"in 1958, at the behest of head traffic engineer Robert Burton, the city turned Richmond and Adelaide Streets into one-way miniature urban expressways, although at first, the streetcars remained.
The two thoroughfares were meant to be the start of a network of free-flowing one-way streets, but remain now as still-functioning relics of the era's cars-are-the-future philosophy.
Big one-way streets did increase road capacity and made it much easier to synchronize traffic lights. They also limited the potential for collisions, as left turns could be made with no oncoming traffic.
But multiple lanes of fast-moving traffic in one direction weren't so good for other road users, such as pedestrians trying to get across the road, or cyclists. Neither were they any good, many have argued, for businesses along the street.
It seems getting in and out of your city as quickly as possible too often meant hollowing out your downtown, turning the streets into mere ways to get somewhere, instead of places to go in their own right, with shops, restaurants and other attractions."
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