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

MetroMan said:
You're missing the entire point. The groundwork has been laid and it *is* impressive.
The entire central waterfront has been given to people and transit with cars as an after thought. All the sidewalks have been done in cobblestone, unlike anywhere else in Toronto. I can't even think of anywhere in Canada that has that extensive use of cobblestone.
Trees were given conditions to thrive where their roots can expand freely allowing for large healthy trees. It'll take time for them to grow into the majestic canopies we see in the renderings but in just a few years, they'll be quite large already.
Underground, the infrastructure that has been built will prevent water runoff from going into the lake. In our generation, Toronto harbour will be swimable!
The highest standard of communications infrastructure has been put in allowing for businesses and jobs of the future to locate on Toronto's waterfront.
Waterfront Toronto has built a highly attractive waterfront street that will attract private investment. It already has in the billions of private dollars. You'll begin seeing the value of storefronts going up and as a result, high quality businesses opening up in those store fronts. Instead of dry cleaners and sandwich shops, it's likely that the world class restaurant entrepreneurs of Toronto will flock to Queens Quay.
The street was the bait and now we watch as private sector takes it and runs with it.
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not that I don't agree with your points, but it seems cobblestone and trees and sometimes small waterplay fountains are the best Toronto can do. Look at NPS, YDS, and QQ, we never have anything beyond that. Those pathetic fountains that are on occassional at NPS/YDS make me want to cry - are they designed by the same guy who is completely devoid of any imagination?

Let me be a bit straightforward here: if you want the waterfront to be a tourist destination, you need something that people can take photos of, something that says Toronto and nowhere else, something people can happily put on facebook or instragram or whatever (call me vain and I will still insist on that. That's what tourism is about.). You also need to provide some unique experience that people can't get by the lake in Chicago or Cleveland or Buenos Aires or Lisbon, not some humble looking community center offering some community level "family friendly" "entertainment" on the weekends, or a few trees that can be seen anywhere in the world. Currently, there is absolutely nothing on our waterfront that people don't find in other cities. Everything seems generic and mass produced from Walmart.

Maybe Toronto's expectation is simply for QQ to be a place for local suburban families with two kids to watch some free third class performance, or have a picnic on the grass or have some burgers and salad on Sunday afternoons, then congratulations. It has achieved this goal.

Private investment may set up shops and restaurants on QQ, but it will not make the area more beautiful and enjoyable.
 
June 6

At Bathurst Area and ready for painting
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I noticed a number of hangers are now off set for pans. From the looks of things, Bay Tunnel is off set as well. The line was off set for testing of pans before it open.
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Loop Area
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No idea why painting the MGT sub base and its not Yonge St in the first place
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salsa said:
Maybe they're just testing a paint scheme?
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They did this in another few places to the east as well before the top coat went down.
 
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how will the above (westernmost portion of Queen's Quay) connect to the waterfront trail? Have there been any upgrades to the connection as it stood previously? What about the QQ portion between Staduim Rd. and Bathurst? Did it receive any biking upgrades?
 
agoraflaneur said:
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how will the above (westernmost portion of Queen's Quay) connect to the waterfront trail? Have there been any upgrades to the connection as it stood previously? What about the QQ portion between Staduim Rd. and Bathurst? Did it receive any biking upgrades?
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There will be (almost is) a totally (almost) separated bike track on QQ all the way from Parliament in east to Bathurst in west. There is still a very short section at Aqualina (Lower Sherbourne) not finished (but they were working on it) and at Parliament there is work on the new collector sewer that is a bottle-neck. The short section from Bathurst St to Stadium Road was, last week anyway, untouched but I assume will get upgraded in due course.
 
I believe the plans are to extend that bidirectional lane right to Stadium Road, meaning you don't have to do the diagonal road crossing to the park when heading west
 
PinkLucy said:
I believe the plans are to extend that bidirectional lane right to Stadium Road, meaning you don't have to do the diagonal road crossing to the park when heading west
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Yes, the MGT west extension project covers Yo Yo Ma to Stadium. Yo Yo Ma to Bathurst is essentially done. Bathurst to Stadium should be done in the next couple of months, making it uninterrupted from Sherbourne to around Humber.

Edit: Actually I was unaware, the dedicated separate trail will NOT include Bathurst to Stadium. It is done from Yo Yo Ma to Bathurst, and from Bathurst to Stadium they will move the current on-street bike lanes to the South side of the road, and separate them with Flexi-Post bollards a la Richmond/Spadina. It will be effectively an uninterrupted trail. In fact there are chalk markings on that section of Queen's Quay now--they looked VERY confusing/wrong to me for an MGT extension but they make perfect sense, in retrospect, for this version of the plan.

We’re also getting ready to eliminate the need for a transition west of Lower Spadina as well. You may remember that our initial Queens Quay design called for a transition at the Lower Spadina Avenue intersection requiring cyclists traveling westbound to cross to the on-street bicycle lane on the northside of Queens Quay. The transition worked, but what we really wanted was a seamless connection. So, working with West 8 + DTAH, we created an interim solution which eliminates the need for the transition at Yo Yo Ma Lane. This new design allows the Martin Goodman Trail to continue uninterrupted on the south side of Queens Quay all the way to Stadium Road.

Construction is expected to get underway by the end of the year and will be timed for completion by mid-2015. When complete, a separated off-street Martin Goodman Trail will stretch from Lower Spadina through the Bathurst intersection on the south side of Queens Quay. West of Bathurst Street, Queens Quay will be reconfigured with new line painting, in order to move the bicycle lanes to the south side of the street. While the bicycle lanes in this stretch will still be on-street, they will be separated from vehicular traffic by flexi-post barriers.
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Source
 
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ehlow said:
What if the streetcar lanes were painted green or something, would that help?
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W. K. Lis said:
Are there turn lines painted? Or are they hard to make out?

They may have to put in some sort of car trap. It should wake them up, but still allow them to back out of there. Even if the right-of-way should supposed to be used by emergency vehicles, they could put in narrow strips of grass down the middle.
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I know the area is extra chaotic right now since the project isn't quite complete, but whatever eventual signage is put in place, it had better be VERY OBVIOUS because otherwise it won't be long before someone is seriously injured or killed illegally driving on (or illegally turning through) the streetcar right-of-way.

As has been mentioned in this thread, grass would look nice while getting the point across, but is unfortunately not an option due to the requirements of Toronto EMS.

The problem areas are intersections as there is no curb separating the right-of-way (ROW). This is where vehicles are entering the ROW. In addition to the signs that will undoubtedly be put up, I would suggest painting directly on the ROW as it becomes divided again by the curb, coming out of each intersection. Something big and bold that clearly indicates DO NOT ENTER. Like this:

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Thoughts?
 

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Anchorless said:
In addition to the signs that will undoubtedly be put up, I would suggest painting directly on the ROW as it becomes divided again by the curb, coming out of each intersection. Something big and bold that clearly indicates DO NOT ENTER.

Thoughts?
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Yeah, that's probably going to be necessary.

I was just as Lower Spadina and QQ and it looked like the eastbound traffic lights were covered but with vertical cutouts, as if to simulate the transit signals. Anyone know what that's about?
 
A simple solution would be to paint the ROW red, green or blue. This will be a clear visual indicator to drivers not to enter, as no road anywhere is coloured in those colours.
Problem solved.
 
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Anchorless said:
That would work too. Though I love that there's a car driving on the red paint in that picture.
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I noticed that myself, but found the original article which had that photo attached. It is taken on one of the first days after they painted the transit-only lanes on Church in San Francisco.

That said, I agree with the idea. Paint it red for TTC. Anyone driving on the lanes gets fined. Implement an enforcement campaign, similar to Tory's illegal parking campaign.
 
wopchop said:
I noticed that myself, but found the original article which had that photo attached. It is taken on one of the first days after they painted the transit-only lanes on Church in San Francisco.

That said, I agree with the idea. Paint it red for TTC. Anyone driving on the lanes gets fined. Implement an enforcement campaign, similar to Tory's illegal parking campaign.
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Thanks for the source article. Absolutely a great idea to couple it with strict enforcement. I wonder if it could even be accomplished using cameras.
 
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