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(Toronto/Downtown) Extend Mill Street to the Esplanade?

dowlingm

dowlingm

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One of the things that stands out when I'm looking at maps of the east downtown is the jog the 72A has to make from Mill St turning onto Parliament, to Front, to Berkeley and then to Esplanade-Berkeley-Hahn Place. Given the renaissance of the Distillery District, the fact that Mill St will be a significant part of the redeveloped West Don Lands and the increasing density of the Esplanade, is there a case against regularising the street grid here by connecting these junctions together? I've looked at some of the existing plans like the WDL plan and the King-Parliament plan but this area seems to be a boundary and I've yet to find one which considers both sides of this divide together.
 
dowlingm said:
One of the things that stands out when I'm looking at maps of the east downtown is the jog the 72A has to make from Mill St turning onto Parliament, to Front, to Berkeley and then to Esplanade-Berkeley-Hahn Place. Given the renaissance of the Distillery District, the fact that Mill St will be a significant part of the redeveloped West Don Lands and the increasing density of the Esplanade, is there a case against regularising the street grid here by connecting these junctions together? I've looked at some of the existing plans like the WDL plan and the King-Parliament plan but this area seems to be a boundary and I've yet to find one which considers both sides of this divide together.
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I would think that it's intentional to deter through traffic. Might have a tough time selling a connection, even if it would be good for the 72A (and probably the 65 as well).
 
ShonTron said:
Perhaps a bus-only connection like the bus gutters Calgary Transit uses? (and of course, sidewalks or a multi-use path alongside)

http://www.calgarytransit.com/html/bus_only_crossings.html
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Well there are already sidewalks and they are wide enough to be multi-use. As for the buses, I think in the long run the oddball 72A route will just be scrapped. Very few people travel through The Portlands on that infrequent service. And the few who use the 72A to get to downtown will have the Cherry branch of the 504 after the Pan Am games. The 65 shouldn't even be down there today. It limps through that whole loop very slowly and when you get on Northbound at King there is often only one person on board.
 
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65 should probably be extended south of the rail corridor anyway to reinforce service to George Brown.
 
The TTC has announced that their medium-range plan is to extend the 65 bus so that it goes right down Parliament to Queen`s Quay and returns north up Lower Sherbourne to The Esplanade and then north again on Parliament BUT this cannot happen until the work at Lower Sherbourne and Queen`s Quay is done to (re) widen the road and make it two-way again. (This apparently awaits the redevelopment of the Fedex site as the City is unwilling to compulsorily purchase the necessary land when they can get it `free`as part of a site plan. I agree that the 65 is not now used much in the south-end of its route but as QQ develops it will certainly get busier.

The 72A bus is, surprisingly, heavily used and the new streetcar line down Cherry is unlikely to affect this since it will only go as far south as the rail-line and in any case is not going to open until 2016. Running it through Parliament Square Park to avoid the minor `loop`via Front is not likely to be popular with locals and would probably interfere with the plans now underway for the First Parliament site - I doubt it will happen.
 
DSC said:
Running it through Parliament Square Park to avoid the minor `loop`via Front is not likely to be popular with locals and would probably interfere with the plans now underway for the First Parliament site - I doubt it will happen.
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What's the plan for the Green P parking lot at the corner of Berkeley and Esplanade, which is the obvious place to put a bus lane from Berkeley to Mill?

Quite frankly, I think we've cocked up the transportation for this area of the city entirely. The obvious and simple solution was to simply put a streetcar ROW down Front Street - all the way from Bathurst (and perhaps even along the old Front Street Extension alignment to Dufferin) to Bayview.
 
nfitz said:
What's the plan for the Green P parking lot at the corner of Berkeley and Esplanade, which is the obvious place to put a bus lane from Berkeley to Mill?

Quite frankly, I think we've cocked up the transportation for this area of the city entirely. The obvious and simple solution was to simply put a streetcar ROW down Front Street - all the way from Bathurst (and perhaps even along the old Front Street Extension alignment to Dufferin) to Bayview.
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This Green P lot is `temporary`and belongs to the City. It, plus the current park (Parliament Square park) plus the car-wash now belong to the City and the Province (OHT) owns the land under the War of 1812 building. I understand that the City plans for the area include the complete block and have never seen any indication that these will include a bus-way running through it.

I agree with you that an east-west LRT line on Front Street makes much sense but it is not going to happen now; next spring the stretch of Front east of Jarvis is going to be `smartened up`.
 
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