News   Jun 28, 2024
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York Street Pedestrian Promenade Plan

interesting. good to know they're making it more pedestrian friendly... especially with the lakeshore/york intersection design. those islands are scary and cars go crazy around that turn. this is one of the most important streets for downtown-waterfront connection... beautifying and pedestrianizing this street will definitely make traintracks/gardiner/lakeshore less of a barrier to the waterfront. just hope they can work some speed into doing these little projects.
 
Yeah, that's a brutal intersection. I'm glad to see that the City is putting forward plans to have it changed and pedestrianized a bit better. Walking under the Gardiner is bad enough on it's own without the life-risking existing setup that's there right now.
 
That corner wouldn't be a bad spot for a scramble crossing.

Silly proposal at the next intersection north to remove the right channel from the York off ramp of the Gardiner to Harbour Street eastbound.

42
 
I agree that the island on the northwest corner is hazardous, however I think that channeling southbound traffic directly onto the onramp is beneficial. If southbound cars are forced to wait for pedestrians to cross before making a right turn onto the highway, the number of cars entering the onramp per light will plummet.

The foot of York St. is a key outlet for cars leaving the CBD. If the flow of traffic is reduced, the entire core will jam up. As it is, traffic on University backs up to Queen St. Throw in a few idiots who end up stopped in the middle of the intersection, and before you know it east west streets jam up. As important as pedestrians may be, I would not support any plan that reduces the flow of traffic on southbound York.

One of my downtown Toronto visions is to build a tunnel that starts somewhere on University Avenue, and ends up turning directly into an onramp for the Gardiner.
 
About Time!

Now this is what I'm talking about!

City Hall taking the leadership role in beautifying our key public spaces and gateways.

Working with developers and various city departments, agencies, ratepayer groups they are focusing on the LITTLE details that go a long way to the overall look and feel of the city. Fixing and improved lighting, the removal and planting of new trees, the removal of redundant poles, graffiti clean up, new street furniture, cleaning and preventing bird crap under the Gardiner, wider sidewalks and crosswalks.

Can we do an audit of every major street in downtown Toronto? University, Bay, Yonge, Front, King and Queen would all be good candidates.

Louroz
 
frogger.jpg


Aw... this was my favorite Frogger watching spot...
 
Looks like they might have finally started work on this. I can't find any more mention of it on the city website but I can report York Street is currently closed between Bremner and Lakeshore and they've torn up the northeast and northwest corners of the York/Lakeshore/Gardiner Ramp intersection. From the plan it looks like things will be a lot more pedestrian friendly.
 
Holy crap, it's dangerous! I almost got nailed by a car making a right turn from southbound York onto the westbound Gardiner on ramp as I crossed the intersection. Cars are not used to slowing down, let alone yielding to pedestrians, when they turn right onto the highway. I suppose that once people adjust, it will be safer.

I noticed a few things today regarding traffic flow. On the plus side, southbound cars are allowed to turn right on a red. This gives southbound cars a greater opportunity to get onto the highway. However, pedestrians really reduced the opportunity for the same cars to get onto the highway on a green, which only adds to the gridlock already present.
 

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