With empty lots all with proposals in action, 17th ave is hot indeed.
A on street streetcar will create more congestion. Stopping the flow of traffic for one person to board or disembark at every stop is not more efficient. The same goes for bike lanes. They have to be used at all hours and all weather conditions to be more efficient. A monorail or underground cycle track will add capacity no matter what.
The population isn't static either. There's more units and more parking spaces added every year. You can have more cars as well as the percentage of people reliant on cars decreasing. Toronto is a traffic clusterfuck because that idea is lost on the powers that be. 17th is an ideal candidate for a cycle track but, a streetcar in mixed traffic runs as fast as the traffic ahead of it. There no opportunity to change lanes around an obstacle either. Roads are finite. The population is not. All new downtown transit should have it's own grade separate routes as I don't think converting 17th, for example, to a transit/ pedestrian corridor is a possibility. If it is a possibility than it will just redirect the current and future traffic levels to surrounding neighbourhood streets.You're assuming that car demand would remain consistent. As our transit improves, the number of people reliant on cars decreases.
And actually adhere to those minimums. IIRC during the CPC meeting for the Staples tower LOC on 9th they knocked down the bicycle parking ratio for no reason but "imo people won't use it" as if we should be building bike parking capacity for yesterday and not tomorrowFirst is for Calgary to set a minimum of more than one bicycle parking space per unit in the Beltline if they haven't done so already.
A parking lot and sales centre on that site north of 17th is a huge upgrade, major vibrancy add! Haha.The sales trailer has been moved to the north side of 17th, expect construction right away.