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I don't understand why everybody wants to get rid of the Gardiner. Urbanists should like it! What could be more cool than the view from it and zooming along it between a canyon of highrises?
 
Great job Andrew.

The sad truth is there is more "what if" creativity on UT then there will ever be at City Hall/province/fed.

Gee... "what if" UT wasn't invisible? "What if" UT was an "influencer" instead of a vanity board for forumers?

Great job Andrew. Keep thinkin'.
 
P.S. As Andrew has wisely observed, don't need off-ramps for the measly 7% of traffic that needs 'em. They can take the Front Street exit.
 
Why not pull the plug on downtown?
Trust me, the tourists, etc are not going to take the GO, or the TTC into town for business.

It would be nice if they could have a design competition to clean up the thing.

Tolls will not help grow TO. It will impede alot of business and make many keep and take it to the burbs. It is already way to expensive to do anything down here.
 
Wouldn't this just result in an at-grade, over congested roadway instead during rush hour instead of an over congested elevated highway ?
 
Try to pay attention, guys. Nobody is suggesting that we obliterate the Gardiner from QEW/427 and make everyone take Lakeshore. It really won't make any difference to congestion if we tear down the last 2KM
 
What if we kept it but gave it a major face lift? I just spent 20 minutes modeling a Libskind sort of design in which all the downtown off and on ramps would be removed, its current supports replaced with a steel white spine. It could be lit within these steel arches with led lights. The new structure would have reduced lanes underneath and a recreational path along its length for bike commuters and joggers during bad weather. It would maintain the traffic flow of those traveling between the East and West. An electronic toll would be placed at the last off ramp Eastbound at the Ex, and the DVP/Lakeshore Westbound Entrance. $1 isn't so much to ask.

Sorry, I only spent 20 min on this, so it's just a rough model. And this alternative plan is only off the top of my head.

Your design is nice Whistler, but the cost to repair the Gardiner and then do this addition would be enourmous...not to mention yearly maintainence.

A good idea, but I'm not sure if it's practical.
 
Its a nice idea but it still leaves a highway there and I think the issue is the fact that it is there....not what it looks like necessarily.
 
For some reason, all those hoops make me think of the Scarborough RT stations...
 
Whistler:

Cute, but I wouldn't be surprised that retrofitting the Gardiner in such a manner would end up costing far more than just tearing it down (which is what the Fung article seem to suggest).

re: Gardiner being an essential throughfare

Keep in mind that the Gardiner isn't really that well used as a downtown "bypass", as a link between QEW and DVP. The primary usage is to dump traffic into core.

spasongs:

Trust me, the tourists, etc are not going to take the GO, or the TTC into town for business.

Tearing down the Gardiner and replacing it with a surface roadway, University Ave. style, wouldn't affect tourists - they are not going to avoid visiting just because of an extra few minutes (particularly during the rush hour).

Tolls will not help grow TO. It will impede alot of business and make many keep and take it to the burbs. It is already way to expensive to do anything down here.

Not necessarily - it all depends on how reasonable the toll is. The cost of parking, etc is already quite high, vis-a-vis any possible toll - it doesn't affect the accessiblity of downtown and its' attendant desirablity for some forms of businesses. Other forms of businesses sensitive to such costs would likely have relocated already, for the same reasons.

AoD
 
39th edition of tear down the Gardiner.

Tearing down the Gardiner would free up alot of valuable property that is otherwise wasted. This land could easily be parcelled, sold and further intensified.
 
And while I love Whistler's model, you'd really have to add overhead signage, lighting, and (especially) several long offramps to get the total effect. In terms of "barriers" to the waterfront, it's the offramps that make a major contribution to this, since they are in parts much lower and more oppressive, and since they add considerably to the overall width of the Gardiner.
 
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