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

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 absolutely insane!

So many of these are simply mind-boggling, like the cars on the wrong side of the road despite the yellow lines already having been painted.
 
It's nice and all at least for Toronto but all this talk about it being like the Champs Elysees is just straight delusional talk.
 
There should be a curb or some other form of tangible separation between the regular lanes and ROW.
 
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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Sherbourne also had serious EMS/Fire compromises. Emergency services forced the two lanes to be 3 cars wide in order to allow people to pull over and let an emergency vehicle get past without crossing the bike lane curb, even though they also required those to be mountable specifically for that purpose. The result was bike lanes too narrow to comfortably pass a slower rider, and people parking cars in the bike lanes thanks to the mountable curbs.

Allowing EMS/Fire to use the ROW on Queens Quay allowed for narrow motor traffic lanes, which is very beneficial from a speeding and general space utilization perspective.

Armour said:
There should be a curb or some other form of tangible separation between the regular lanes and ROW.
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There is a curb between the traffic lanes and the ROW, as well as streetcar stops and signal poles. People are sneaking in at the intersections where there is necessarily a dropped curb to allow people to cross to the south side of the ROW.
 
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Adjei said:
It's nice and all at least for Toronto but all this talk about it being like the Champs Elysees is just straight delusional talk.
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No one said that. I get that you've designated yourself one of the site's Mr. Crabbys, but this is going to be one of Toronto's best walking/tourist districts, with a ton of people coming up/down from Bremner after a trip to the rink/field/goldfish bowl/brewery/viagra tower as well.

As for ksun's comment: wow. <shakes head>
 
Cars have always ended up on the streetcar ROW although this appears much worse than before.

Cars going the wrong way? The line markings are quite clear so that is likely unawareness of the fact that two way traffic has returned and WB traffic is used to having it to themselves.

As for ksun's comments? Did anyone expect anything else?
 
Not the best shot, but here's a pic from above, showing some of the work still left to be done on the bridge. Taken just now.

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Riverdale Rink Rat said:
No one said that. I get that you've designated yourself one of the site's Mr. Crabbys, but this is going to be one of Toronto's best walking/tourist districts, with a ton of people coming up/down from Bremner after a trip to the rink/field/goldfish bowl/brewery/viagra tower as well.

As for ksun's comment: wow. <shakes head>
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Yeah right no one said that: http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2012/06/06/queens_quay_to_become_torontos_champs_elysees.html

“The goal is to make (Queens Quay) the signature street for Toronto” — this city’s version of Barcelona’s Rambla, or the Champs Elysees in Paris, said Chris Glaisek, vice-president, planning and design for Waterfront Toronto.
 
Adjei said:
Yeah right no one said that: http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2012/06/06/queens_quay_to_become_torontos_champs_elysees.html

“The goal is to make (Queens Quay) the signature street for Toronto” — this city’s version of Barcelona’s Rambla, or the Champs Elysees in Paris, said Chris Glaisek, vice-president, planning and design for Waterfront Toronto.
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I stand corrected -- although the quotes in that quote are a little weird. Did Mr. Glaisek say "The goal is to make it the signature street for Toronto", which is a laudable goal and might actually become true, or did they place the second quotation mark incorrectly and it should be after the Champs Elysees part of the quote?

As for QQ becoming like the Champs, there's no chance. They are completely different streetscapes and we're not actually going to build squares at each end to celebrate our Emperor's victories over the Americans at Queenston Heights and Vancouver Olympics.

However, QQ (in the summer time) has a shot of becoming like Las Ramblas in use, if not in form. Barcelona's main drag is where everyone goes for an evening walk before a late supper on a nice day. QQ -- particularly if/when the slip end bridges get built -- would be very much the perfect evening walk on a summer's night, before dinner at QQT or an ice cream somewhere. Don't write that part of your kvetching in stone quite yet.
 
Agree - CG's point was about wanting to make QQ a signature street in a way that is symbolic for the city, not about matching Champs Elysees - that one is a ceremonial axis (which is more of a University Ave. thing) and you wouldn't have a prayer of hope messing the city fabric around QQ to do that.

AoD
 
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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.
Click to expand...
Absolutely nuts! So out of curiosity, how many hours were you there taking pictures? This tells me, that especially at night, signage is going to be problematic. If this many cars accidentally end up on the ROW, some mods will have to be made.

Once a year back in SF, you'd read about a car that ended up on the ROW and then tried to drive into a tunnel and got stuck...usually alcohol was a component. I don't think I've ever read about that happening in Toronto.
 
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