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Union Station District Plan (City Report/Exec. Summary)

I hope the renderings are out of date. If they indicate the direction the city would like to go, it's a huge disapppointment. They're hideous. It looks like they've turned the area into a giant bike rack.
 
Proof positive that public consultation is often a joke. I went to all the precinct meetings and I can't see anything that has changed from the original aA-led plans (with the exception of Bruce Mau's ridiculous US signage/branding scheme... thank god that's gone).

From the very beginning the consortium was presenting Front Street as a sort of grand piazza shared by taxis, cars and... pedestrians.

Using people in a hurry (late for work) as a "traffic calming" strategy is hilarious and I told them that.

Bing! Young stockbroker... 10 points. Bong! Elderly woman... 2 points.
 
Wow. I hate it. Everything in the rendering looks dated to me.
 
The plan for a Union Plaza seems nice though, especially if it highlights and preserves a nice view of the Royal York.
 
I hope they scythe through all that junk cluttering the forecourt of Union Station, and turn it into a grand and spare open space worthy of an arrival point to this great city. Relocating the statue of that naked Italian trapped inside the globe might be a good first start - maybe put him in the garden they're redesigning next to St. James' Cathedral and allow ivy to cover him, and his lines of longitude, and his little birdies, until it it completely transformed.
 
I'm glad to see a focus on pedestrian traffic in the plan. Enhanced crossings at the major streets in the area around Union is really needed. The sidewalks are jam packed with GO train commuters trying to get from the bank towers to their trains.

I emailed them about the flow of people from Union to the GO bus station. The median along Bay is a joke. Everyone still crosses mid-block there. Something has to be done about that area. People are not going to walk up to the intersection or use the bridge along the tracks.
 
I'm not sure that tearing out trees and installing hideous bollards with "taxi" written on them will make this a more appealing space. It looks like the entrance to a supermarket with all those stubby metal poles.
 
The entire report is now available on the City of Toronto site provided at the top of the thread.

JoeyC:

There are renderings of the proposed bikeracks in p. 79 of the PDF here

www.toronto.ca/union_stat...lume_5.pdf

And quite a bit on the cyclist strategy as well in the rest of the document.

AoD
 
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