Scramble Crossings (City of Toronto) (Yonge/Dundas, Yonge/Bloor, Bay/Bloor)

[rbt]

I say pick that building housing Forever 21 and move it somewhere else. I think it's a matter of time before something like that happens anyway. It's only going to get busier at this intersection.

Certainly a possibility. That piece of land might be worth $35M based on the World's Biggest transaction down the street and doesn't do anything for sidewalk congestion between Gerrard and Dundas.

Another option is to remove 2 lanes of traffic (on Yonge) between Gerrard and Queen and change all pedestrian signals to have police enforced traffic only phases described above. The shop owners actually prefer this solution and is a design they paid for out of pocket to present to council (Ford was strong then, killed it before getting to council).

 

[car4041]

I'd like to see the scramble intersections have their lighting phases changed.
Have a scramble go for 1 full minute. Then 1 full minute of cars moving. Then back to scramble and so on.

Am I missing something? Aren't all turns prohibited at Yonge & Dundas? What's the point of stopping all the pedestrians from crossing on a green if all the cars are going straight through anyway?

 

[nfitz]

Am I missing something? Aren't all turns prohibited at Yonge & Dundas? What's the point of stopping all the pedestrians from crossing on a green if all the cars are going straight through anyway?

Bingo.

Yonge and Dundas in many ways is a pointless use of a scramble crossing. The only reason it comes close to being reasonable is that there's such a huge quantity of pedestrians there. I can't think of any other parallels - at least outside of rush hour near Union Station.

Personally, I don't think the impact of the Yonge-Dundas scramble is worth the impact to the Dundas streetcar. I think they'd be better off solving the sidewalk space issue - or eliminating car traffic on Yonge.

 

[soundmuseum]

I say pick that building housing Forever 21 and move it somewhere else. I think it's a matter of time before something like that happens anyway. It's only going to get busier at this intersection.

As part of their approval for expansion, the Atrium is supposed to incorporate a new upgraded TTC entrance at the northwest corner.
I suspect it will somehow be moved into the existing building that houses Forever 21 - perhaps designed like the Queen Station exit (on the northeast corner where the BMO is located).

 

[khris]

Am I missing something? Aren't all turns prohibited at Yonge & Dundas? What's the point of stopping all the pedestrians from crossing on a green if all the cars are going straight through anyway?

Yes, but I would allow right turns. So going east on Dundas, you could turn right on Yonge to go south without needing to wait for the pedestrians to finish (which never happens).

 

[nfitz]

Yes, but I would allow right turns. So going east on Dundas, you could turn right on Yonge to go south without needing to wait for the pedestrians to finish (which never happens).

We do something that would only encourage more cars to use Dundas at such a busy spot?