Toronto Queens Quay & Water's Edge Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

interchange42 said:
Agree with Napoleon and PinkLucy.

We need paintings of a pedestrian with a line through it painted on the MGT through here (and beside the boardwalk sections in the Humber Bay area. In the area past the Boulevard Club where it all comes together again, I'd like to see bicycle and pedestrian symbols painted on the asphalt in appropriate places. The pedestrians need some visual aids for reinforcement!

42
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Definitely. As drum pointed out, this is a new space and it'll take time for people to learn how to use it, but extra visual reinforcement helps! (I run on the MGT all the time, and since I frequently overtake in-line skaters and the occasional bike, I don't feel too bad about it. But not in this central portion, where there's a generous sidewalk right beside it!)
 
nfitz said:
How much road salt do they use in Amsterdam? Does the braking mechanism for streetcars there use sand? (hmm ... I'm guessing that will be no more with the new streetcars).
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the lemur said:
No road salt at all, just sand/grit for traction. Braking mechanism uses sand, but only for emergency braking.

https://twitter.com/POL_Boer/status/468081847935983617
These pics are (I think) from a streetcar in Rotterdam, but it's the same principle (emergency only). Amsterdam streetcars actually have a sort of window in the back to display the level of sand remaining.
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The Amsterdam streetcars still use sand, but we don't use grit in winter time (as it damages the roads). We do use a mixture of salt and sand. That, however isn't really a problem for grassy tram tracks. I guess snow plowing methods are a bit different.
 
hawc said:
Sure the MGT maybe multi use but the pedestrians will have a wide freaking cobblestone walkway for heaven's sake. They really don't need to be on the asphalt bike path. Whatever happens it's gonna be carnage at the Ferry Docks. Bikes crashing into people.
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At this spot is not very wide, it's even narrower than it used to be.

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Great shots. Thanks. There is indeed a fair bit of work to be done. I haven't seen anything down this far west, so I'm a bit surprised. I wonder if they're stressin' over at Waterfront Toronto headquarters.
 
Miscreant said:
Great shots. Thanks. There is indeed a fair bit of work to be done. I haven't seen anything down this far west, so I'm a bit surprised. I wonder if they're stressin' over at Waterfront Toronto headquarters.
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Yes there is stressing going on at Waterfront Toronto.

I feel a lot better today than I did last week for completion before the 18th, as I have being waiting since 2006 to see this come together. Lets see how much the city wants to take credit for this new street, since they weren't willing to give the money to do this thing in the first place.

Based on what I saw yesterday and 10 days ago, only one problem area that may not be 100% complete for the 18th and that the bridge. Maybe a section west of Spadina and only a small section at that.

Rees road should be done early next week as well the 2 other locations. Bathurst could be done this weekend, as there is only a small section to be pave as well concrete to be pour.

This will free up manpower to work on the bridge.

Only going to take a day or so to top coat the MGT that has yet to be pave as well waiting for the top coat. About 2 days to do the markings on the MGT.

All eastbound lane are to be open by the 10th. Going to take some use, using the new crossover west of Spadina for drivers and TTC.
 
not impressed with the "product". After three years of chaos and inconvenience, thus is what we get? A cold boring street made primarily of cement? There is absolutely nothing beautiful or interesting about the new QQ. The only commendable thing I can say is the reduction of car lanes. It is really as uninspiring and disappointing as the NPS "revitalization". Neither is "revitalized". Toronto lacks either imagination or vision, or both and always end up with something so mediocre and forgettable.
 
I spent a good deal of time down on Queen's Quay today, and I saw an incredible amount of stupidity on the parts of drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians at the Lower Simcoe, Queen's Quay Terminal, and York intersections now that two-way traffic has been reopened. I took a lot of pictures, anyone interested can see the album here.

I saw TONS of drivers running right through a left turn red which could have resulted in a collision with a streetcar, multiple people driving on the ROW, cyclists using the eastbound York-Bay service road or the eastbound traffic lane as their personal WESTBOUND bike trail, an e-bike on the sidewalk going quite fast, cars on the wrong side of the road, pedestrians jaywalking into moving traffic while staring down at their phones, and more...and it was MUCH worse today than it ever has been before two-way traffic resumed. Madness. Somebody is going to die down there, and only then will the police finally take this insanity seriously and start pulling people over to write tickets. People driving the wrong way, down the ROW, or running reds are usually not penalized here, the most I've ever seen is a head shake or a mildly stern warning but even that much is rare...
 
Megaton327 said:
I spent a good deal of time down on Queen's Quay today, and I saw an incredible amount of stupidity on the parts of drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians at the Lower Simcoe, Queen's Quay Terminal, and York intersections now that two-way traffic has been reopened. I took a lot of pictures, anyone interested can see the album here.
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Wow! That album is an absolute sh*t show of bad driving!!! :D

It will be very interesting to see if people adapt/learn over time or not. If I weren't familiar with the area I absolutely would be confused too. I would never imagine that east/west lanes were both on the same side of the streetcar ROW. I would totally assume that those two lanes were both westbound lanes. I can see why particularly at York southbound traffic turning east are turning on to the ROW. You'd look and see two lanes (3 with turn lane) and go oh those are the westbound lanes, eastbound must be over here somewhere... In Toronto it's also totally normal to drive on streetcar track on many surface streets. Anyway, I'm just saying it's very easy to get confused.

Thanks for the pictures though. That's nuts.
 
ksun said:
not impressed with the "product". After three years of chaos and inconvenience, thus is what we get? A cold boring street made primarily of cement? There is absolutely nothing beautiful or interesting about the new QQ. The only commendable thing I can say is the reduction of car lanes. It is really as uninspiring and disappointing as the NPS "revitalization". Neither is "revitalized". Toronto lacks either imagination or vision, or both and always end up with something so mediocre and forgettable.
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Haha. Wait... You seriously don't see revitalization? You must have somehow missed the new dedicated streetcar lanes, bike trail, decorative granite pavers, hardwoods in silva cells... What else were you expecting, a yellow-brick road?

You're either trolling, or have no memory of how ugly QQ used to be relative to what we're getting.
 
They really needed grass on the ROW. It would have eliminated any confusion at all. There's absolutely no reason why EMS and Toronto Fire can't use the regular roadway like every other damn car. If EMS/Fire can be fine with a single lane of traffic each way on Sherbourne, there is no excuse here.
 
Tuscani01 said:
They really needed grass on the ROW. It would have eliminated any confusion at all. There's absolutely no reason why EMS and Toronto Fire can't use the regular roadway like every other damn car. If EMS/Fire can be fine with a single lane of traffic each way on Sherbourne, there is no excuse here.
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I do not believe there are any EMS or Fire stations with Sherbourne as the only exit/entrance for their driveway, whereas there is one on Queen's Quay. There is a very significant difference. Public safety is, unfortunately, more important to most of us than a bit of grass.
 
Megaton327 said:
I do not believe there are any EMS or Fire stations with Sherbourne as the only exit/entrance for their driveway, whereas there is one on Queen's Quay. There is a very significant difference. Public safety is, unfortunately, more important to most of us than a bit of grass.
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Theres a fire station at Bloor/Sherbourne, and the fire trucks take Sherbourne Southbound pretty frequently. And the driveway at Queens Quay wouldn't be grass anyway... it would be a driveway like any other driveway... a surface cars can actually drive on.

If it's that much of an issue, they could have at least left the portion of Queens Quay between Spadina and Rees as concrete and everything else as grass. It would give emergency vehicles use of the ROW to a point where they can then get onto Lakeshore instead.
 
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