City
New study calls for reduced traffic lanes on Yonge St.
Earlier today, Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam unveiled the results and recommendations of a privately funded study that seeks to revitalize the stretch of Yonge Street between Dundas and Gerrard streets. Conducted by Ken Greenberg of Greenberg Consultants and Marianne McKenna of KPMB Architects, the Yonge Street Planning Framework calls for a number of major changes to the historic strip, the most controversial of which is sure to be the reduction of two lanes of traffic for wider sidewalks and additional pedestrian-focused space.
The plan is all part of a vision that Wong-Tam and local stakeholders have to create "a cohesive and clear identity for Yonge Street." According the study's authors, given the that the City's last traffic count in the area revealed that almost double the number of pedestrians (53,000+) pass through Yonge and Dundas per day than vehicles (22,000+), it's crucial to make the strip more friendly to those on foot from both a usability and an economic standpoint.
Along with lane reductions, the study calls for the addition of street vendors, street patios, and complete closure to vehicular traffic during special events. The more people comfortably occupying the street, so the argument goes, the better it is for the small to medium size businesses that rely on walk-up traffic. The original idea had been to pilot a pedestrian mall (as was done in the early 1970s) during the summer months, but "during community consultations, there was a lot more support for widening the sidewalks," Wong-Tam said of the new plan.
Other cities have adopted similar, pedestrian-focused strategies in key areas, the most notable of which is likely New York's creation of a pedestrian zone on Broadway around Times Square. Started as an eight month pilot project, it was eventually made permanent after the trial run.
With the loss of the former Empress Hotel still a scar on the neighbourhood, the framework also recommends that steps to be taken ensure the long-term viability of heritage structures along Yonge Street. When asked what can be done to protect these buildings, Wong-Tam tells me that she'd like "to move a motion that asks staff to write a full designation report for every building listed on the heritage inventory in the area." If they qualify, these properties would be given full designation, and thus some protection from encroaching development.
A number of steep challenges face those who'd like to see the Yonge Street Planning Framework implemented. Convincing Rob Ford — part of whose mayoral campaign platform was to end "the war on the car" — to get on board with lane reductions won't be easy. Despite this, Wong-Tam remains stubbornly hopeful that the reputation of the planners and the support of local businesses will help to convince council of the good that could come of this framework. "The only reason it would not go forward is if we have people that are risk averse," she argues.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE YONGE STREET PLANNING FRAMEWORK
- Reduction of two lanes for vehicular traffic and extension of sidewalks
- Use of seasonal bollards to efficiently close the street to traffic for special events
- Protection of heritage structures through pursuit of full heritage designation
- Addition of a northern entrance/exit to Dundas Station on the south side of Yonge and Gould or the north side of Yonge and Edward
- Big box retail is encouraged to occupy second floor locations with ground level entrances
- Tall buildings should be set back to allow for sunlight to hit the street
Renderings courtesy of Ken Greenberg Consultants / KPMB Architects
Discussion
50 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Remove Zanzibar, the porno shops, and the Evergreen shelter
Doug Ford does not approve. Tunnels everywhere fo life yo!
Get your facts straight moron.
In what way has Toronto copied Vancouver?
Also, I agree with others.......Wong-Tam does rock.
Vandouches really do believe vanloser is the center of the universe. ugh
And it's fun to pull out quotes about their extremely successful experience:
"Forty years ago, when the pedestrianisation process began, the shopkeepers in central Copenhagen were unconvinced and
apprehensive. ‘We are not Italians, we are Danes. It will never work here.’ ‘Shops will die off if there are no more cars.’ ‘The climate over here is not suitable for mingling in the streets.’"
http://www.pedestrians-int.org/content/33/42006-nt.pdf
in b4 "WELL YOU KNOW TORONTO ISN'T A GREAT CITY NEW YORK IS SO WHATEVER"
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/02/11/new-york-citys-broadway-pedestrian-zone-to-become-permanent/
But aside from that, I usually avoid Yonge from Front to Wellsley anyways if I'm in a car. Wouldn't bother me at all if that stretch of Yonge were a pedestrian throughfare. However, the business owners in the area might have more trouble with deliveries, etc.
You typically take smaller throughfares and turn them into pedestrian walkways, not the longest street in Ontario. Time Square or 5th Ave. aren't even pedestrian-only.
The city is for BEING not GOING THROUGH.
unfortunately, this will never happen.
Do that and there will be nowhere to drive your car, scream and honk wildly when the Leafs win the Cup!
Come on, get a grip.
Do that and there will be nowhere to drive your car, scream and honk wildly when the Leafs win the Cup!
Come on, get a grip.
Do that and there will be nowhere to drive your car, scream and honk wildly when the Leafs win the Cup!
Come on, get a grip.
yawn.
Well, kiddies, I just got back from a week in NYC. Our hotel was at Broadway/27th. Yes, Times Square is beautiful, but the area all around us was a dead zone in the evening: all the shops were boarded up, no pedestrians. It was kinda scary. That section of Broadway is reduced to 1 lane southbound, but it's a dizzying array of jogs and bicycle lanes that criss-cross it. So while Times Square may be a huge success, other parts of Broadway not so much. With there being very little vehicular traffic, this area becomes a pedestrian no-go zone after dark. Times Square, of course, is dizzying, frantic and wonderfully energetic. Comparisons to Dundas Square are, well, sad.
Monday, as I travelled several blocks to the Tim Horton's back to our hotel, I was mystified to see no more than 2 or 3 bicycles during my 4 or 5 minute trek. On a holiday Monday, 28 degrees, sun blazing. Gee, could it be another one of those BS 'build it and they will come' arguments just blew up in smoke?
(Now the usual suspects - and you know who you are, had better hold onto your knickers, because you know what I am going to say next...)
Adjacent Fifth Avenue is ONE WAY and it is also FIVE LANES. Sixth Avenue (west side of Broadway) is SIX LANES and also ONE WAY.
Church St. is a dog's breakfast of parked cars (and those sneaky streetcars that slumber between Queen/Richmond, just waiting to pounce out in front of traffic, leaving a lonely single lane in each direction for most of the day. Bay St. was reduced to a single usable lane just in time for the gazillion condo towers that now infest it.
But we still have Jarvis St and University, right? Oh, that's right - bicycle lanes all around!
BTW, kudos to NYC for getting traffic signals that are actually synchronized! What a delight being able to drive up Park Avenue or any number of the streets and actually get 5 or 6 green lights in a row! Unlike Toronto where one has to drive like the Indy 500 to catch a couple of greens.....
PS: from listening to a few of the zealots on these pages, you'd think NYC was a biker's paradise. Mercifully, we did not see many cyclists at all, except on the Brooklyn Bridge, under the FDR and all along Battery Park City/Battery Park. Of course, Central Park was full of bicycles - as it should be!!! In fact, from my observations (and you know how keen I am to see my theories borne out), it seems that NYC is doing the sensible thing and blending in bicycle lanes as street improvements/widening allow. Not shoe-horning them onto already overburdened streets. Obviously, Battery Park City and the WTC site are completely new and with the clean slate there was room for the West Side Highway AND wide sidewalks AND bicycle right of ways.
The way the taxis in that town drive, you'd be crazy to ride a bicycle. I barely felt safe driving my car. (Oh, chill out: we drove into the hotel parking from the Lincoln Tunnel and out of the city via the FDR/GWBridge. We only used the car for a few hours on rainy Sunday to traverse Queen's and visit the [run down] Flushing Meadows Park and [almost] the Verrazano Narrows Bridge until I saw the $13 toll. We used the subway extensively, although it was shocking how run down the older stations are. Clean but shabby.
And here's the story of the day: Sunday night as I collapsed in one of the many folding chairs in the middle of Broadway with my Tim Horton's Ice Cap (yep - Timmy's are everywhere!), after a long day of walking, I feel this thud from behind me. When I turn around, some stupid cyclist is barking at me because I am in 'his' lane. Shocked, I looked around and saw that although the asphalt under me was, indeed, painted green, there were 30 other patrons lounging on chairs and even garden tables all over the same area. A family of 4 were not more than a metre and a half to my right, yet he picked me to confront? Oh, buddy, big mistake! I may not be able to fight my way out of a wet paper bag, but he does not know that, and my 6'2", 203 lb frame towered over him when I stood up. I am sure his ears are still ringing from the blast I gave him back. (On the other side of the dark green painted dividing rail that I had been leaning on there is a clearly marked bicycle lane, so it's not like he was forced to drive on the mean street of Broadway.
It would seem that at least some things DON'T change no matter where you travel.
Also, an anecdotal story about how I'm better than all cyclists (who should all burn in hell)."
then he writes a long post likely full of lies and hyperbole.
nice one, dichotomous!
After that all you need is to import all the beautiful women from Denmark and we'll be set.
The US is still deep in recession mode, it was a huge holiday weekend in which lots of people of means leave urban centres for the countryside, and your experience only shows there's something wrong with NYC/American urban downtown areas when the pedestrian-only night districts of Seoul, Osaka and other major cities prove the model is not only sustainable but decades old.
But expanding the sidewalk is a great idea. The sidewalks are so narrow that you get pushed out into the street a lot, and there's so much more being built in that area that it's only going to get worse. Plus it's right on top of the busiest part of the subway, spewing out pedestrians at all hours of the day.
Dundas Square + area really is becoming the heart of the city. Love this proposal.
And since a long-winded naming of landmarks seems to make one an expert, Queens Blvd, Park Slope, Little Odessa, 110th street, Roosevelt Island, Columbus Circle!
kristen wong-tam is nuts and so is anybody who agrees with this. I dont mean to be rude, but once you get over this fairytale vision of pedestrian malls and gumdrops on yonge street reality can finally set it. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT YONGE STREET. YOU KNOW, TORONTO'S MAIN STREET. VERY BUSY ALLLLLLLLL DAY. i dont know how many of you have seen yonge street down there, but despite what this half ass study says it is very very busy. all day.
I like this idea, but do it on a less busy street for god-sakes, or our hell hole of an infrastructure will only get worse. We want to go forwards, not backwards.
After following these pages for the past year or so, I went to NYC thinking it was some sort of bicycle utopia. However, I was relieved to see very few cyclists. At least in Manhattan, but since Manhattan is supposedly the trend setter, I doubt Queens or Brooklyn are any better. American long weekend or not, Thursday and Friday were workdays for them. Still not a lot of bikes.
I know I am pissing into the wind with the regulars on this site; however, isn't it interesting that NOT ONCE did any of the mouthpieces above address the central fact of my (long-winded) post: Yonge St is a vital downtown link and there ARE NO ALTERNATIVES FOR TRAFFIC. If either Church St or Bay were 6 lanes (or capable of being widened to that), I'd say 'go ahead, close Yonge St - who cares?) But they are not. Conveniently ignore that 5th Ave is 6th is 6 lanes. GoogleEarth it yourself!
The vast majority of people drive in this city. That is a fact you cannot wish away. When you restrict one thoroughfare, traffic just spills onto the adjacent roads.
Oh, and here's another doozer for you a-clowns to ignore: if Yonge St becomes a single lane nightmare (as in the photo) just how will your precious double-latte-carmawhatevers arrive at your over-priced coffee shop? On fairy wings? Yonge St is a mess NOW, thanks to delivery vehicles blocking traffic all day long. Just what the F do you think will happen when it's reduced to 1 lane? Will they park on the sidewalk? Lower the crates by helicopter?
You guys with your heads up your asses make me laugh.
Not that I give a sh$t what any of you thinks, but NOT one word in my previous post was exaggerated or a lie. Just because my observations don't fit to YOUR fanciful theories does not make them invalid.
Also all the bikes are in Brooklyn. Manhattans insane traffic jams and taxis make it not idea cycling conditions, but clearly manhattan is evolving and beginning to make an effort. good for them. Slowly but surely people will forego there stuffy hornhonking frustration for a bit of exercise and fresh air.
Regarding traffic, we don't have nearly the amount that Manhattan has, for starters. But Bay, University, Jarvis, etc, could all easily pick up the slack. We're talking about the removal of one lane. Also, traffic was always somewhat snarled in Times Square due to tourism, before the pedestrian mall was implemented.
And maybe your post wasn't an "exaggeration or a lie", but it is most certainly short sighted and baseless. You're judging the success of a program far too soon, and a city's culture without visiting Brooklyn or Queens. (or Bronx, Staten, Long Island or Jersey for that matter.)
University doesn't have bike lanes, remember?
I can't wait for you to visit London and find that not only does that city NOT have the preponderance of 4- and 6-lane arterials you claim it does, it also has traffic that keeps moving with 1) congestion charges keeping non-essential traffic out, 2) an enforced designated bus/bike/taxi lane on 'red routes' where there is absolutely no stopping allowed and 3) widespread cycling.