Roads: Gardiner Expressway

[dunkalunk]

The Gardiner needs to go. All of it. Not maintained, not replaced, not "improved", not tunnelled. It's not only well past it's due date, but it should never have been built at all.

Yes, yes. Tear it down. Start with the eastern section for now as that can be done with relatively little impact. Then spend moeny on other high priority projects so it's possible to tear down the western half to Exhibition.

Lakeshore GO Tunnel/Electrification
DRL East and West
Lakeshore East and West LRT (via Bremner and Queens Quay)

Now, instead of just ripping up the entire highway back to Jameson (Which would cause traffic insanity in Parkdale), instead, re-route the highway over the rail corridor to connect at Front/Bathurst. Then convert Front and Wellington streets to opposing one-way roads.

I'd give the western half of the Gardiner at least 20 years.

 

[RippedLikeStinson]

Forget the Exhibition -- I'd like to see it buried to west of the Humber River. That way most of the city could be reconnected to the waterfront. High Park could expand right to the water's edge.

 

[gweed123]

But why? I heard somewhere that you'd need a highway 20 lanes wide to carry what the subway carries.

Why does it need to be an either-or choice? As long as it's not competing with RT projects for the same pool of money, why can't it go forward as well? Like I said, I only support the tunnelling option if it's paid for by a combination of the sale of the land and tolls.

 

[Platform 27]

Now, instead of just ripping up the entire highway back to Jameson (Which would cause traffic insanity in Parkdale), instead, re-route the highway over the rail corridor to connect at Front/Bathurst. Then convert Front and Wellington streets to opposing one-way roads.

So at 8:30 every morning in front of Union Station, you'd have the entire western regional rush hour inflow of vehicles funnelled right across what at that moment in time is possibly the busiest pedestrian corridor in the country?

 

[junctionist]

Forget the Exhibition -- I'd like to see it buried to west of the Humber River. That way most of the city could be reconnected to the waterfront. High Park could expand right to the water's edge.

I'd like to see that happen.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

But why? I heard somewhere that you'd need a highway 20 lanes wide to carry what the subway carries.

That poster is ancient. I'm going to say its from the 1980s at the latest. We're going to need far beyond needed 20 lanes of traffic

The 401 gets up to 18 lanes, and is the busiest highway on the planet, so yes.

I read somewhere that the daily 401 usage can't even match the daily ridership of the Yonge subway alone.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Forget the Exhibition -- I'd like to see it buried to west of the Humber River. That way most of the city could be reconnected to the waterfront. High Park could expand right to the water's edge.

High Park lost a slice of its south edge to The Queensway in the 1950's. The Gardiner meant the end of Sunnyside Amusement Park. Go to this link to see the changes of the lake shore over the decades.

 

[innsertnamehere]

^oh way more people use the 401 than the yonge line, don't delude yourself. 700,000 trips are made on the Yonge line every day, while on the 401 500,000 trips go through one spot. (Between the 403 and 427), making that stretch the busiest on the planet. I'm guessing that well over a million trips are made on the 401 every day.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Hmm... I have a feeling he may have been talking about the Toronto segments in his comment.

 

[dunkalunk]

So at 8:30 every morning in front of Union Station, you'd have the entire western regional rush hour inflow of vehicles funnelled right across what at that moment in time is possibly the busiest pedestrian corridor in the country?

Not all of it. There are more than enough distributor streets to funnel traffic away from Union and onto more appropriate streets. Light timing could also be manipulated to make Lakeshore Boulevard a more attractive option for through traffic. Besides, I don't see how this would be any worse than crossing University or Bay on foot during rush hour, especially given the construction of the York West Teamway.

 

[nfitz]

That poster is ancient. I'm going to say its from the 1980s at the latest. We're going to need far beyond needed 20 lanes of traffic

Mid-1970s. Yes, it's ancient. That was my point.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Whatever plan is chosen I just hope it doesn't become similar to Chicago's Lake Shore Dr. I've walked along the path that runs parallel to it (west side) and just getting across Lake Shore Dr. can be tedious due to the few pedestrian crossing points.

 

[FNTS]

Not surprisingly, Waterfront Toronto's Board of Directors officially endorses the "Remove" option:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/1999...cludes_waterfront_torontos_board_of_directors

 

[pman]

Not surprisingly, Waterfront Toronto's Board of Directors officially endorses the "Remove" option:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/1999...cludes_waterfront_torontos_board_of_directors

I agree it's not surprising the WT board endorses the "remove" option. After all, they're a bunch of left-wing downtown elites waging war on the car, who based their recommendation on nothing more than an exhaustive survey of four different options that were put in place all around the world, actual data on traffic volumes and commuting patterns, rigorous economic and environmental analysis of the various options, input from some of the world's best planners, and adult thought about the way Toronto's infrastructure and public realm contribute to or detract from our competitive advantage. What a bunch of losers...

 

[FNTS]

I hope City Council agrees with them and we'll finally see this thing go. Hopefully the western section will come next!