TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[dowlingm]

Queen street has streetcar tracks - they can be accessed by York NB and Church SB.

Anyways, nobody cares when the 506 streetcar is rerouted on a weekday for Taste of Little Italy or the 501 is rerouted so the Eaton Centre can build a fancy new bridge.

First - I wouldn't support festival closures on a weekday in Little Italy or elsewhere. So let's start there. However, that particular closure starts at 6pm on Friday - I'd rather it was later but people do get a chance to get out of Dodge. TIFF will bork four weekday rush hours on a busier transit street than College is.

I don't know whether the bridge is being replaced because of aesthetics or because it's life expired but given the effort being gone to I'm going to guess the latter. That makes it an infrastructure project and therefore not in the same bucket as TIFF.

As I said above, nobody wants TIFF not to happen, but their demands are disproportionate, borking King from Charlotte to University. TTC staff wanted to close from 10am Thursday to 5am Monday, to save the Thursday AM rush hour - refused. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/18/ttc-urges-city-to-stop-tiff-closure-of-king-st.html

 

[amnesiajune]

I'll just say this again: this is Toronto. If you want to live in a city that's purely utilitarian, there are lots of options out there - Ottawa, Hamilton, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, and so on. If you want to live in Toronto, cultural events getting in the way of public transit is inevitable.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Everyday I'm amazed by how there's articles and issues on the TTC that try to reinvent the wheel. Seriously the stand on one walk on the other is a GLOBAL norm that's been in place for decades. The only variation is which side is which. I just detest those who are just too sensitive these nonexistent issues.

It may be the norm elsewhere but as I've said a few times now it's not mentioned anywhere in Toronto now so stop bringing it up. People don't need a sign to do it as I've said most people do d stand on one side and walk on the other anyway. los it's not just a TTC thing it's all escalators in Toronto I bet you won't find one anywhere that has a walk left stand right sign on it.

 

[LNahid2000]

Buffalo

Buffalo actually has some really great festivals that close streets. Taste of Buffalo is the second largest food festival in the USA, and their Italian festival is really good as well. I like their festivals better than ours actually.

 

[Johnny Au]

Buffalo actually has some really great festivals that close streets. Taste of Buffalo is the second largest food festival in the USA, and their Italian festival is really good as well. I like their festivals better than ours actually.

Buffalo could easily hold the largest poutine festival outside of Canada.

 

[steveintoronto]

Yes...but does Buffalo block their LRT with street parties for glitterati and tell people to screw themselves as they're trying to get to and from work? In some people's set of values, that indicates how much more exciting Toronto is. Do they also support single stop subways to Tonawanda? These are things that really define how sophisticated they are...

N.B:
Youngman Plaza (Tonawanda)
Youngman Plaza is located at the corner of Memorial Hwy. (SR 425) & Young St., Tonawanda. It is a Community Center which opened in 1986. It is an Open shopping mall with 1,500 parking spaces. It covers an area of 318,166 sqft. and has about 15 stores.

That's got to be worth a subway stop right there!

 

[nfitz]

This was the 2016 TIFF diversion:
https://www.ttc.ca/News/2016/August/08-30-16NR2.jsp

A picture is worth a 1,000 words.

Or perhaps even more given how ugly this one was:

Queen street has streetcar tracks - they can be accessed by York NB and Church SB.

Last year, this is what they did with the 514. But what about with this year's construction?

Anyways, nobody cares when the 506 streetcar is rerouted on a weekday for Taste of Little Italy

Clearly you don't read my twitter feed, complaining bitterly at how screwed up 506 is at Main Station because of a festival on the side of the city. However, I've never noticed it happen on a weekday. There's a huge difference between a weekend closure and a rush-hour closure.

... or the 501 is rerouted so the Eaton Centre can build a fancy new bridge.

501 isn't being rerouted so that they can build a new bridge. It's being rerouted for a single weekend (not weekday) so that they can demolish the existing bridge. It's very different. It's also much, much simpler. Compare this image to the one above.

TIFF isn't any less important than those. If you want a boring, lifeless, utilitarian city then you can move to Ottawa or Hamilton, but I feel like given the choice, most people in Toronto don't have much of a problem with walking to Spadina on a September day.

It's not the walking to Spadina that's the issue. It made my PM commute a nightmare, and I'm at Sherbourne and only heading east!

I fail to understand how you could compare to interrupting rush-hour service to a weekend interruption. I also fail to understand how Toronto was a boring, lifeless, utilitarian city when they have not blocked streetcars running through.

I'll just say this again: this is Toronto. If you want to live in a city that's purely utilitarian, there are lots of options out there - Ottawa, Hamilton, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, and so on. If you want to live in Toronto, cultural events getting in the way of public transit is inevitable.

Given you are so completely factually wrong about the diversions, and ignore that Toronto was a fine city until the recent decision to close King to streetcars during peak, why don't you stop pulling stuff deep out of your imagination, rather than telling whoppers here.

Blocking rush-hour traffic on the busiest route in the city doesn't turn it into anything special - it just demonstrates that our mayor is a shallow, stupid, idiot who can be talked into bad ideas by his friends at his golf club.

 

[amnesiajune]

Last year, this is what they did with the 514. But what about with this year's construction?

It's done by September 3rd.

Given you are so completely factually wrong about the diversions, and ignore that Toronto was a fine city until the recent decision to close King to streetcars during peak, why don't you stop pulling stuff deep out of your imagination, rather than telling whoppers here.

Blocking rush-hour traffic on the busiest route in the city doesn't turn it into anything special - it just demonstrates that our mayor is a shallow, stupid, idiot who can be talked into bad ideas by his friends at his white-only golf club.

 

[nfitz]

It's done by September 3rd.

Good point. Hopefully they complete on time.

 

[dowlingm]

Coxwell Station bus loop has reopened.

 

[andrewpmk]

A picture is worth a 1,000 words.

Or perhaps even more given how ugly this one was:

View attachment 109135

Last year, this is what they did with the 514. But what about with this year's construction?

Clearly you don't read my twitter feed, complaining bitterly at how screwed up 506 is at Main Station because of a festival on the side of the city. However, I've never noticed it happen on a weekday. There's a huge difference between a weekend closure and a rush-hour closure.

501 isn't being rerouted so that they can build a new bridge. It's being rerouted for a single weekend (not weekday) so that they can demolish the existing bridge. It's very different. It's also much, much simpler. Compare this image to the one above.
View attachment 109136

It's not the walking to Spadina that's the issue. It made my PM commute a nightmare, and I'm at Sherbourne and only heading east!

I fail to understand how you could compare to interrupting rush-hour service to a weekend interruption. I also fail to understand how Toronto was a boring, lifeless, utilitarian city when they have not blocked streetcars running through.

Given you are so completely factually wrong about the diversions, and ignore that Toronto was a fine city until the recent decision to close King to streetcars during peak, why don't you stop pulling stuff deep out of your imagination, rather than telling whoppers here.

Blocking rush-hour traffic on the busiest route in the city doesn't turn it into anything special - it just demonstrates that our mayor is a shallow, stupid, idiot who can be talked into bad ideas by his friends at his white-only golf club.

It is long overdue that Toronto severely limit road closures. We need to prohibit the worst ones like closures that close highways (Ride for Heart and Toronto Triathlon Festival), marathons and 10K races that shut down dozens of TTC routes and make it impossible to cross the street, anything that closes Lake Shore (marathons, Honda Indy, Khalsa Day Parade, Caribbean Carnival, Waterfront 10K, etc.) and anything that is on weekdays. All other road closures should be limited to a few times a year, never on weekends with subway closures, and should be relocated to parks whenever possible. People are fed up with the endless road closures on the same weekend that random subway lines are shut down for construction. I think that the TTC is fed up with road closures too but will not openly admit it except in this egregious case when TIFF is shutting down 504 King in rush hour. I have been seeing a lot of "TTC information people" hanging around road closures lately which is new. Nevertheless the TTC never provides information more than a few days in advance, and there are many confused people who have no idea that these road closures are happening.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

It is long overdue that Toronto severely limit road closures. We need to prohibit the worst ones like closures that close highways (Ride for Heart and Toronto Triathlon Festival), marathons and 10K races that shut down dozens of TTC routes and make it impossible to cross the street, anything that closes Lake Shore (marathons, Honda Indy, Khalsa Day Parade, Caribbean Carnival, Waterfront 10K, etc.) and anything that is on weekdays. All other road closures should be limited to a few times a year, never on weekends with subway closures, and should be relocated to parks whenever possible. People are fed up with the endless road closures on the same weekend that random subway lines are shut down for construction. I think that the TTC is fed up with road closures too but will not openly admit it except in this egregious case when TIFF is shutting down 504 King in rush hour. I have been seeing a lot of "TTC information people" hanging around road closures lately which is new. Nevertheless the TTC never provides information more than a few days in advance, and there are many confused people who have no idea that these road closures are happening.

I don't think we will ever see an end to road closures for things like Marathons, Parades and the Honda Indy . Most of them are only temporary for a day and usually get cleared up with in a day. The Honda Indy is mostly contained inside of the Exhibition grounds except for the straight away on Lakeshore BLVD which is always the last section to be closed and the first to be reopened and its usually only closed for three days.

Closing King for TIFF every year is just ridiculous especially this year with all of the construction on Queen as normally they would divert King/ Cherry cars to Queen except it doesn't have any wires in the parts of it that would be needed right now because of the bridge construction for the Eaton Centre and with Dundas being a mess as well It's going to be avery Interesting four days for the city of Toronto, hopefully it becomes enough of a nightmare that an end will be put to the gong show that closing King street is.

 

[andrewpmk]

"Honda Indy" shuts down Lake Shore in rush hour and causes very heavy traffic on Gardiner, so I would put it in the same category as shutting down the King Streetcar for TIFF, and it severely delays GO buses.

The only barrier to cancelling the endless road closures in Toronto is politics. I believe that Toronto has the worst road closures of any city in the world, and it needs to stop. These road closures are hated by 80-90% of the population and the effect on the economy is clearly negative (despite certain people claiming the opposite).

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

"Honda Indy" shuts down Lake Shore in rush hour and causes very heavy traffic on Gardiner, so I would put it in the same category as shutting down the King Streetcar for TIFF, and it severely delays GO buses.

True but it's only the Friday that it's closed Tiff closes King from Thursday to the following Monday.

 

[dowlingm]

It is long overdue that Toronto severely limit road closures. We need to prohibit the worst ones like closures that close highways (Ride for Heart and Toronto Triathlon Festival), marathons and 10K races that shut down dozens of TTC routes and make it impossible to cross the street, anything that closes Lake Shore (marathons, Honda Indy, Khalsa Day Parade, Caribbean Carnival, Waterfront 10K, etc.) and anything that is on weekdays. All other road closures should be limited to a few times a year, never on weekends with subway closures, and should be relocated to parks whenever possible. People are fed up with the endless road closures on the same weekend that random subway lines are shut down for construction. I think that the TTC is fed up with road closures too but will not openly admit it except in this egregious case when TIFF is shutting down 504 King in rush hour. I have been seeing a lot of "TTC information people" hanging around road closures lately which is new. Nevertheless the TTC never provides information more than a few days in advance, and there are many confused people who have no idea that these road closures are happening.

Road closures are a Transportation Department issue (including TIFF's). TTC cannot veto them, takes the criticism hit here and elsewhere.

Yes there are a lot of TTC closures - because the SRT is being prolonged past life expectancy, Line 1 is having a major resignalling project done, and the P E Viaduct will always be a maintenance heavy item for Line 2. It's not practical to say there are 104 weekend days plus public holidays and there can only be one maintenance project in the city on any of those days. Also - parades are gonna be a thing in a multicultural city.