street "pilot" and CafeTO — have been made permanent due to demand, making the city question its traditional car-centricity that is inherent by design.

 

[TRONto]

Some said that removing parking spaces would destroy business on King. Glad there is more data to say otherwise.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The Secret to Year-Round Streeteries? What Greenhouses Can Teach Us​

From link.

After Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that outdoor dining could continue year-round, there was a cheer — and then worry about a chill. Just how practical can eating in streeteries be when winter sets in?

One attempted solution is the so-called “space bubbles” an Upper West Side café is trying out. But a new concept from the architecture firm Woods Bagot and Arup might be more scalable and pleasant: a prefabricated, modular restaurant made of plywood, with a simple canopy that could be fitted with vinyl or polycarbonate during the winter, like a greenhouse, or with a shade-giving material in the summer, like a cabana.

Aside from the wood canopy, the streetery concept looks like many of the other plywood enclosures that have popped up across the city already. But the secret sauce is all in how it’s put together.

Woods Bagot and Arup prioritized designing something that someone could build quickly — important given that construction in the street is challenging and restaurants do not have time for a lengthy build-out — and for not a lot of money. They began by basing the measurements on standard sizes of hardware-store plywood sheets and beams. Next, they used a type of joinery that slots together so that restaurants could assemble them without needing a lot of tools. And importantly: If they decide not to stay open year-round, they can disassemble them and put the parts in storage for use next year.

“You’re putting it together like a 3D puzzle,” says David Brown, an architect at Woods Bagot. He estimates that, once everything is cut, it will only take a couple of hours to assemble. “We’re trying to make it simple so people without construction experience can put it together. We’ve all been stuck with Ikea furniture and an Allen wrench and totally lost, so this has as few mechanical fasteners as possible.”

Restaurants could then either double wrap the streetery with vinyl film — an inexpensive yet effective form of insulation, which is often used on drafty windows — or screw on polycarbonate panels. If a restaurant does have a budget for heaters, the design is flexible enough to accommodate freestanding or ceiling-mounted options. The estimated cost to build one of these? Less than $1,000 for materials. (Heaters not included.)

The concept is one of many from Neighborhoods Now, an initiative from the Urban Design Forum and the Van Alen Institute that explored ways design could help with reopening challenges across the city. Woods Bagot and Arup collaborated with the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH) on specific ideas for Washington Heights, but the ideas could work across the city.

While Arup, Woods Bagot, and CLOTH spoke to businesses in Washington Heights while they were developing the concept, they haven’t yet gotten any bites to actually build one.

“There was some concern about the length of time these could be up,” Brown says. “Now that it’s been announced that open restaurants are permanent, we’re reaching back out. That the design has built-in winterizing would hopefully be more appealing.”

 

[turbanplanner]

Toronto's curbside patios made nearly 50x more money than the parking spots they took up​

See link

Personally I'm surprised that they were as popular as they were.

I dined on a few patios (bloor, dundas, Ossington) and having bus exhaust or motorcycles pass you every 2 mins was really bleh.
We'll see next year since the demand for everything was up after 2 years of being locked down.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Personally I'm surprised that they were as popular as they were.

I dined on a few patios (bloor, dundas, Ossington) and having bus exhaust or motorcycles pass you every 2 mins was really bleh.
We'll see next year since the demand for everything was up after 2 years of being locked down.

Might change as more electric vehicles hit the road. People are already buying hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs, and by 2035, Canada will ban the sale of NEW gasoline-powered automobiles.

 

[turbanplanner]

Might change as more electric vehicles hit the road. People are already buying hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs, and by 2035, Canada will ban the sale of NEW gasoline-powered automobiles.

Fair but that's about 15 years away till they're in the hands of most people.
My point though was that it worked this year but I'm curious if we see a drop next year as everyone has gotten their vacation and spending wishes settled

 

[afransen]

Fair but that's about 15 years away till they're in the hands of most people.
My point though was that it worked this year but I'm curious if we see a drop next year as everyone has gotten their vacation and spending wishes settled

Depending what happens with oil prices (esp with carbon tax) and declining price of EVs. ICE vehicles may be squeezed out of the vehicle fleet faster than you might think.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Personally I'm surprised that they were as popular as they were.

I dined on a few patios (bloor, dundas, Ossington) and having bus exhaust or motorcycles pass you every 2 mins was really bleh.
We'll see next year since the demand for everything was up after 2 years of being locked down.

In a lot of neighbourhoods, many of the restaurants normally don't have the option of patios. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the street patios in those areas stay popular as people like dining outside in the summer, and giving them the option to do so at their favourite local restaurants, when they normally couldn't, is most likely going to be popular. Maybe not every area retains the same level of success, but I'd be surprised if somewhere like Church-Wellesley (where I am) the patios decline much in popularity at all next year.

 

[felix123]

Toronto's curbside patios made nearly 50x more money than the parking spots they took up​

See link

Remove the parking for good. It's fiscally-irresponsible to keep it!
I found that the patios on Danforth were really nice with the bike lanes next to them.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Wonder if the city would get a property tax increase from the businesses if the sidewalk/roadway patios were made more "permanent" than "temporary"? A "permanent" structure would need a building permit, and would likely increase the value of the property. Hence an increase in property tax revenue.

 

[allengeorge]

Wonder if the city would get a property tax increase from the businesses if the sidewalk/roadway patios were made more "permanent" than "temporary"? A "permanent" structure would need a building permit, and would likely increase the value of the property. Hence an increase in property tax revenue.

No. That’s the fastest way to get businesses to be against patios - and they are definitely anti-change and pro-parking as it is.

 

[DSC]

Wonder if the city would get a property tax increase from the businesses if the sidewalk/roadway patios were made more "permanent" than "temporary"? A "permanent" structure would need a building permit, and would likely increase the value of the property. Hence an increase in property tax revenue.

The on-street or sidewalk patios are on CITY property so are nothing to do with property tax. If the City wanted more revenue they can increase the road occupancy permit (and/or patio cafe) fees.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The on-street or sidewalk patios are on CITY property so are nothing to do with property tax. If the City wanted more revenue they can increase the road occupancy permit (and/or patio cafe) fees.

They would have to "lease" that space from the city to use it, I'm assuming.