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The Case Against One-Way Streets

Johnny Au said:
Oakwood-Vaughan is full of one-way streets, and is slowly gentrifying themselves. For drivers, it is a maze (hence the large numbers of signs to go to Phil White Arena (which is on Arlington just north of Rushton)). For pedestrians and cyclists, it is very easily navigable.
Click to expand...

If cyclists break the law, or dismount and walk, it's easy to navigate. Thankfully the rules on contra-flow bike lanes have been clarified, and the city will start to install more of these through one-way mazes, starting with Shaw.
 
There's a difference between side streets and avenues in terms of the implementation of one-way streets. Avenues (major streets) need to have a lot of pedestrians for their businesses and establishments, and one thing that helps generate good numbers of pedestrians is two-way transit. I think that downtown streets with subway lines could easily become one-way streets without losing any vitality, but streets with surface transit like streetcars will lose some vitality as one-way transit can mean a lot more walking for transit users, who might then be discouraged from going to those streets. It could also hurt the streets' vitality because of the lower overall transit capacity for the pair of two-way streets made one-way. (The potential loss is 50% of the capacity.) So I think a two-way transit ROW would be necessary on both King and Queen streets if they were made one-way, unless a new subway line would be built.
 
junctionist said:
There's a difference between side streets and avenues in terms of the implementation of one-way streets. Avenues (major streets) need to have a lot of pedestrians for their businesses and establishments, and one thing that helps generate good numbers of pedestrians is two-way transit. I think that downtown streets with subway lines could easily become one-way streets without losing any vitality, but streets with surface transit like streetcars will lose some vitality as one-way transit can mean a lot more walking for transit users, who might then be discouraged from going to those streets. It could also hurt the streets' vitality because of the lower overall transit capacity for the pair of two-way streets made one-way. (The potential loss is 50% of the capacity.) So I think a two-way transit ROW would be necessary on both King and Queen streets if they were made one-way, unless a new subway line would be built.
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If we compare mixed-traffic transit on two-way streets to mixed-traffic transit on one-way streets, then the former wins, having both more capacity and shorter average walking distance.

On the other hand, if converting to one-way makes it easier to allocate transit-only lanes, then such conversion might have a positive effect on transit riders and on the street vitality. If transit becomes much more reliable due to having dedicated lanes, then people will be more likely to use it.

I would consider transforming Queen/Richmond and King/Adelaide into pairs of one-way streets, if each of them gets a streetcar-only lane as a result.
 
If you pair Adelaide and Richmond with King and Queen streets, it should be noted that Adelaide and Richmond are only major streets suitable for a transit ROW through downtown, between Bathurst and the Don River. That leaves a lot of King and Queen without another street to be paired with. They're too far apart to be paired with each other from a pedestrian and transit user's perspective if they only have one-way transit.
 
Just move the tracks to one side of the street, and then transit along King and Queen can remain two-way.

Queen:
Code: 
<<<<<< Normal lane <<<<<<
<<<<<< Normal lane <<<<<<
<<<< Streetcars only <<<<
>>>> Streetcars only >>>>

King:
Code: 
<<<< Streetcars only <<<<
>>>> Streetcars only >>>>
>>>>>> Normal lane >>>>>>
>>>>>> Normal lane >>>>>>
 
you can't do that because of the turning radius of streetcars at instersections. the only reason the streetcars are being put on the side of Queens Quay is because they only have to turn northward, where there is lots of space. if they had to turn south, they wouldn't be able to.
 
The refusal of the City Roads department to clear plough humps on the no-parking side of residential sidestreets in my area basically turns my street and others into a fiasco where opposing cars have to move into people's driveways to allow an opposing direction car through. At least if our streets were signed one way between 1 November and 30 March the legislated road capacity would match the signed road capacity.
 
dowlingm said:
The refusal of the City Roads department to clear plough humps on the no-parking side of residential sidestreets in my area basically turns my street and others into a fiasco where opposing cars have to move into people's driveways to allow an opposing direction car through. At least if our streets were signed one way between 1 November and 30 March the legislated road capacity would match the signed road capacity.
Click to expand...

Ummm... So? Why should I care?
 
I don't think the sharp corner on the near side of the intersection is a problem that can't be solved, especially at an intersection like Queen and Spadina. The curve of the tracks would just have to move further to the corner as well.

A bigger concern is that both King and Queen have a need for service vehicles - delivery and garbage trucks to stop. I actually think the configuration below would be required for a dedicated streetcar line, in combination with turning these into two-lane one-way streets.

<<<<<< Normal lane <<<<<<
<<<<<< Normal lane <<<<<<
<<<< Streetcars only <<<<
>>>> Streetcars only >>>>
 
junctionist said:
If you pair Adelaide and Richmond with King and Queen streets, it should be noted that Adelaide and Richmond are only major streets suitable for a transit ROW through downtown, between Bathurst and the Don River. That leaves a lot of King and Queen without another street to be paired with. They're too far apart to be paired with each other from a pedestrian and transit user's perspective if they only have one-way transit.
Click to expand...

That's right. But even dedicated lanes are available between Bathurst and Don River only, they will improve the streetcar reliability.

The implementation cost should be minor, compared to putting those streetcar lines underground.
 
Anyone see anything significant decided on improvements to Richmond/Adelaide before DRL alignment is decided? I don't.
 
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