Let's not kid ourselves. This neighbourhood is already a traffic and transit nightmare and is absolutely guaranteed to get worse even with the new streetcars, which will get snarled in traffic just like the current streetcars do. Biking to work is an option, but walking to the core is not (for most people at least, since it takes about 30-40 minutes to walk from King/Strachan to King/Bay. I'd rather not do that in the humidity of July-August or the blistering cold of January-February.)

King needs to become a serious transit corridor if the city intends to continue allowing thousands of condo units plus the handful of office building proposals to be built on and near it from John Street all the way to Dufferin. Full stop.

Anyone who has the misfortune of commuting via the 504 King streetcar knows exactly what I am talking about. It's almost always at or above capacity before it even hits Bathurst going east every morning. 101 stories of condos on this site plus about the same coming to Liberty Village and another bunch on the way further west at the Kingsclub site. You do the math. Transit is beyond crisis point around King West.
 
milanista said:
Anyone who has the misfortune of commuting via the 504 King streetcar knows exactly what I am talking about. It's almost always at or above capacity before it even hits Bathurst going east every morning. 101 stories of condos on this site plus about the same coming to Liberty Village and another bunch on the way further west at the Kingsclub site. You do the math. Transit is beyond crisis point around King West.
Click to expand...

I do it daily. It's a nightmare.
 
So no one thinks the new streetcars will help here? We see them on Queen St East testing them at night and they look awesome and will be able to handle much more capacity.
 
Cars need to be banned from the streetcar lanes on King (and parking banned on the outer lanes), but who knows when politicians will finally muster the courage to implement such progressive measures.
 
Would be a heck of a lot cheaper than building a subway. In the east, there aren't as many cars on King or Queen as most car commuters use Adelaide and Richmond, so the streetcars run a lot faster. The solution for the west is quite simple.
 
arvelomcquaig said:
Cars need to be banned from the streetcar lanes on King (and parking banned on the outer lanes), but who knows when politicians will finally muster the courage to implement such progressive measures.
Click to expand...

I agree. Every time I'm on that street I just SMH at the sillyness of having such a major street with just 1 lane of traffic each way AND streetcar service! It's downright silly.
 
NBGtect said:
So no one thinks the new streetcars will help here? We see them on Queen St East testing them at night and they look awesome and will be able to handle much more capacity.
Click to expand...

The TTC intends to run less of them than current streetcars as their capacity is so much higher. We shall see what frequencies settle in after tinkering…

42
 
They are looking at increasing the order to 264 currently, 16 more than they currently own. That order wouldn't be complete until 2021 though, and when they initially enter service they will be on lower headways.
 
interchange42 said:
The TTC intends to run less of them than current streetcars as their capacity is so much higher. We shall see what frequencies settle in after tinkering…42
Click to expand...

From comments from some of the staff at the TTC Open House a number of weeks ago, with the new cars, the King Street line would see a greater capacity increase, and a smaller increase in headway than the other streetcar lines. Also mentioned was the possibility of refurbishing some of the existing cars to bridge capacity requirements until additional cars beyond the initial order were to be delivered....
 
yes, essentially. The TTC is restrained on streetcar service currently as they only have so many. They deploy as many as possible at rush hour, which means they can't introduce more as ridership continues to increase. Once the new streetcars come in, they will actually return to a situation where they can easily expand service as it is needed.
 
Agreed the area is a transportation disaster. Space given to cars, mostly, to the detriment of transit and discouragement of cycling by all but the brave/child-less/athletic. Nice to see more pedestrian space, but it seems a bit luxurious to assign huge plazas to walking when the transportation problem is still unsolved. Like milanista said, you can't walk to jobs in the east side or downtown or Bloor St. from this development.

It seems the developer totally ignores bicycling as a way to get around (despite cycling being 10-15% mode share in the Annex / Chinatown / Trinity-Bellwoods areas). No people on bikes appear in *any* of the concept drawings or architectural renders. Seriously, go back and look.

The area has huge potential. Martin Goodman trail is just south. Railpath will go down Sudbury / Wellington, most likely. Richmond-Adelaide aren't that far away. But the usefulness to non-road-warriors is limited by unprotected Strachan and car-door-filled East Liberty. The access to the park and multi-use bridge is planned to go through no-bike-lane Ordnance and the cul-de-sac truck loading dock and parking garage entrance/exit. Total lack of interest in encouraging people moving into these units to get around by bike.

Well, I guess they'll drive?
 
Application: Partial Permit Status: Not Started

Location: 30 ORDNANCE ST
TORONTO ON M6K 1A2

Ward 19: Trinity-Spadina

Application#: 14 262283 SHO 00 PP Accepted Date: Dec 17, 2014

Project: Mixed Use/Res w Non Res Partial Permit - Shoring

Description: Part Permit - Proposal to construct 2 condo towers (35 storey & 29 storey), 699 residential units, 4 levels of shared underground parking, and commercial at grade.
 
I still don't understand why the city doesn't want to extend Front Street west to connect up with Strachan somewhere, with a tunnel under the rail corridor. It seems like such a no brainer to me. As it is, there won't even be a pedestrian bridge in that direction so people will be forced on long detours north or south to get downtown... or am I missing something?
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top