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CityPlace Commuter Advice???

T

tabbie

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Hello world,
I'm moving to CityPlace (the Matrix building on Front Street) and I'm a little concerned about my commute. The reason being is that I am one of the few who actually is moving to the area which is far away from where I actually work.
I work in the suburbs as a teacher (in Georgetown to be specific) and I moved out to the suburbs last year to be close to work...and HATED IT! I'm a city girl at heart, so I promised myself I would move back. I use to commute last year from College/Dufferin (no traffic in the mornings) and it was great. Ideally I was searching for something West of Bathurst...but scored a great deal on a CityPlace condo...so I chose there.
Now, what worries me is the congestion of traffic in the morning. It use to be that going against traffic in the mornings was a breeze in the West cause there are few people who live downtown and commute out to the burbs. But CityPlace has that whole Spadina/Bremner mess in the mornings that has me nervous (and as a teacher, I can't risk being late for work.) I am also on P4 for parking which adds to the morning drive. Plus I saw there was a sign up in the Matrix building that said no left turns on Front, forcing me to drive to Bremner for Gardiner access.
Basically I was just hoping to score some advice on the route from someone who is familiar with the car congestion in that nieghbourhood. Any advice is welcomed. I leave for about 7 am every morning and come home at about 4 pm each day.
Thanks
 
tabbie said:
Hello world,
I'm moving to CityPlace (the Matrix building on Front Street) and I'm a little concerned about my commute. The reason being is that I am one of the few who actually is moving to the area which is far away from where I actually work.
I work in the suburbs as a teacher (in Georgetown to be specific) and I moved out to the suburbs last year to be close to work...and HATED IT! I'm a city girl at heart, so I promised myself I would move back. I use to commute last year from College/Dufferin (no traffic in the mornings) and it was great. Ideally I was searching for something West of Bathurst...but scored a great deal on a CityPlace condo...so I chose there.
Now, what worries me is the congestion of traffic in the morning. It use to be that going against traffic in the mornings was a breeze in the West cause there are few people who live downtown and commute out to the burbs. But CityPlace has that whole Spadina/Bremner mess in the mornings that has me nervous (and as a teacher, I can't risk being late for work.) I am also on P4 for parking which adds to the morning drive. Plus I saw there was a sign up in the Matrix building that said no left turns on Front, forcing me to drive to Bremner for Gardiner access.
Basically I was just hoping to score some advice on the route from someone who is familiar with the car congestion in that nieghbourhood. Any advice is welcomed. I leave for about 7 am every morning and come home at about 4 pm each day.
Thanks
Click to expand...


Head East to get West??? What if you took Front to the DVP up to the 401?

For a Gardiner commute I wouldn't even bother with Bremner. Just head south on Simcoe to Lakeshore, and get on the Gardiner from there (around Jamison IIRC?)
 
Taking the DVP would only backtrack me in the morning...plus the 401 in that area is a mess. My old route use to be Dufferin to Lakeshore to Gardiner (Jameson Ramp) to 427 to 401 to Trafalgar. Never any traffic...unless there was a freak accident...and now there is an abundance of construction. I thought that from my building (Matrix) I could just left on Front and left on Spadina....but you aren't allowed to turn left out of the Matrix....which forces me to head to Bremner.
My other option could be either down to Lakeshore via Simcoe (like you mentioned) or take King to Dufferin to Lakeshore. But since I've never lived East of Ossington....I don't know what morning traffic is like on these routes. How many other people are driving west out of the core in the morning???
 
If I were in your place I would drive east to access the Gardiner at York instead of Spadina on your way to work (turn at either York or Simcoe depending on the lights at Front). There should be no traffic problems at 7am. Thinking of anything else like driving to Simcoe to Bremner to Spadina and then to Gardiner is just plain stupid. Your commuting time should be the same as when you drove down from College & Dufferin.
 
The GO unfortunately doesn't run to Georgetown in the mornings. Only goes into Toronto and back out in the evenings. They don't yet have it designed for reverse commuters like me.
I keep reading about increased traffic problems in both directions which is getting me nervous. The obvious smart thing to do would be to stay in the suburbs, but I'm miserable here :-(
There just seem to be so many people in CityPlace who rely on their cars (like me) so it has me worried that I'm gonna spend half my commute just trying to escape the core.
 
Yeah your situation is a perfect example of the need for reverse commute trips on the GO network with proper transit and/or short term rental cars at suburban stations.

I was also thinking about heading north. You'd be surprised how quickly Bay or Spadina can get you up and out of the core. Now I don't know specifically about traffic patterns at that hour but I often use a route like this when I'm heading out of the core in the evenings.

Honestly you might want to just give a few dry runs before the school year starts to get an idea of the traffic patterns of the area.
 
catcher_of_cats said:
If I were in your place I would drive east to access the Gardiner at York instead of Spadina on your way to work (turn at either York or Simcoe depending on the lights at Front). There should be no traffic problems at 7am. Thinking of anything else like driving to Simcoe to Bremner to Spadina and then to Gardiner is just plain stupid. Your commuting time should be the same as when you drove down from College & Dufferin.
Click to expand...

I think this is the winner!!!! At 7 a.m. accessing the Gardiner and the traffic flow west on the Gardiner are pretty decent.
 
Thanks guys.
I've just been so anxious about my move back to the city in terms of my job and making sure I'm not a zombie when I get to work...but I hate living in the suburbs. I ideally wanted something more west (Lib Village/High Park/etc) but couldn't refuse this offer. But if you all still feel that the Gardiner is pretty decent heading out of the city from CityPlace, then I guess I'm worrying about nothing. Just seems to be a lot more people these days doing the reverse commute. I didn't want any "surprises". :)
 
tabbie said:
Thanks guys.
I've just been so anxious about my move back to the city in terms of my job and making sure I'm not a zombie when I get to work...but I hate living in the suburbs. I ideally wanted something more west (Lib Village/High Park/etc) but couldn't refuse this offer. But if you all still feel that the Gardiner is pretty decent heading out of the city from CityPlace, then I guess I'm worrying about nothing. Just seems to be a lot more people these days doing the reverse commute. I didn't want any "surprises". :)
Click to expand...

There are a lot of people reversing these days but at 7 a.m. the Gardiner ain't bad.....I think the worst part of your commute will be the 401 west of the 410 (long term construction/widening project)....the westbound 401 around that area always looks like a problem these days. Not sure where in Georgetown your school is but an alternative might be taking the 410 north to Bovaird and driving west on Bovaird/7/Guelph into GTown.

Since Bovaird widened to 3 lanes in either direction through west Brampton, it moves pretty well.
 
So, how has the commute been?
 
andrewpmk said:
Possible advice to someone working in Georgetown: Live in Mississauga Centre?
Click to expand...

I would think that 403 WB to Winston Churchill, NB on that to Eglinton, WB on Eglinton to Trafalgar, and then NB on Trafalgar to Georgetown would work pretty well. That is assuming that you want to avoid the 407 of course. I've taken the back roads from Brampton to Campbellville (just west of Milton) via Georgetown a few times before to avoid the 401 during rush hour, seems to work pretty well.
 
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