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Tuscani01

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Somewhat related to the school, a pedestrian bridge over Spadina was approved at community council today!

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The city is moving ahead with a proposal to build an overpass on Spadina between Bremner and Lakeshore.

Shared on Twitter:
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Because of the Gardiner on and off ramps, this area is a pedestrian hostile environment, considering it's in a community of tens of thousands of residents and soon, a school.

If you're heading to the lake on the west side of Spadina, once you reach Lake Shore, there is no cross walk. Instead, you're confronted with a USE CROSSWALK ON EAST SIDE sign but there's no crosswalk to the east side either. That forces you to walk back from where you came from, up hill to Bremner, wait again at the lights, cross Spadina, wait yet again at the lights, walk back down to Lake Shore to the exact spot you were at, but now on the east side. It's easily a 10 minute detour, just to cross the street.

The Lake Shore/Spadina intersection needs to be reconfigured within its new context as a neighbourhood and access to the waterfront. People will continue to dangerously jaywalk across live lanes of highway traffic because nobody is going to do that kind of detour.

I find it concerning that an overpass is the solution being proposed. This will only worsen the highway effect that this portion of Spadina is known for. This is not by any means a pedestrian friendly, neighbourhood focused solution.

Even to a driver, this intersection is poorly laid out. 2 lanes of Spadina traffic merge into one lane onramp to the Gardiner with little warning so cars often jostle to cut in at the last second. Eastbound offramp traffic have a hard left turn from a highway width road to a narrower road on Spadina, cut off by the streetcar ROW's concrete berm which many cars have clipped.

This entire intersection needs a rethink. Adding more overpasses, even if they're for pedestrians is the wrong way to do it.
 
I find it concerning that an overpass is the solution being proposed.

How do you know this is the only solution? Why do you think that there won't be a fix to the Lake Shore/Gardiner/Spadina intersection as well as the bridge?
 
would be nice if they added one between Lake Shore and spadina - reconnecting Blue Jays Way to the Peter St Basin.
 
Some people, when presented with a problem, think "I'll just build a pedestrian overpass". Now they have two problems.
 
I really hope they don't build this on the cheap like the Puente de Luz bridge around the corner.
 
I really hope they don't build this on the cheap like the Puente de Luz bridge around the corner.

Or if this is built after the rail park they can reuse the Puente de Luz bridge...just like Weber's up north reused a bridge from Ontario Place/CNE. Saving money...i know...crazy concept (and reusing...saving the environment)
 
How do you know this is the only solution? Why do you think that there won't be a fix to the Lakeshore/Gardiner/Spadina intersection as well as the bridge?

With the changing patterns of traffic during the York/Bay offramps construction (and new ramps) I would be hesitant to change the traffic patterns on Spadina until we know the revised traffic patterns. I would actually suggest that they put barriers to prevent pedestrians from crossing the ramp (for safety and to encourage them to follow the rules of the road)

I was also wondering why there was also not a consideration for a overpass at the South Linear park for pedestrians and cyclists (basically cantilevered from Lake Shore road pillars). Also would be another option for pedestrians to avoid the conflict at the onramp to the Gardiner. 2 bridges vs 1
 
It gets people from where they are to where they want to go more quickly. There's simply nothing "anti-pedestrian" about this. It's a good thing.
 
It gets people from where they are to where they want to go more quickly. There's simply nothing "anti-pedestrian" about this. It's a good thing.
It's a band-aid solution. If you have to force people on foot go up a set of stairs just to get across the road, the road is broken.
 
It's a band-aid solution. If you have to force people on foot go up a set of stairs just to get across the road, the road is broken.

No, you don't force anyone to go up stairs. The grade of the two streets it will be connecting is already above the street level. It could be a level crossing without any stairs at all if done right. (You already need to climb stairs to get to either street)

A street-level crossing would require anyone crossing to go down and up stairs to complete the trip.

(See Streetview below)

East Side:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.639846,-79.3926325,3a,52.1y,84.2h,86.63t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sYPBp5WF17lMyhAlh2faLdA!2e0!6s//geo0.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=YPBp5WF17lMyhAlh2faLdA&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=231.6423&pitch=0!7i13312!8i6656

West side:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6398...203&h=100&yaw=231.6423&pitch=0!7i13312!8i6656
 

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