Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

Northern Light said:
That would be a rather unattractive solution. I have an alternative money saver, how about we just remove the Jersey barriers and replace them with nothing at all?

Lets be clear, 99.9% of all sidewalk in this city will have no added protection from 'hostile vehicles'; and the one and only intentional 'mass' attack we've had was nowhere near Union Station nor particularly tied to any transit station or landmark on Yonge in North York City Centre.

There's no particular logic to this, I get that its' a crowded spot for pedestrians, but so is Bay north of Front, so is Front immediate to the west etc etc. How about we just admit this was a misplaced idea, an over reaction, load the barriers on the back of a truck and move along?
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I don't think they're needed either, but you just know staff will budget a couple million $ to get some contractor to remove them.
 
mburrrrr said:
Are you positive you’re not trying to run for mayor?
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Quite.

But, if you and 5,000 of your closest friends want to donate $400 each to my campaign...........maybe I'll reconsider, LOL

That's about what it would cost to run (with an eye to winning) ~ 2M

That said, I'm not really confident I'm all that electable with an honest campaign. The media and the public would provide a collective TL: DR at my 500 pages of detailed policy, LOL
 
Northern Light said:
That would be a rather unattractive solution. I have an alternative money saver, how about we just remove the Jersey barriers and replace them with nothing at all?

Lets be clear, 99.9% of all sidewalk in this city will have no added protection from 'hostile vehicles'; and the one and only intentional 'mass' attack we've had was nowhere near Union Station nor particularly tied to any transit station or landmark on Yonge in North York City Centre.

There's no particular logic to this, I get that it's a crowded spot for pedestrians, but so is Bay north of Front, so is Front immediately to the west etc etc. How about we just admit this was a misplaced idea, an over reaction, load the barriers on the back of a truck and move along?
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I think at this location it's the higher potential for a terror attack that's going driving this.

Seems like overkill though.
 
nfitz said:
I think at this location it's the higher potential for a terror attack that's going driving this.

Seems like overkill though.
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It doesn't seem reasonable/logical to think that Union Station would be near the top of the list for an attack. There are places and events with way more crowding than Union Station.
 
In my view, the bollards are needed. Not just to prevent vehicle/pedestrian incidents but also to prevent the extremely high number of idiotic drivers we have in the city from parking/idling in front of the plaza. You would be surprised by the number of idiots I see all throughout the city who think plaza/sidewalk space is a magical extension of a road and they park their vehicles on said space.

I guarantee you that the day the jersey barriers are removed without any protective barrier between the road and plaza, there would be a substantial uptick in idiot drivers parking/idling on the plaza. For instance, had CIBC Square not installed barriers in front of Bay St/Lake Shore, there would've been a bevy of vehicles on those sidewalks. I've seen it dozens of times where drivers have attempted to park there but realized they couldnt drive on the sidewalk because of the bollards and planters which act a barrier.

I have no idea why the cost is so high to install the bollards, the only thing I could think of is that I recall the city mentioned something to do with waterproofing under Front St. But then again this is Toronto, where project execution costs are needlessly high for a whole host of projects.
 
Amare said:
I guarantee you that the day the jersey barriers are removed without any protective barrier between the road and plaza, there would be a substantial uptick in idiot drivers parking/idling on the plaza. For instance, had CIBC Square not installed barriers in front of Bay St/Lake Shore, there would've been a bevy of vehicles on those sidewalks. I've seen it dozens of times where drivers have attempted to park there but realized they couldnt drive on the sidewalk because of the bollards and planters which act a barrier.
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LOL. Like at College Park where there is a de facto parking lot in the public plaza area (captured by the google maps van).

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evandyk said:
It doesn't seem reasonable/logical to think that Union Station would be near the top of the list for an attack. There are places and events with way more crowding than Union Station.
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Whether it is out not isn't the issue. It's the reason for this, as the city has previously discussed.
 
evandyk said:
I think that's right. You have substantial crowding in many areas around the city, not only around events (sports, concerts, fireworks, the Ex, etc) but also on a daily basis (the waterfront and island ferry docks, all the way up Bay St, Yonge/Dundas, etc.). No special protection is provided for most.

At most, they should cart away the ugly concrete and put up some small, normal bollards that are inobtrusive and provide some protection against accidental incursion by careless drivers. Those should be considered for all public gathering places.
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Or large planters!
 
Adjei said:
Can’t they make front between university/York and bay a no car zone ?
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You kind of need an accommodation for taxis, but then you have to let in Ubers and it's basically a free-for-all. After all, they damaged the King St pilot just to let taxis go through at night. I love banning cars from places, but would not be optimistic about this happening.
 
evandyk said:
You kind of need an accommodation for taxis, but then you have to let in Ubers and it's basically a free-for-all. After all, they damaged the King St pilot just to let taxis go through at night. I love banning cars from places, but would not be optimistic about this happening.
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I am primarily a cyclist/pedestrian but it would be pretty hard to close Front between Bay and York as vehicles cannot (or should not!) use King and they DO need to go somewhere. Richmond/Adelaide are too far north and Lake Shore is too far south.
 
I remember seeing a 2025-2027 cycling network plan going past union. would be interesting to see the design for it. Not like theres much room right in front of union
 
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