Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[JGHali]

Tory doesn't not support Eglinton Connects.

You're right, he just hedges his support with said pandering "reservations":

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news..._on_cancelling_eglinton_connects_project.html

I suppose you could say that Tory falls under the "Eglinton Connecfs if necessary but not necessarily Eglinton Connects" form of support.

Maybe he supports an Eglinton Canal serviced by Swan boat water taxis.

By the way, the idea that Eglinton serves as a "crosstown" route for many is laughable. Certainly not with present construction, and it's been a slow ponderous route for years. You might as well talk about Yonge as a convenient and quick way downtown, almost as good as Bathurst!

 

[WislaHD]

You don't have to tell me twice, I've lived on Eglinton my entire life.

Eglinton should be treated as St. Clair or Bloor. Anyone from the Midtown area knows that if you want to go across town, its Lawrence you have to take.

 

[JWBF]

You don't have to tell me twice, I've lived on Eglinton my entire life.

Almost half of my life: Eglinton at Allen x2, Eglinton at Kingston x2, Eglinton at Markham, and Eglinton at Danforth. Walked and rode thousands of KMs along Eglinton.

If a subway/LRT/BRT was ever needed on an overused and congested street then it's Eglinton, decades ago. IMO Tory's soft stance on Eglinton is real-dickless.

 

[Mongo]

If a subway/LRT/BRT was ever needed on an overused and congested street then it's Eglinton, decades ago.

Not until the DRL is built, I hope. Just what we need, another feeder line dumping even more people into our already overloaded downtown line.

Memo to John Tory: the NUMBER ONE heavy transit new construction priority, above any suburban proposal, is the Downtown Relief Line.

 

[pw20]

Tory supports the Eglinton LRT.

He's concerned about the part of the proposal that turns Eglinton from Avenue - Mt Pleasant into a three lane road. And again... even if you love mass transit and bikes and all that good stuff - narrowing the central part of a major artery to three lanes is totally nuts. in my opinion.

Is he soft dick on Eglinton Connects... yeah he is. But it seems like its not something too crazy to be soft dick about.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Significant delays does not equal "shuts down the whole downtown core surface transit".

Also, it's Sunday morning, so a huge amount of people aren't even using the service.

This is clearly all about you getting to your antiquing on time.

Look...I'm getting tired of pointing out your lazy, flawed excuses. The "delay" they are speaking about, is the fact that there is NO service for the duration of the facking marathon. It's not like you have to wait an extra 5 minutes...or catch a shuttle bus (like they have when they shut down the subway). There's no service...and no alternate route. period. Until the marathon is over. Do you comprende???

And I asked you to add up the ridership of all these routes on Sunday. Then tell me that number is of no significance.

 

[JWBF]

Not until the DRL is built, I hope. Just what we need, another feeder line dumping even more people into our already overloaded downtown line.

Memo to John Tory: the NUMBER ONE heavy transit new construction priority, above any suburban proposal, is the Downtown Relief Line.

The Eglinton Crosstown (LRVs running at and below grade) is already being built.

Look...I'm getting tired of pointing out your lazy, flawed excuses. The "delay" they are speaking about, is the fact that there is NO service for the duration of the facking marathon. It's not like you have to wait an extra 5 minutes...or catch a shuttle bus (like they have when they shut down the subway). There's no service...and no alternate route. period. Until the marathon is over. Do you comprende???

And I asked you to add up the ridership of all these routes on Sunday. Then tell me that number is of no significance.

Methinks you need some quiet time... regroup your thoughts and approach the conversation in a more calm manor.

Tory supports the Eglinton LRT.

He's concerned about the part of the proposal that turns Eglinton from Avenue - Mt Pleasant into a three lane road. And again... even if you love mass transit and bikes and all that good stuff - narrowing the central part of a major artery to three lanes is totally nuts. in my opinion.

Is he soft dick on Eglinton Connects... yeah he is. But it seems like its not something too crazy to be soft dick about.

Eglinton from Avenue to Mt. Pleasant is already 3 full lanes plus parking.

 

[ehlow]

Tory doesn't not support Eglinton Connects.

Much more accurate to say: Tory doesn't like one part of Eglinton Connects.

 

[WislaHD]

He's concerned about the part of the proposal that turns Eglinton from Avenue - Mt Pleasant into a three lane road. And again... even if you love mass transit and bikes and all that good stuff - narrowing the central part of a major artery to three lanes is totally nuts. in my opinion.

My opinion is that, no, it is not crazy. Not outside of North America anyway. 3 lane arterial is adequate for many major arteries in European cities, and European cities don't have highways on the scale of the 401 a short driving distance away.

If anything, major retail and commercial arterial streets like Eglinton aims to be should be narrower as it creates a much more pedestrian and human friendly built form appropriate for the commercial and residential density Eglinton will become. Eglinton between Avenue Road and Mt. Pleasant certainly fits this bill.

 

[salsa]

Tory supports the Eglinton LRT.

He's concerned about the part of the proposal that turns Eglinton from Avenue - Mt Pleasant into a three lane road. And again... even if you love mass transit and bikes and all that good stuff - narrowing the central part of a major artery to three lanes is totally nuts. in my opinion.

Is he soft dick on Eglinton Connects... yeah he is. But it seems like its not something too crazy to be soft dick about.

I don't know why Tory turned this into an election issue in the first place, given that Eglinton Connects is still many years away from being implemented. Initially he wanted to cancel the whole thing but was forced to eat his words after a public outcry. Tory would have us believe that he makes evidence-based decisions, so lets look at some facts:
- 69% of survey respondents supported the three-lane cross-section between Avenue and Mount Pleasant
- Only 26% felt that car and truck capacity needed to be maintained
- Traffic modelling suggests that reducing the lanes will have a negligible impact on travel time
- That section of road has the lowest traffic volumes of all, but the heavy bus traffic will be gone
- Yonge & Eglinton moves 70% more pedestrians than cars and is the second busiest pedestrian intersection in the city.

Tory decided to ignore all that. We heard phrases like "congestion-causing narrowing of the lanes" throughout the campaign without his own evidence to back that up. He claimed that it would increase commute times, but whenever Tory talks about commute times it's always that of motorists. Meanwhile the Crosstown will carry the equivalent of seven to ten lanes of vehicular traffic, with a capacity of up to 15,000 pphpd whereas the car lanes top out at 2,000. Eglinton as a whole will have far more capacity than today, and will certainly decrease the average commute time. But that's not good enough for John Tory, because how dare anything should slow down a car.

I would have agreed with Tory's position if his claims were true, but they are not. He is wrong. I find it absurd that Tory is so willing to oppose huge public support just because the small minority of people who happen to drive may lose a minute or two. Big deal. How can you say it's disingenuous to argue that Tory is pandering to drivers? From what I've heard from him so far, he's the kind of politician who would have voted to remove the Jarvis bike lanes so that drivers can save just two minutes. Tory "does not support anything that increases commute times for drivers, including bringing back bike lanes to Jarvis St". “I will absolutely not put the bike lanes back on Jarvis. The bike lanes never should have been there to begin with — it is not the right place”. Oh dear, a whopping two minutes was too much to swallow. I think it's crystal clear where his priorities are when it comes to rationing road space. If you need more examples, please let me know.

 

[Gavin]

Look...I'm getting tired of pointing out your lazy, flawed excuses. The "delay" they are speaking about, is the fact that there is NO service for the duration of the facking marathon. It's not like you have to wait an extra 5 minutes...or catch a shuttle bus (like they have when they shut down the subway). There's no service...and no alternate route. period. Until the marathon is over. Do you comprende???

Uh...I run in those marathons every year. Police man every intersection and allow streetcars and traffic through during breaks in the runners. You're just preaching your ignorance with every post.

 

[Gavin]

But regardless, too fucking bad.

 

[LNahid2000]

Look...I'm getting tired of pointing out your lazy, flawed excuses. The "delay" they are speaking about, is the fact that there is NO service for the duration of the facking marathon. It's not like you have to wait an extra 5 minutes...or catch a shuttle bus (like they have when they shut down the subway). There's no service...and no alternate route. period. Until the marathon is over. Do you comprende???

And I asked you to add up the ridership of all these routes on Sunday. Then tell me that number is of no significance.

It's been proven to you over and over and over again that all surface routes downtown are not "shut down" during these running events. Seems like you're the one who can't comprehend this.

Also, the ridership of all these routes on a Sunday morning is probably less than the amount of runners who are part of these events.

 

[urbandreamer]

Why can't they run marathons on residential side streets? Or even streets like St George, Beverly, John, Wellington, Church, Wellesley/Harbord?

 

[otto]

if you were to run 26 miles, would you want to run it down a bunch of back streets?