Can we get protected bike lanes on both Yonge
and the bypass roads? Yes, this area was fairly vibrant on Fridays and Saturdays from what I remember. But it does need the planned public realm improvements.
@Northern Light you would be the right person to ask this: is it preferable to have a landscaped and treed median; or is it better to remove it, narrow the road and install replacement greenery on the sides of the road?
From the perspective of tree survival; there's nothing intrinsically good or bad about medians vs boulevards.
It's about the positives and negatives you're able to deliver in terms of the growing conditions.
So, it's about sunlight, it's about the amount of road salt; it's about moisture (access to rain, and/or irrigation); and it's about the volume and area of soil available for roots.
If you're dividing the median in 1/2 and grafting that on to each sidewalk as the entire space for trees that's clearly a loss.
But if you're adding to space accretively (net gain) that's already available for trees, that could be a win.
Preventing road salt is about speed-of-traffic (spray); and about actions to mitigate that (seat walls/curbs that reduce salt getting to a tree bed, proper drainage, and spring flushing if required).
If you're doing everything perfectly, so to speak; then it's either/or.
From a broader environmental perspective, it's about shade cover, and wildlife habitat.
If you must pick, in that scenario, it's likely trees on the sides would produce more shade, and be more likely to have some connectivity with existing natural spaces; though that's not really a given.
Having said that; if the trees are buffered by cycle tracks (less salt spray) that's definitely a good thing.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/city_hall/2020/11/24/public-health-chief-city-staff-back-plan-to-put-bike-lanes-on-north-yonge-street/yonge.jpg)
