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Roncesvalles Reconstruction

Who is the downtown resident masochistic enough to do their shopping by driving around from store to store looking to snag parking right out front?
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I don't know who he or she is but I know where they are, They are at the closest big box complex.
 
nfitz said:
Then why do we need parking on Roncesvalle for them?
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Weekend onstreet parking in this area has a high percentage of drivers from Mississauga who visit their former ethnic neighbourhood for social/religious/nostalgia reasons but these numbers drop every year as more stores in Mississauga are built to cater to their needs.
 
[rant]less parking, more congestion, bumpouts = FAIL

Plain and simple. If you can't see that then youre a dumb anti-car tree hugging hippy. [/rant]
 
catcher_of_cats said:
Weekend onstreet parking in this area has a high percentage of drivers from Mississauga who visit their former ethnic neighbourhood for social/religious/nostalgia reasons but these numbers drop every year as more stores in Mississauga are built to cater to their needs.
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Here's unlikely pro-car advocate Gord Perks defending the decision (unpopular among all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything) not to include dedicated bike lanes as part of the Roncesvalles reconstruction (which would have cut on-street parking in half):

A lot of these businesses survive because everyone comes from Mississauga and buys their Polish sausage on Saturday. You need to have some on-street parking.
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Also, here's the BIA's assessment from last year of parking losses under the plan:

The projected parking losses under this new proposal are less than half of the parking capacity Roncesvalles recently gained when the Howard Public School lot was made available to the public after school hours. Roncesvalles will actually have more parking capacity in two years than it did two years ago (when reconstruction planning first got started), plus thousands more square feet of new public space.
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Elsewhere, the BIA says:

The plain fact is that Roncesvalles will never be able to compete with other shopping areas on parking availability. But Roncesvalles will offer something that a mall never can: a pleasant and distinct experience for shoppers who walk, cycle or ride the streetcar.
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It sounds like most people involved with this project have been thinking hard about all the parking options, taking nuanced positions, without declaring "war" on anyone or lapsing into reflexive ideological stances.
 
What's with some drivers? I have personally seen a car park next to a half-finished bumpout and in a no stopping area, ending up blocking a streetcar from going on. What is wrong with them? Can't you first check to see if you are overhanging into the concrete part of the roadway, where the streetcar goes? Do we need a police officer or parking enforcement officer go up and down Roncesvalles full-time? Be considerate to everyone and park in a proper parking area. If you get towed, good.
 
W. K. Lis said:
What's with some drivers? I have personally seen a car park next to a half-finished bumpout and in a no stopping area, ending up blocking a streetcar from going on. What is wrong with them? Can't you first check to see if you are overhanging into the concrete part of the roadway, where the streetcar goes? Do we need a police officer or parking enforcement officer go up and down Roncesvalles full-time? Be considerate to everyone and park in a proper parking area. If you get towed, good.
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CLRVs are pretty tough. We should just get a waiver and ram the car out of the way. The car's driver will definitely not do it again.
 
reaperexpress said:
CLRVs are pretty tough. We should just get a waiver and ram the car out of the way. The car's driver will definitely not do it again.
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And then "We the people" pay for the Lawsuit set forth by the car owner when they sue the TTC (or whomever does this absloutely idiotic stunt). Seriously, I only of Homer J. Simpson who believes that two wrongs make a right.
 
The driver's insurer sues the TTC's insurer. They would settle out of court.
I'm sure the TTCs premiums would go up though!

But the brute force method really is dumb.

[video=youtube;kt_r-jO3lKE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt_r-jO3lKE[/video]
 
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Exactly. You might scratch the paint on the streetcar, or lodge the car against a pole making the street still impassible. Rocket launchers are the way to go if you want to keep the streetcars on schedule.
 
I'm waiting for that first large snow fall where cars will be force to either park on the tracks or else where, as the plows cannot get at the snow where the bump-out are located.

I love how the contractor is getting blame for this delay when it is caused by other sub trades that the city has hired as well delaying the project in the first place with various changes.

I have said from day one, that this street would not be finish this year.

Lets see how these bump-out stand out to the plows come spring 2011.
 
Whether you like the bumpouts are not, it is simply not true that the bumpouts intrude into the main traffic lane, and I wish people would stop saying that the street has been "narrowed," as if Roncesvalles didn't function as a two-lane street before, with one lane in each direction. The bumpouts widen into the parking lane, not the traffic lane, and they take up space once used by parked cars, not moving cars. I can't see why the Roncesvalles bumpouts should be any more problematic for drivers than the parking bays that are used everywhere (or than parking lanes in general, for that matter).

The real problem currently seems to be that the street is in a state of mid-completion, and so people are mistaking the unfinished and unmarked bike lane that runs alongside the bumpouts for a parking lane. People park in what is in fact a traffic lane, block the streetcar and thus the whole street. Why the city has not placed some pylons or barrels in these locations is beyond me.

People should be more concerned about whether drivers will still think they can park in these locations after the platforms are completed, and the lanes are properly marked and signed. If people still intuitively feel these are parking areas (regardless of signage), then this is a serious problem. I guess we'll find out when everything is finished. But in the meantime, the city should make it clearer where people can and cannot park. (I mean really -- all it would take is a few orange barrels with "no parking" written on them.)
 
Havent been on this route for a while, are the 504 Street cars from Dundas station going directly to Broadview station?
 
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