Toronto Union Subway Station: Second Platform and Concourse Improvements | ?m | ?s | TTC | IBI Group

Wanted to revive this thread with a pet peeve of mine.

Someone did not think when installing the NW stairs (trains from Yonge going to University). Instead of the normal 1 railing in the center (which allows 2 abreast on either side) they decided to use 2 railings (1 person, 2 people squeezed and then 1 person).

They didn't think that people would be coming up and down the stairs at the same time. If you are going counterflow you normally stick to one side (the right). But that is only wide enough for one person. And you can't go in the centre...it's full.

Why didn't they stick to the centre railing like every other staircase throughout the subway?
 
This appears to be a dumb rule. I know an outdoor ramp that has 2 "lanes" 1.4m wide (i.e. a 2.8 structure with a centre railing.
Because of this, it cannot be plowed by machines and thus does not get plowed as often.
The law of (painfully obvious) unintended consequences.
 
I think what sucks the most is how there are no next train arrival times in Union Station because of the low ceilings don't allow much space for the Pattison OneStop screens. You think they could just have like a small screen somewhere even if its on a wall that displays just the next train time.
 
cirez said:
I think what sucks the most is how there are no next train arrival times in Union Station because of the low ceilings don't allow much space for the Pattison OneStop screens. You think they could just have like a small screen somewhere even if its on a wall that displays just the next train time.
Click to expand...

They are adding screens soon--I believe they're scheduled for this summer. It's ridiculous that it took this long, though.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
It is an AODA thing? I think the rules for ramps also applies for stairs:



http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=d90d4074781e1410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

AoD
Click to expand...

So they made the staircase slightly too wide?
AlvinofDiaspar said:
It is an AODA thing? I think the rules for ramps also applies for stairs:



http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=d90d4074781e1410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

AoD
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

Too bad they didn't think of this as part of the stair design. I'd rather have it a foot narrower and 1 less railing.
 
I don't relly think it's a problem with the design o the satris just how people use them. Everyone just heads up or down them and doesn't care that poel are trying to use them in the opposite direction and then you have ones that get mad at you because you bumped into them because you din't see them com around a corner.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
I don't relly think it's a problem with the design o the satris just how people use them. Everyone just heads up or down them and doesn't care that poel are trying to use them in the opposite direction and then you have ones that get mad at you because you bumped into them because you din't see them com around a corner.
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Maybe a simple thing would work. Arrows on the floor (and at each landing) pointing the way that traffic should flow. The center lanes have no arrows given that they are flexible based on demand.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
I don't relly think it's a problem with the design o the satris just how people use them. Everyone just heads up or down them and doesn't care that poel are trying to use them in the opposite direction and then you have ones that get mad at you because you bumped into them because you din't see them com around a corner.
Click to expand...
A way to prevent people bumping into each other when moving fast around corners is to have "wasted space". This mean having a larger/wider corridor where you have metal barriers/fences on the edge of the corridor so people can see what's ahead of them. No matter how wide you make the pathways, people will take the shortest distance at the fastest speed, which results in collisions. Another way to organize human traffic is to have "lanes" for each direction, where walking in "the wrong lane" can result in being fined.
 
We have updated our dataBase to reflect that Stevens Group Architects / IBI Group Architects has been folded into IBI Group. Though this project originally involved Stevens Group Architects / IBI Group Architects, the dataBase file now shows IBI Group.
 
It's been over a year since I posted this photo. Can anyone tell me if the north wall of the station still looks like this?

IMG_20160213_144602.jpg
 

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Leo_Chan said:
A way to prevent people bumping into each other when moving fast around corners is to have "wasted space". This mean having a larger/wider corridor where you have metal barriers/fences on the edge of the corridor so people can see what's ahead of them. No matter how wide you make the pathways, people will take the shortest distance at the fastest speed, which results in collisions. Another way to organize human traffic is to have "lanes" for each direction, where walking in "the wrong lane" can result in being fined.
Click to expand...
The problem is no one wants to uses lanes or line up on the TTC at least properly. For example at Spadina they have Ques set up to wait for the streetcars poel only use as mll part of them and them make a line that runs all the way to the westbound subway stairs because they don't want to go through switch back. I think they trid using lanes on a set of stairs for one of the bus platforms at Warden fora little bit but I don't think they ever used it anywhere else,the left side of the stairs was for the back doors and the right side was for the front.
 
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