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From the Post:
Board to unveil traffic reports on Gardiner
Waterfront Toronto; Experts predict longer delays if amputation occurs
Allison Hanes, National Post
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Waterfront Toronto will tomorrow unveil the traffic studies backing up its claim that removing the easternmost portion of the Gardiner will only minimally slow traffic, even as some experts are predicting slightly longer delays.
When the plan was revealed last month, officials said dismantling the elevated expressway east of Jarvis Street in favour of an eight-lane boulevard would cost drivers only two minutes. "From my perspective that's two minutes for a great city," Mayor David Miller told reporters.
At the time, no studies were released to bolster the claim, or explain how traffic will respond to the addition of several new stop lights.
Tomorrow, Waterfront Toronto's board gets a more fulsome report on the implications of the estimated $300-million, eight-year endeavour, aimed at allowing for development of the eastern downtown waterfront.
In interviews, traffic experts said the two-minute estimate may not be accurate for all motorists.
Jim Mars, a professor of urban planning at Ryerson University, said he thinks people who use the Gardiner to access the Don Valley Parkway or vice versa will be hardest hit by the proposed overhaul--although he said has not seen any detailed analyses.
"If it's two minutes for the other people, it will be four minutes for them in terms of lost time, because I think that two minutes is calculated as if you're a person on the surface of Jarvis and you want to go up the parkway," he said. "So you have to go three streets on the surface and eventually get to a ramp. Right now you can get immediately on to a ramp and you're on the expressway and you avoid between two and three lights."
John Campbell, the president and chief executive of Waterfront Toronto, said only about 15% of the 200,000 drivers who flow in to the city from the west and 120,000 who enter from the east each day travel straight through from the Gardiner to the DVP.
Mr. Campbell called the section between the Gardiner and DVP "underutilized" and said there is actually "too much road capacity."
He said traffic-impact studies show the change will only slow speeds by about 12% during peak hours.
Eric Miller, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto and one of the country's foremost experts on transportation planning, said it is theoretically possible that an arterial boulevard could replace an expressway with minimal disruption.
"If you compare how that might function at rush hour versus how the Gardiner functions now at rush hour with everyone creeping and crawling along, a well-regulated arterial system, which meters the traffic and controls it, may not introduce much in the way of additional delay."
Prof. Miller, who also has not seen the traffic studies, said the Gardiner's on-and off-ramps, which require cars entering and exiting to weave in a basket pattern, already create bottlenecks that slow traffic. So a series of stop lights might not be much worse during peak hours.
But outside of rush hour it's a different story. "Conceivably it might have a larger impact off peak, but you're talking about a much lower base travel time, so if it's five minutes does it really matter?" Prof. Miller said. "And it may not be five minutes, I don't know. If the lights are coordinated properly, there's no reason you won't flow through it at a reasonable speed most of the time."
Prof. Mars said that if any city has the expertise to figure out how to replace a highway with an eight-lane boulevard without wreaking traffic havoc, it's Toronto.
"Toronto runs on arterial roads mainly. We have a good system and one of the first and best traffic light control systems in the world," he said. "We get the most out of our arterials. So if any city can manage this partial transition from expressways to arterials, I think we can. But it will be slower. There's no question."
ahanes@nationalpost.com
AoD
Board to unveil traffic reports on Gardiner
Waterfront Toronto; Experts predict longer delays if amputation occurs
Allison Hanes, National Post
Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Waterfront Toronto will tomorrow unveil the traffic studies backing up its claim that removing the easternmost portion of the Gardiner will only minimally slow traffic, even as some experts are predicting slightly longer delays.
When the plan was revealed last month, officials said dismantling the elevated expressway east of Jarvis Street in favour of an eight-lane boulevard would cost drivers only two minutes. "From my perspective that's two minutes for a great city," Mayor David Miller told reporters.
At the time, no studies were released to bolster the claim, or explain how traffic will respond to the addition of several new stop lights.
Tomorrow, Waterfront Toronto's board gets a more fulsome report on the implications of the estimated $300-million, eight-year endeavour, aimed at allowing for development of the eastern downtown waterfront.
In interviews, traffic experts said the two-minute estimate may not be accurate for all motorists.
Jim Mars, a professor of urban planning at Ryerson University, said he thinks people who use the Gardiner to access the Don Valley Parkway or vice versa will be hardest hit by the proposed overhaul--although he said has not seen any detailed analyses.
"If it's two minutes for the other people, it will be four minutes for them in terms of lost time, because I think that two minutes is calculated as if you're a person on the surface of Jarvis and you want to go up the parkway," he said. "So you have to go three streets on the surface and eventually get to a ramp. Right now you can get immediately on to a ramp and you're on the expressway and you avoid between two and three lights."
John Campbell, the president and chief executive of Waterfront Toronto, said only about 15% of the 200,000 drivers who flow in to the city from the west and 120,000 who enter from the east each day travel straight through from the Gardiner to the DVP.
Mr. Campbell called the section between the Gardiner and DVP "underutilized" and said there is actually "too much road capacity."
He said traffic-impact studies show the change will only slow speeds by about 12% during peak hours.
Eric Miller, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto and one of the country's foremost experts on transportation planning, said it is theoretically possible that an arterial boulevard could replace an expressway with minimal disruption.
"If you compare how that might function at rush hour versus how the Gardiner functions now at rush hour with everyone creeping and crawling along, a well-regulated arterial system, which meters the traffic and controls it, may not introduce much in the way of additional delay."
Prof. Miller, who also has not seen the traffic studies, said the Gardiner's on-and off-ramps, which require cars entering and exiting to weave in a basket pattern, already create bottlenecks that slow traffic. So a series of stop lights might not be much worse during peak hours.
But outside of rush hour it's a different story. "Conceivably it might have a larger impact off peak, but you're talking about a much lower base travel time, so if it's five minutes does it really matter?" Prof. Miller said. "And it may not be five minutes, I don't know. If the lights are coordinated properly, there's no reason you won't flow through it at a reasonable speed most of the time."
Prof. Mars said that if any city has the expertise to figure out how to replace a highway with an eight-lane boulevard without wreaking traffic havoc, it's Toronto.
"Toronto runs on arterial roads mainly. We have a good system and one of the first and best traffic light control systems in the world," he said. "We get the most out of our arterials. So if any city can manage this partial transition from expressways to arterials, I think we can. But it will be slower. There's no question."
ahanes@nationalpost.com
AoD
