From the Globe, Toronto Section:
TRAFFIC MAKEOVER: BEAUTIFYING THE BOULEVARD OR CLOGGING THE ARTERY?
A place to go, instead of a place to go through
Hallelujah! Councillor Kyle Rae wants to save Jarvis Street and restore it to its former elegance. Drivers are not amused
PETER CHENEY
February 7, 2009
Rob McEwen's day follows a well-tuned ritual: He rises in Rosedale, boards his Lexus hybrid, then heads south on Jarvis Street toward the financial district. Although his trip takes him through some of the most congested real estate in Canada, it usually takes only 10 or 15 minutes, thanks to Jarvis's unique feature - five lanes of traffic controlled by overhead lights.
But that may be coming to an end. And Mr. McEwen isn't happy about it.
"It's coming out of the blue," he fumed this week when asked about a new city proposal that would dramatically overhaul Jarvis and eliminate the fifth lane. "I don't understand the justification."
The Jarvis makeover is the brainchild of Toronto Councillor Kyle Rae, who walks to his City Hall office and has never held a driver's licence. Mr. Rae's vision for Jarvis would reduce traffic flow and restore at least part of the street's former glory. In the 19th century, it was considered one of Toronto's most elegant boulevards.
"Back then, this was something special," Mr. Rae says. "Then it got turned into a five-lane highway. Who wants to go there now?"
He has heard his share of complaints, including one from a Rosedale dowager who told him that Jarvis was the ideal route to the Albany Club, an upper-crust hangout on King Street that was founded in 1882. The woman told him that she could make the trip in five minutes, and warned that any increase could result in the loss of her vote.
Mr. Rae says he gave her the same answer that he has to everyone else who complained about the proposed change: The trip may take slightly longer, but they'll enjoy it more. "It's going to be a better experience," he says.
Whether Mr. Rae will realize his Jarvis vision remains to be seen. Planners have prepared detailed proposals and cost estimates (about $6-million), but the project must still run a bureaucratic gauntlet before shovels go in the ground. In May, the proposal will go to the department of public works and infrastructure. If it's approved, city council has to vote on it. If the project makes it to that point, it still needs a signoff (and funding) from the province.
In the meantime, the forces of opposition are stirring. The North Rosedale Ratepayers Association, for example, has warned that killing the fifth lane will create "massive clogging" in the heart of downtown. Rosedale residents such as Mr. McEwen are angered by what they see as a lack of consultation.
"I never heard a thing about it," says Mr. McEwen, chief executive officer of a gold-exploration firm. He says he learned about the project only this week, through an e-mail from a friend, and says he expects better communications from city hall. "You don't just drop something like this on people's laps."
Whether people were given enough notice is up for debate. The city is required to notify residents by placing advertisements in local publications. In this case, the city chose Now magazine, hardly a major read in neighbourhoods like Rosedale. There have been two public meetings, one last April, and another on Jan. 22 of this year. About 250 people attended, but many residents, including Mr. McEwen, say they never heard about them.
While Jarvis Street may be a convenient thoroughfare, as a neighbourhood high street, it leaves much to be desired. In the 1960s, it underwent the civic equivalent of a bad rec-room conversion. Trees were ripped out to widen the street and make way for the fifth lane, allowing increased traffic volume. Many of the Edwardian mansions that lined the street's southern reaches were turned into rooming houses, filled with addicts and prostitutes.
City traffic planners have studied Jarvis for years, trying to figure out a way to reconcile the competing interests of traffic flow and aesthetics. The answer: You can't have both. Penelope Palmer, a senior engineer with transportation services, says the Jarvis overhaul will definitely slow down traffic, but says the trade-off will be well worth it.
"We've looked at very carefully," she says. "We realize that this is driven by human nature. People's reaction to a project is determined by how it will affect them personally."
Ms. Palmer says Jarvis carries about 1,600 vehicles an hour during peak periods. The five lanes are configured to match traffic flow, with three lanes running in one direction, and two in the other. (Jarvis is the only street in Toronto that uses this system, which is most commonly employed on bridges, including the Lions Gate in Vancouver.)
Traffic studies show that it takes an average of six to eight minutes for a vehicle to travel from Bloor to Queen Street along Jarvis. Eliminating the fifth lane will increase that time to an average of 10 to 11 minutes, Ms. Palmer says. Plans call for widening the sidewalk on the west side of the street to make way for trees, planters and street furniture. She says this will increase pedestrian traffic and encourage the opening of new businesses such as sidewalk cafés.
"We don't want to bring back the days of the horse and buggy," she says, "but we definitely want to improve the public realm."
Despite the complaints, Mr. Rae says it's full-steam ahead. He says the community that surrounds Jarvis has been undergoing a gradual renaissance, with an ever-increasing number of residences. The limiting factor, he says, is Jarvis itself. "The road needs to catch up with the neighbourhood," he says.
Councillor Adam Giambrone, who oversaw a contentious street project in his own riding (the narrowing of Lansdowne Avenue, completed last year), says disputes over street alterations follow a familiar arc. Locals get upset at the proposed change, seethe as the bulldozers go to work, then gradually come to terms with the revised street after it's completed.
The Lansdowne project ran into opposition that was, to say the least, spirited: One local chained himself to a tree, and a residents' association filed a lawsuit against Mr. Giambrone and the city, charging that the project would divert traffic onto their streets.
Mr. Giambrone says most residents now accept the changes, which have resulted in a process known as "traffic evaporation," wherein the number of cars falls following changes that increase congestion. "People adapt," he says. "They stop using their car, or they take another route. Either way, the traffic goes down."
He says a few locals are still angry, but he accepts that as the inevitable cost of change: "Few projects are ever as good, or as bad, as people think they'll be," he says. "That's the reality."
*****
Speak up
To express your views, or for more info on the Jarvis Street environmental assessment, follow these bunny tracks:
Mike Logan, City of Toronto,
public consultation unit
Tel: 416-392-2962
E-mail:
Jarvis@toronto.ca
Facebook group: Jarvis Streetscape Improvement
24-hr comment line: 416-397-7777
Fax: 416-392-2974
TTY: 416-397-0831
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090207.JARVIS07/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Ontario/
AoD
:
