Road Safety & Vision Zero Plan

[MisterF]

Just saw this video about the new bike-oriented intersections in Kingston along John Counter Blvd that they included as part of the recent rebuild of the road. It's a big suburban arterial, so these should hopefully do a lot for road safety at intersections (plus make it easier for people to bike to the government offices, train station, and intercity bus terminal that are on that street). If only we had the political will to actually do something like this here...

Link

The intersections are an improvement over older designs, but the bike lanes are still merely painted and have no physical separation. This is a wide, high speed road where 80 km/h traffic is common. The design is dangerous at best and very few people will feel comfortable biking there.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Can TPS please do something about the latest trend in panhandling? Basically the beggar puts on his best GOT White Walker act and then stands in the middle of the road or even in front of cars as they’re coming to a stop at downtown intersections? It’s only a matter of time before one of these reckless chaps is struck and killed by a car.

 

[DirectionNorth]

Can TPS please do something about the latest trend in panhandling? Basically the beggar puts on his best GOT White Walker act and then stands in the middle of the road or even in front of cars as they’re coming to a stop at downtown intersections? It’s only a matter of time before one of these reckless chaps is struck and killed by a car.

The issue here is homelessness. If you just kick them off the road, they'll go somewhere else. The solution, of course, is to tackle the base issues of homelessness, something that will never happen.

 

[crs1026]

The issue here is homelessness. If you just kick them off the road, they'll go somewhere else. The solution, of course, is to tackle the base issues of homelessness, something that will never happen.

I don't think it is discriminating against the homeless to require panhandlers to stand on the curb and stay there. Nor is it showing them deference by ignoring risk taking behaviour that could get them killed.

I'm pretty committed to big steps to improve the homeless situation, but the rule of "don't stand in traffic" is pretty basic, and I don't see why one would not want to have that rule enforced.

Our society has really become averse to enforcing anything that sounds picky or anal. I'm no fan of arbitrary or heavy handed enforcement, but some boundaries have to exist, and be enforced. This seems like a prudent boundary.

- Paul

 

[Northern Light]

The solution, of course, is to tackle the base issues of homelessness,

Agreed.

something that will never happen.

Disagree. I am not naive, homelessmess is a long standing problem, and its certainly not going away in the weeks or months ahead.

That said, you need to believe change is possible in order to will it to happen.

I choose to believe we can and will do, much better.

Of course, no time like the present to get the ball rolling!

 

[Admiral Beez]

The issue here is homelessness. If you just kick them off the road, they'll go somewhere else. The solution, of course, is to tackle the base issues of homelessness, something that will never happen.

Are all beggars homeless? IDK, but I’m only suggesting that they stay out of the road space. If TPS would enforce the HTA and SSA they could still solicit for cash everywhere else, and drivers won’t have to worry so much about some dark figure suddenly appearing between the lanes as they drive up Jarvis, for example.

 

[W. K. Lis]

 

[Northern Light]

@AlexBozikovic has a Twitter thread on some paving work on Ossington, lamenting that it did not result in any kind of road diet, Vision Zero or beautification works.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1414796573985361921

Now, I'm as supportive as anyone, indeed, probably moreso than most of bike lanes, road diets and streetscapes with trees. I certainly don't differ on that in this case.

But the first thing I observed was that that the associated photos do not align w/the description.

The suggestion was that the road was reconstructed. I don't think so. Its either resurfacing or milling (grinding and a skim coat of asphalt).
You can clearly see in the photo that older sidewalks/curbs remain, the odds of this occurring in a reconstruction is near zero. I'm not being pedantic.
What I wanted to do was clarify what was undertaken, over what stretch, to determine if this is a 'generational loss' as was implied or not.

So, having observed that, I turned to TO Inview which shows all the infrastructure projects for the City for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The green'ish (camo-coloured) dashed line represents Transportation Projects.

Nothing shows up here at all. Seems odd.

A few Tweaks......and I can discern this was a Toronto Water project:

The Blue-Dashed Lined is indicative of Toronto Water work. I'm guessing that this is just milling work to cover a Toronto Water trench/patch job.

While it certainly would have been nice to see Transportation and/or Planning piggyback on the work; I don't believe this is the generational loss suggested in the thread.

It appears neither Alex nor Sean Micallef who tweeted on this actually looked this up, or phoned anyone to ask.

That said, the Councillor and Transportation should be asked why they didn't take this opportunity to make some improvements.

Changing the lines on the road is quite cheap (relatively); widening sidewalks and adding streetscaping not so much, as it means relocating catch-basins and their associated connections to the sewer system.

But that is still something that can and should be pursued on this stretch.

 

[TossYourJacket]

@AlexBozikovic has a Twitter thread on some paving work on Ossington, lamenting that it did not result in any kind of road diet, Vision Zero or beautification works.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1414796573985361921

Now, I'm as supportive as anyone, indeed, probably moreso than most of bike lanes, road diets and streetscapes with trees. I certainly don't differ on that in this case.

But the first thing I observed was that that the associated photos do not align w/the description.


View attachment 334801

The suggestion was that the road was reconstructed. I don't think so. Its either resurfacing or milling (grinding and a skim coat of asphalt).
You can clearly see in the photo that older sidewalks/curbs remain, the odds of this occurring in a reconstruction is near zero. I'm not being pedantic.
What I wanted to do was clarify what was undertaken, over what stretch, to determine if this is a 'generational loss' as was implied or not.

So, having observed that, I turned to TO Inview which shows all the infrastructure projects for the City for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The green'ish (camo-coloured) dashed line represents Transportation Projects.

Nothing shows up here at all. Seems odd.


View attachment 334802


A few Tweaks......and I can discern this was a Toronto Water project:

The Blue-Dashed Lined is indicative of Toronto Water work. I'm guessing that this is just milling work to cover a Toronto Water trench/patch job.

View attachment 334808

While it certainly would have been nice to see Transportation and/or Planning piggyback on the work; I don't believe this is the generational loss suggested in the thread.

It appears neither Alex nor Sean Micallef who tweeted on this actually looked this up, or phoned anyone to ask.

That said, the Councillor and Transportation should be asked why they didn't take this opportunity to make some improvements.

Changing the lines on the road is quite cheap (relatively); widening sidewalks and adding streetscaping not so much, as it means relocating catch-basins and their associated connections to the sewer system.

But that is still something that can and should be pursued on this stretch.

Reminds me of the resurfacing of upper Church St (north of Dundonald) that happened this year. Definitely a street that could be narrowed (I'm sorry, but Forest Hill residents aren't entitled to use it as a highway into downtown just because they are rich), and a street that could in many places use far more trees. But it seems like the city just redoes these streets independently of considering what the street design should be in the long-term. At least on Church St, we got an additional set of traffic lights with much-needed pedestrian crossings at Gloucester.

Hopefully sooner than later, both streets eventually get the full rebuilds they deserve, but I agree this isn't some disaster that has ruined either street for decades.

 

[Northern Light]

Reminds me of the resurfacing of upper Church St (north of Dundonald) that happened this year. Definitely a street that could be narrowed (I'm sorry, but Forest Hill residents aren't entitled to use it as a highway into downtown just because they are rich), and a street that could in many places use far more trees. But it seems like the city just redoes these streets independently of considering what the street design should be in the long-term. At least on Church St, we got an additional set of traffic lights with much-needed pedestrian crossings at Gloucester.

Hopefully sooner than later, both streets eventually get the full rebuilds they deserve, but I agree this isn't some disaster that has ruined either street for decades.

Jarvis north of Dundas is due to get 'major road resurfacing' next year.......

@AlexBozikovic can we get media attention this one before any missed opportunities?

For everyone else.........this is a big one........time to put the bike lanes back; and if that's going to be done, it needs to pass Council this fall.

 

[TossYourJacket]

Jarvis north of Dundas is due to get 'major road resurfacing' next year.......

@AlexBozikovic can we get media attention this one before any missed opportunities?

View attachment 334878

For everyone else.........this is a big one........time to put the bike lanes back; and if that's going to be done, it needs to pass Council this fall.

They're already doing some major work on Jarvis rn, not sure if it's connected to the resurfacing or not, but some lanes are closed north of Carlton, and parts of the street have been torn up. But hopefully there's time to get something better built when they actually do the rebuilding.

 

[Northern Light]

They're already doing some major work on Jarvis rn, not sure if it's connected to the resurfacing or not, but some lanes are closed north of Carlton, and parts of the street have been torn up. But hopefully there's time to get something better built when they actually do the rebuilding.

My bad, the work starts this year.

Mind you, says it goes to Q4 next year..........so maybe still time to get on this..............

 

[mike0001]

I have doubts about anything productive related to bike lanes on Jarvis. Apparently it was rejected again in 2019 and now work is already underway for the resurfacing. They did mention some improvements to the predestrian crossing in front of Rogers at Charles and Isabella but I couldn't find anything about what those improvements will be.

Collision on Gerrard yesterday near work being done on Jarvis:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1414932973636440079

https://twitter.com/x/status/1414937464897216515

 

[Northern Light]

I don't do 'heros'...........never been a fan of 'idolizing' people..............but two of my favourite people are the principals of Brown and Storey. (James Brown and Kim Storey).
They have spent so much time and energy over the years on pro-bono work to help inspire a safer, cleaner and much more beautiful City.
Often that hasn't been financially rewarded, but it has usually resulted in positive change.................

On that note.............

They've contributed a pro-bono design in service of the Avenue Road Safety Coalition to show what could be achieved if you cut Avenue Road from six lanes to four.
They opted, in their design not to show bike lanes, but to focus on an extraordinary pedestrian realm. Any transformation of Avenue Road will be decided by others......
I understand their choice here.........as its the most visually showy way of saying look what we could have............They certainly aren't opposed to bike lanes....

At any rate, The Star's Ben Spurr has done a column on all this.

Which can be found here: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...oad-by-turning-part-of-it-into-a-park.html?rf

It is paywalled at the moment; but Outline works.

From the article (and the proposal)

An asymmetrical sidewalk adding a single row of trees on one side; then a double-row of trees and a more elaborate garden-like walk on the other.

Its not exactly what I would do..........but I can't but convey my appreciation for showing how much better Avenue Road could be.

Time to raise the bar!

 

[W. K. Lis]