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Roncesvalles Reconstruction

The second open house was held on March 23, 2009. The display boards can be downloaded in PDF form from this link. The presentation slides can be downloaded in PDF form from this link.

The preferred concept is #2:
• Level boarding for TTC streetcars
• Parking permitted on both sides of the street
• Transit, cyclists and vehicles share one travel lane; cyclists travel over TTC level boarding platforms
• Formalizes a parking lane, a travel lane, in some areas increases the sidewalk and boulevard width and reduces crossing widths
Click to expand...

Recommendation:
• Concept 2 is the best balance of the competing needs on Roncesvalles Avenue.
• One travel lane of approximately 4.3 metres in width.
• Parking lane on each side of the road approximately 2.0 metres in width.
• Boulevard expanded in certain areas to increase public space.
Click to expand...

This image shows Roncesvalles Avenue and Fermanagh Avenue/High Park Boulevard:
picture.php


A bicyclist still has a bike lane, but now at streetcar/LRT stops at the bumpouts, a bicyclist goes up a ramp to a raised path and then back down after the stop. They still have to stop for passengers boarding or disembarking (in theory). Streetcars/LRT will now have a raised platform, but is shared with the bicyclists. I hope they tint the concrete and not paint them, but worry about sign pollution they may end up putting up.
 
W. K. Lis said:
The second open house was held on March 23, 2009. The display boards can be downloaded in PDF form from this link. The presentation slides can be downloaded in PDF form from this link.

The preferred concept is #2:




This image shows Roncesvalles Avenue and Fermanagh Avenue/High Park Boulevard:
picture.php


A bicyclist still has a bike lane, but now at streetcar/LRT stops at the bumpouts, a bicyclist goes up a ramp to a raised path and then back down after the stop. They still have to stop for passengers boarding or disembarking (in theory). Streetcars/LRT will now have a raised platform, but is shared with the bicyclists. I hope they tint the concrete and not paint them, but worry about sign pollution they may end up putting up.
Click to expand...

I was at the meeting and it was a poor one both in the presentation as well material.

It would have taken someone on the team 5 minutes to search the internet to find a photo of a share bike transit platform so the public could understand what it may look like on this street. Biggest complaint throughout the QA

It would only taken 15 minutes to do a section cut of the platform as well what it would look like from the road to give the public a better understanding of this bumpout.

The (in theory) of loading/unloading will be a huge learning curve for everyone.

The big issue will be snow clearing as this bumpout will take a beating. At the same time, there needs to be a drain on the north side where the ramp starts, otherwise you will have ice there for a great opppss for the cycles.

Strong opposition from the car folks over the lost of parking spots as well loosing the ability to pass streetcars at the corners. They even slap the face of the accessibility community by saying find another way to use transit. They do not want to have to sit behind a streetcar for the whole trip.

2 of the existing stops will be remove and no big deal as they are only 110m apart now. The Sunday stops will be remove also.

I prefer option 3 as I want to see something done about removing cars off the road.

The current eastbound platform on Queen will be move to the east side of the intersection and be a bumpout platform. This will have major impact on traffic. The intersection and the Queen bumpout will be done at the same time as this project and it not on any plans for this project.

Construction starts June 7 for new waterline and sewer. Construction of the road itself will take place Spring 2010. 504 will loop at Queen with buses going to Dundas West station.

TTC need to understand that a sliding ramp will have to be use for the system to deal with the accessibility issue unless every stop is bumpout. Oh Happy days are here again.

Another complaint was construction is going have an impact on the side streets as well business and what were the plans to fix this problem.

The overhead wiring and fixtures will not be touch due to cost.
 
drum118 said:
I was at the meeting and it was a poor one both in the presentation as well material.
Click to expand...

Transit planners and advocates should be notorious by now for the shoddy state of their power point presentations. I went to one where they used yellow Times New Roman font on a white background. At another one they photos of the street scene they tried to add were so unbelievably grainy and shot at high noon with reflective glare coming off the street and everything.

Anyway,

I think the Concept 2 idea is brilliant. If they want to appease the car lobby by saving on parking spaces, maybe they can find a way to coordinate fire hydrant placement on those platforms.
 
If they could move the fire hydrants to the bumpouts, corners, and crosswalks, that could allow for parking (and seats, if needed). They are replacing the water mains, so why not move them. However, I do not know what is the legal distance required for the fire hydrants to be apart.

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PDF copies of the full-length sidewalk plan for Roncesvalles is available as the south part here and the north part here.

One thing I don't like is the removal of bumpouts at the corners, leaving only a few. I had thought that if an area of the road was NO PARKING AT ANYTIME / NO STANDING AT ANYTIME / NO STOPPING AT ANYTIME now, it should have had a bumpout put in. I think they gave in to the automobile crowd.
 
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Doing a photo shoot today on the street got me thinking what was said about NYC at Wednesday event in Mississauga.

How hard would it be for TTC and the city to do a prototype of the plan platform to see how it works before building the real thing.?

If NYC can do this within in weeks, why can we not do it?

How hard is it to try doing other types of prototype things before doing an EA to see if ir will work or not?

Cheaper to try a prototype testing than doing an EA and build it to find out it will not work at a huge lost. At the same time, you can make changes to get it correct before doing a full build out.

Looking at Sunday stops as well the regular ones, it shows these stops need to be combine as well move and reduce as plan.
 
W. K. Lis said:
PDF copies of the full-length sidewalk plan for Roncesvalles is available as the south part here and the north part here.

One thing I don't like is the removal of bumpouts at the corners, leaving only a few. I had thought that if an area of the road was NO PARKING AT ANYTIME / NO STANDING AT ANYTIME / NO STOPPING AT ANYTIME now, it should have had a bumpout put in. I think they gave in to the automobile crowd.
Click to expand...

It was a total cop out lead by an traffic engineer who is anti transit, cycling and predestination's. I had to deal with him for the last 4 years to the point he thumbs this nose to council request/orders as well his own boss.

Parking should be only on the east side.

If business have to rely on cars, then they have the wrong business in this area as well not getting locals to support it in the first place.

At the end of the day, cycling lanes will not work on this street. If so, only on the west side with removal of parking.
 
This can be good, but the bike lanes will need speed bumps (corrugated) at the platforms, so cyclists don't treat this as a freeway.
 
Roncesvalles can use an update, I stayed there a few times a few years back and it wasn't the most clean part of town.
 
One things that has got me Why not do a test model to see if this is going to work or not before redoing all the stops and waste money.

This was force home after listening to NYC Commisioner of Transportation last week where she is doing test modeling of various projects to see if it a good idea to move foreware with, tweeting it to get the bugs or cancel it all together that can be done under a year before an EA take place.

How hard would it be to built a platform and ramp out of wood to see how it would work in real life. It will allow time to do some tweeting or changes at a very low cost.

What TTC is looking at now is a full lane ramp that can be share by everyone and deal with the accessiblity issue. This meams we can see cars and bikes driving up/down the ramp on to the 30m platform plus the slop of the ramp.

Will be great fan fare to see a speeding vehicle hitting this ramp and go flying down the ramp out of control.
 
BrandonTO416 said:
Roncesvalles can use an update, I stayed there a few times a few years back and it wasn't the most clean part of town.
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One thing I noticed lately: they removed the graffiti tagging and Days Inn tack-on from the S side of the Edgewater sign. Which must be a prelude either to restoration, or removal. (Or maybe they're just substituting the new Days Inn logo.)
 
I think it's time drivers in this city stopped whining so damn much. My main form of transportation is a car (pick-up or lorry) because of work (construction). I understand the importance of propagating efficiency. If this means cutting out left-hand turns as has been mentioned in passing, then so be it. The streetcar here should have full priority over vehicular traffic.

I don't understand why the "one person, one car" lobby is so selfish.

Sorry, it just really bothers me as primarily a driver that other drivers whine so much about their anachronistic inefficiencies not being preserved.
 
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