City
Should Yonge Street Lose a Lane?
As part of the GTA Transport Summit on Wednesday, Gary Welsh, Toronto's General Manager of Transportation, suggested that Yonge Street could be narrowed down to three car lanes south of Bloor to expand sidewalks, discourage car use, and benefit pedestrians. It's an interesting idea for a strip of the city that sees so much pedestrian traffic; for all its vibrancy, Yonge Street (particularly between College and Bloor) is not the most attractive or walkable street in Toronto.
Two articles reporting the story cite the obvious concern of increased traffic congestion. While drivers would definitely have a lot to complain about, the reduction would help Yonge not because of what it removes, but because of what it could add. With a lane of traffic gone there might actually be room for trees, some public art, and maybe even bike lanes.
With Yonge as important a driving route as it is, though, I have a feeling it's an idea that'll have a tough time getting off the ground.
Image by Metrix X from the blogTO flickr pool.
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In that case, I don't think the traffic congestion would be too bad at all. It is often proven that with further limitations, things can be improved to better fit those limitations. So I think it would work out somehow.
Also, I've never really had too much to complain about the width of the sidewalks along Yonge. What we really need is a public education blitz about sidewalk walking etiquette. We could make due with the sidewalks we have if more people just moved out of the way when passing each other.
why not turn yonge into a pedestrian street? although turning yonge into a pedestrian street from bloor to the lake probably wont work. but, from shuter to bloor is more realistic. in that stretch, there are no parking garages exiting onto yonge. having a subway line running down the street is, in my opinion, redundant. by closing off the street to traffic, cafes, decent shops, and other commerical activity would boom. of course, this would not only increase property taxes but would also give our city a central commerical area for residents and tourists alike. i cant see why this hasnt happened already. university and bay streets are virtually deserted after 5pm anyway so there would be alternative routes for traffic going north/south. i'm sure everyone who reads this site has appreciated pedestrian streets in europa. i cant see shy everyone else in city wouldnt. the real estate value would sky rocket along the yonge corridor. most importantly, everyone would enjoy the opportunity to stroll down the street and not worry about dodging pedestrians, bypassing them on the street, and avoiding oncoming traffic.
Wrong execution.
Two lanes is the right width.
Why two and not none, or three?
No lanes, while a nice idea, has been tried and has failed before, both here and elsewhere.
Yonge Street went pedestrian only, on the weekends in the 70's and it didn't last.
Turning away all car traffic (and thereby delievery trucks, emergency vehciles etc.....can be a big problem.
On the other hand....a reduction in vehicle lanes is an excellent idea.
It will serve to create a more pleasant and aethetic pedestrian experience.
It will increase the number of people who choose to walk downtown.
It won't have a huge effect on total car volume downtown, but a modest encouragement in the direction of transit is still a good one.
So why two lanes, not three?
First, because a three lane configuration almost certainly means the middle lane changes directions in rush hour.
This is the way Jarvis currently works.
And, well, Jarvis doesn't work.
The city is now in final stages of a plan to get rid of Jarvis' 5th lane.
'Switch' lanes tend to cause a lot of driver confusion (no solid yellow line in the middle of the road)
The often create more accidents.
And if you have three lanes, you either A) Can't have left hand turn lanes)
B) Can't widen the sidewalks at intersections, which is where pedestrian overcrowding most often occurs
You also won't get bike lanes and sidewalk widening with a 3-lane configuration.
Each middle lane of Yonge St. is 3.3 Metres wide. Bike lane standard width is 1.5M x 2 sides of the street, for 3.0 M total.
The width needed to add trees to the side walk is 1.0 M per side
So, a 2 lane Yonge Street allows for Bike lanes, and sidewalk widenings, plus selected left hand turn lanes, which could actually speed traffic up.
Not sure that would be wise on Yonge, where so many pedestrians are.
Wider sidewalks, bike lanes, trees; do it now.
And yet, large cities like Barcelona have huge swaths of pedestrian routes.
Bordeaux was a congested mess until the shut the centre of the city down to anything but delivery vehicles and transit. And now it's beautiful and vibrant and the businesses have benefited.
Canada needs to get over the all or nothing attitude. Pedestrians streets don't mean NO traffic where deliveries can't be made. It means putting the focus on the person who will walk into a store rather than car that will whip by it (or crawl by it in gridlock).
Having a pedestrian zone with boutiques, galleries, restaurants, shops and a bike lane would be fantastic. Especially if it was done like the Distillery District to recreate the atmosphere of Old Toronto -- with cobblestone streets, trees, plants, old Toronto-style street lamps and renovated, cleaned up store fronts. It would be a very upscale, glamorous part of town, right in the centre of our city. Locals and tourists would flock to it. It would be our pride and joy, and featured on postcards and in tourist books
Pedestrian streets if designed properly with upscale shops are boutiques are tourist magnets and prime focal points for cities. This has been proven all over the world!
Some examples of great pedestrian streets include:
Vaci Street in Budapest
Los Ramblas in Barcelona
Arbat Street in Moscow
Zelezna Street in Prague
One person commented that Yonge Street was made into a pedestrian street in the 70's and didn't work. Well you have to have shops, boutiques, restaurants and attractions that people want to go to in order for a pedestrian street to work. Obviously no one wants to walk down a pedestrian street that looks like a dump!!
Almost all European cities have lively, well-designed pedestrianised street centers combined with town squares and parks which are crowded with people walking at every hour of the day and night.
Well designed pedestrian zones are great for business, great for tourism, great for the environment, great for locals, great for families, and great for our health (we exercise instead of drive!).
Everyone wins.
Cobblestone streets, Old Toronto street lamps, trees, shrubs, plants, beautiful shops, boutiques, restaurants, galleries and fountains all down Yonge Street until Queen Street.
A tram or trolley should be added as well as a bike lane.
A pedestrian-only Yonge Street would be the venue for farmer's markets, artist exhibits, performing arts festivals, music events etc. It would become one of Toronto's top tourist attractions and would be a magnate for international tourists as well as locals. The street would be alive and dynamic, day and night.
As for funding this concept, the City should require that the developer of the proposed 80-storey condo project for the south-east corner of Yonge & Bloor put money towards funding it.
This should be the vision for our Yonge Street!
Let's do it right this time!! We Torontonians have so often managed to screw things up with mediocre ideas and short term vision.
We have the opportunity now to make our city truly "world class" - a fantastic place for us to live and a fantastic place for international tourists to visit. Let's not accept some half-baked plan. Let' strive for Yonge Street to be our pride and joy!!!