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Roads: Gardiner Expressway catch-all, incl. Hybrid Design (2015-onwards)

To reduce maintenance costs from collisions (not covered by auto insurance) and wear from speeding vehicles, the city should reduce the speed limits on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to 60 km/h.

To collect more revenue, use speed cameras on both. Then we will be able to create a data base of speed violations to see where they reside based on the license plates.
 
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People on here still don't understand or believe in Induced Demand, eh?

lol the current infrastructure is inadequate to support downtown Toronto presently, let alone in the future. This applies to both roads and transit.

Strip the roads and you get more use on transit sure, but things are already overcrowded. The Ontario Line may induce some demand from drivers, but that's still a ways away.

I should note that I have changed my opinion to full demo for Gardiner east, but the central and western spans should remain (at least until the end of their design life).
 
A perfect opportunity to save some money see what would happen if we don't rebuild. Instead of wasting money maintaining a section we're gonna tear down in a few years, just close this section and let the drivers figure out other routes. Call it a pilot project!
And take that money saved and plow it into more transit. As many subways, buses and streetcars in the east end as possible.
 
to get a somewhat good example of what the gardiner removal might look like ... go look at crowchild trail in Calgary. It is a major South - Northwest expressway .. except for a portion that is at grade between Kensington Road and 26 ave nw (roughly just north of the bow river to just north of McMahon Stadium) and is 7 lanes across (and also drops to 4 lanes too). Traffic is always busy .. can jam up during rush hour .. and Calgary has active modern plans to freeway-ize this portion with a start date of 2027+. and is currently gobbling up proprieties along the route.

Also, I honestly fell to see how the pedestrian experience is going to be improved when they have to cross 8+ lanes of lakeshore with possibly tight signal crossings making you stop midway through the intersection (like the Rees / Lakeshore currently is). Also .. pedestrians will still need to cross through the myriad of dark pungy railway underpasses just to get lakeshore .. until I guess someone states the railway needs to be buried to further improve the pedestrian experience.
 
Request for Proposal
ecblank.gif
Solicitation
number:
Doc3919544944
Commodity:Professional Services, Engineering Services
Description:Engineering Design Services and Services during Construction for the Westbound York Street on-ramp to F.G. Gardiner Expr
This Request for Proposal (the “RFP”) is an invitation by the City of Toronto (the “City”) to prospective Suppliers to submit bids for:

Engineering Design Services and Services during Construction for the Westbound York Street on-ramp to F.G. Gardiner Expressway for the City of Toronto, Infrastructure & Development Services Division.
Issue date:April 11, 2023
ecblank.gif
Closing date:May 2, 2023
at 12:00 Noon
 
Request for Proposal
ecblank.gif
Solicitation
number:
Doc3919544944
Commodity:Professional Services, Engineering Services
Description:Engineering Design Services and Services during Construction for the Westbound York Street on-ramp to F.G. Gardiner Expr
This Request for Proposal (the “RFP”) is an invitation by the City of Toronto (the “City”) to prospective Suppliers to submit bids for:

Engineering Design Services and Services during Construction for the Westbound York Street on-ramp to F.G. Gardiner Expressway for the City of Toronto, Infrastructure & Development Services Division.
Issue date:April 11, 2023
ecblank.gif
Closing date:May 2, 2023
at 12:00 Noon
Guess they're hiring...
 
In Berlin (not the Ontario city that was renamed to Kitchener), Germany, they are reducing traffic lanes. Taking away 4 lanes of the 6 from the automobile, and turning them over for trams (on a grassy right-of-way) and cycling lanes, leaving just 2 for the automobile. Other world class cities are turning away from the auto.


See this article from 2021 when they started planning, at this link.
 
In Berlin (not the Ontario city that was renamed to Kitchener), Germany, they are reducing traffic lanes. Taking away 4 lanes of the 6 from the automobile, and turning them over for trams (on a grassy right-of-way) and cycling lanes, leaving just 2 for the automobile. Other world class cities are turning away from the auto.


See this article from 2021 when they started planning, at this link.
Basically what Toronto did with Queens Quay
 
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Matlow had a motion at Council to pause signing new contracts pending a report on updated costs and analysis was delivered was just voted down by Council 15-10.

Not a surprise, overall; though why Saxe chose to vote against I'm not quite clear.
 
The previous vote on the topic made it clear that with options keep the Gardiner or get rid of the Gardiner the choice of council was to keep it. The data that showed most people don't use the Gardiner to go through downtown... the vast majority have the downtown as their origin and destination and a better distribution of that traffic over surface streets would work better. Council with that data chose keep the Gardiner. I'm not surprised Matlow was voted down... the last time people voted there was relief that the decision was done.
 

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