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Roads: Redway Road Extension / "Leaside bypass"

dowlingm

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On Metro Morning, John Parker mentioned (during a discussion of traffic volumes in Leaside arising out of the fatality at Millwood and McRae) that he has been discussing with staff the possibility of some sort of relief for local traffic. Does anyone have any idea what he has in mind?
 
The main roads in Leaside already receive heavy traffic, we've made the big box stores in Leaside a trip generator for most of Midtown and Midtown's population will increase significantly as the area is intensified and densified with new condos. There is even more office space planned for Leaside near Brentcliffe. The traffic problems will only worsen and providing alternative routes and travel patterns for people is a solution probably worth investigating. If something is to be done, best it be done now while the residents of Leaside are distressed about construction on Eglinton than later when they become NIMBY about demolishing a woods trails to build this expansion.

For those unfamiliar, this is Redway Rd: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7011408,-79.3617345,16z

The plan would be to extend it west to Bayview, probably to near Nesbitt Dr since there already is a crosslights there.

This is where Redway Rd extension would meet Bayview, opposite to Nesbitt: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6941...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sUpaYa6My7fMK67ivsoHq4A!2e0

As you can see, the area isn't flat but sloped and the road would be placed on top of a woods trail and through "naturalized" forest. If we want to make it connect to Nesbitt Dr, a bridge over the rail-line would also have to be built.

Redway Rd. would also probably have to be widened to meet the new demand.
 
The main roads in Leaside already receive heavy traffic, we've made the big box stores in Leaside a trip generator for most of Midtown and Midtown's population will increase significantly as the area is intensified and densified with new condos. There is even more office space planned for Leaside near Brentcliffe. The traffic problems will only worsen and providing alternative routes and travel patterns for people is a solution probably worth investigating. If something is to be done, best it be done now while the residents of Leaside are distressed about construction on Eglinton than later when they become NIMBY about demolishing a woods trails to build this expansion.

For those unfamiliar, this is Redway Rd: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7011408,-79.3617345,16z

The plan would be to extend it west to Bayview, probably to near Nesbitt Dr since there already is a crosslights there.

This is where Redway Rd extension would meet Bayview, opposite to Nesbitt: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6941...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sUpaYa6My7fMK67ivsoHq4A!2e0

As you can see, the area isn't flat but sloped and the road would be placed on top of a woods trail and through "naturalized" forest. If we want to make it connect to Nesbitt Dr, a bridge over the rail-line would also have to be built.

Redway Rd. would also probably have to be widened to meet the new demand.

I guess I'm a NIMBY (noooo!!) but I love the Crother's Woods bike trails, I would hate to see them be destroyed.

It's actually pretty awesome that we have good mountain biking trails right in the middle of the city, in my opinion.
 

The article mentioned the possibility of also extending the extension north and eastwards as well. This was news to me so I decided to look around Google Maps here.

At Millwood Rd, Redway Rd is opposite to Village Station Rd, a street I honestly had no idea even existed and for good reason. It only connects to the railway yard and the power station and looks very run-down. Take a look here: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7027...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sluo3YngiO-J9DKRTrmkl7w!2e0

I suppose the idea here would be to take Village Station Rd and extend it north along the power lines. There it could take two possible routes, north along the power lines up to Wicksteed Ave or somehow crossing the power lines to connect to Thorncliffe Park Dr. Here is where it would go: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7060204,-79.353671,573m/data=!3m1!1e3

I don't know why you need an alternative route to Wicksteed Ave, so I guess the idea would be to connect it to Thorncliffe Park Dr. by somehow crossing the power lines.

The idea of having a road that directly connected Bayview Ave and Thorncliffe Park is exceptional! Thorncliffe Park currently feels very isolated from the rest of Midtown/East York/Ward 26. This project would also give the residents of Thorncliffe Park the opportunity to travel by car downtown via the Bayview extension.
 
I guess I'm a NIMBY (noooo!!) but I love the Crother's Woods bike trails, I would hate to see them be destroyed.

It's actually pretty awesome that we have good mountain biking trails right in the middle of the city, in my opinion.

I know, I bike through there regularly as well. :(

Hopefully we do this smart and remake the bike trail nearby the road, and create a bike-friendly intersection at Bayview (I hate biking on Bayview under that bridge, cars are driving so quickly and they don't get a good angle of cyclers on the side) and a bike path up Bayview towards Moore.

There is some space to remake Crother's Woods bike path, perhaps enough to make it work. If we make Bayview bike friendly through this stretch, it'd be a net plus IMO.
 
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To be honest I thought he might have more in mind than a re-issuing of Pitfield's plan. I thought that was so buried that he had to have something else in mind!

Metrolinx now own the CP Don Branch which an extended Redway would cross. Of course, for all the use it's being put to these days that shouldn't be a problem.

Since Case Ootes lived (lives?) in the Governor's Road back when this was first pitched, I dare say there was a chilly reception to pushing traffic in that direction, especially if a fraction of that traffic cut through over the single lane/direction Mud Creek bridge as a route to Summerhill Avenue and Mount Pleasant. Where Fragedakis lives I don't know but I am guessing it's not in that cross-DVP enclave of Ward 29.
 
The Redway extension wouldn't make a difference to traffic on Millwood; it's more of a substitute for Southvale/Moore. Millwood is more for people driving to or from the Y&E area or points North or West.

I feel sorry for the family, but there is always going to be a lot of traffic in the area by nature of the road layout and local geography. Reducing the speed limit to 30 would certainly help, as would photo radar enforcement but that's hardly a popular option.
 
Since Case Ootes lived (lives?) in the Governor's Road back when this was first pitched, ...

Case Ootes has always lived in the east part of East York, near St. Clair and O'Connor.

As for the plan at hand, it wouldn't be a bad plan if it wasn't for the fact that there is no way that it could be finished before the Crosstown Line was completed. Nevermind the EA - the construction alone will take several years due to the geology and topography of the area.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
The Redway extension wouldn't make a difference to traffic on Millwood; it's more of a substitute for Southvale/Moore. Millwood is more for people driving to or from the Y&E area or points North or West.

I feel sorry for the family, but there is always going to be a lot of traffic in the area by nature of the road layout and local geography. Reducing the speed limit to 30 would certainly help, as would photo radar enforcement but that's hardly a popular option.

I think the "more traffic makes the road less safe" argument is a bit of a red herring anyway. More traffic makes a residential area less appealing, but not necessarily less safe. If roads are saturated with cars then traffic should in theory be moving slower, and no matter what traffic should be obeying all the traffic rules. More traffic means there is less opportunity to get up to 60kmph on a local street or to blow through a four-way stop because no one is watching. It could conceivably be easier and safer to cross a road when there is more traffic rather than less.
 
I think the idea was to also ram Leslie Street south through E.T. Seaton Park to hook up with Village Station Road and then Redway.
 
I think the idea was to also ram Leslie Street south through E.T. Seaton Park to hook up with Village Station Road and then Redway.

Well, that would be one way to grade-separate the Eglinton LRT at Leslie :p (of course I'm assuming that any extension of Leslie south of Eglinton would require a bridge going over both Eglinton and the West Don).
 
I think the idea was to also ram Leslie Street south through E.T. Seaton Park to hook up with Village Station Road and then Redway.

Holy hell. That would be something.

Though looking at the map, the Leslie Street wouldn't actually go over much of E.T. Seaton Park. It'd be a smaller bridge than you'd expect. The bridge would be about as big as the one over Taylor Creek Park on O'Connor Dr.
 
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Holy hell. That would be something.

Though looking at the map, the Leslie Street wouldn't actually go over much of E.T. Seaton Park. It'd be a smaller bridge than you'd expect. The bridge would be about as big as the one over Taylor Creek Park on O'Connor Dr.

Indeed, it would be something, although I don't think either Hydro One nor CP would necessarily want a major arterial running between their mainlines. The grading could work to bring it underneath the rail trestle and then back up to meet with Beth Nealson Dr to provide the local connection with Thorncliffe Park, however I'm not sure how much reconstruction of the rail trestle this would require.

I've been playing around with some various ideas. An extension of Redway would work well with a second set of (directional) Bayview ramps to the DVP.
 
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