Insufficient Sidewalks Downtown

[confusion]

Every year the downtown core of Toronto gets denser with pedestrians.

I think this is a good thing, however infrastructure for pedestrians does not seem to be keeping up.

Certain streets in Toronto I believe are hitting a tipping point, and could serve to deter people from choosing the healthier and better way (not the TTC, I'm talking about walking).

The main street that worries me the most is Yonge Street. I believe this is a street that demands 1 or 2 lane reductions and wider sidewalks. There is no reason really for anyone to drive on Yonge. Anyone who lives here knows better than to take this route since the traffic is already hampered severely because of people trying to turn and pedestrian flow stopping them. So there is obviously no warranted argument in regards to traffic congestion.

So why does Yonge Street not have wider sidewalks? Everyone I have ever talked to can't understand why so much priority is given to the car on the busiest pedestrian street in Toronto.

Does anyone else have other streets that they feel are insufficient for the amount of pedestrian traffic in the downtown core and feel the city should take some initiative? Queen West maybe?

 

[whatever]

Actually, Yonge is one of my favourite downtown routes to drive. There's a reverse-psychology thing going on with Yonge; drivers assume that Yonge is this impenetrable wall of traffic so they do everything they can to avoid it, resulting in a street that's actually really easy to drive.

That said, Yonge does need wider sidewalks, especially from Dundas to Gerrard. The city probably won't do anything about it until someone gets pushed off a sidewalk and into the path of car tho

 

[jaycola]

I'd like to see Yonge made a one way South Bloor to Queens Quay and Bay one way north for the same distance. Drop one lane from traffic, push the sidewalks out and make the patios larger and let stores flow out to the street a bit.

 

[Chuck]

In my experience, driving southbound on Yonge during the morning rush hour is almost always faster than taking the subway. The is because most drivers avoid Yonge altogether, while at the same time the subway stations are too close together given our lack of express service. Oddly, Yonge gets completely clogged during the afternoon rush hour and is practically unusable.

 

[lordmandeep]

True before the Scramble at YD, people were spilling onto the streets waiting to cross blocking a lane of traffic.

Things have improved.

I wonder what would happen if there were no PATH...

 

[yin_yang]

I'd like to see Yonge made a one way South Bloor to Queens Quay and Bay one way north for the same distance. Drop one lane from traffic, push the sidewalks out and make the patios larger and let stores flow out to the street a bit.

run for city council, please!

 

[Spoonman]

I'm not sure if the volume of pedestrian traffic (or lack thereof) warrants it, but I feel certain sections of Avenue Rd. north of Bloor could stand to have their sidewalks widened. Especially seeing how cars tend to zoom by on that road at breakneck speeds, I often feel uncomfortable walking along there.

 

[Whoaccio]

I've been forced off the sidewalk more than a few times due to crowding. It gets pretty bad around streetcar stops (like King & Yonge) where people pack the fairly narrow sidewalks.

 

[wyliepoon]

This talk about insufficient sidewalks remind me of another main street, Shanghai's Nanjing Road. It went from this...

to this...

 

[SunriseChampion]

Yonge Street as pedestrian zone from Queen to Bloor?

I'm down.

No, seriously....why shouldn't it be? Give me one good reason.

Maybe Queen West as well, which is pretty bad for this from University to Spadina and is horrible to drive anyway.

Still too in love with cars eh?

 

[Hydrogen]

If you feel Yonge is too crowded, try Bay.

 

[confusion]

If you feel Yonge is too crowded, try Bay.

So if you need to do something on Yonge, which requires going through the crowds... "Take Bay"

Everyone is on Yonge for their own specific reason. You can't just reroute pedestrian flow like you would an expressway.

 

[lister]

So if you need to do something on Yonge, which requires going through the crowds... "Take Bay"

Everyone is on Yonge for their own specific reason. You can't just reroute pedestrian flow like you would an expressway.

I do this all the time when I need to walk north when my destination is on Yonge or east of Yonge. Far less people to deal with plus I can walk at my normal pace which is usually faster than most people (longer stride and quicker pace.) My knees start to hurt if I have to shuffle along with the crowd.

For driving I do like the one way idea on Yonge and Bay. I would reduce the four lanes of traffic down to three, extend the sidewalks out a certain amount and include a bike lane on each road.

 

[ShonTron]

I'd simply eliminate one lane from Yonge, and narrow it to 2 lanes + bike lanes, with some strategically placed turn lanes (like at Shuter, Gould, Gerrard, Adelaide, Richmond, Wellington).

I'd also eliminate the 97B, and incorporate it into a branch of the 6 Bay, with the 6A Branch going to Rosedale Station instead of short-turning at Davenport/Yonge.

Or, if going the one-way route (which isn't a bad idea), have either Yonge or Bay have a 2-way bike lane, with a curb separator, like on De Maisonneuve in Montreal, and allow bikes to travel safely in the contra-flow direction. There would be a need though, to have a route that southbound traffic can get over to Yonge without too much problem from the north, which also depends on how far north you want to do this.

 

[Torontovibe]

I've seen someone get pushed onto the street in the Yonge & Dundas area and almost get hit by a car. I called my local city councillor, Pam McConnell, and warned her assistant, someone was going to get killed one day if they don't enlarge the sidewalks, and she just told me to call Kyle Rae's office. (basically "Not my problem") If you try calling Kyle Rae, his office says call your local city councillor. Basically nobody cares until someone gets killed, then all of them will claim, we had no idea! Yonge st. definitely needs to be widened. The crowds there can get crazy.