I agree -- it is "walkable" in the technical sense, but not in the "enjoyable" sense. Lots of large chain restaurants and fast food, but weak on interesting streetside boutiques and other forms of food/retail. There is definitely a lack of cohesion and consistency, the disconnectedness that taal refers to. But it is getting better.

(I wonder if we should take this discussion to the NYCC neighbourhood thread?)
 
What would you suggest needs to be fixed in NYCC to make Yonge Street and any other street more walkable? The city has shown interest in making NYCC more pedestrian friendly walkable neighbourhoods that also promotes active transportation.
I find that the main thing that makes Yonge Street unpleasant to walk on in NYCC is the fast moving traffic next to you. The lights are clearly prioritized for Yonge Street so most cars are speeding at 70km/h between Sheppard and Finch during the lunch hour. Some traffic calming measures would help a lot, though this would probably be considered a "war against the car". Also, I find that the tree lined median south of North York Centre Station helps a lot. I find the walk between Sheppard and North York Centre a lot more pleasant than the walk between North York Centre and Finch. This median should definitely be extended. Then there's also the aggressive drivers (I almost got turned into yesterday), but I'm not sure what we can do about that.
 
Nope if you combine the two its about the same, data from 2014 regarding total inventory.

North Yonge
7,707,955

St. Clair / Yonge
2,118,893

Eglinton / Yonge
5,036,632

Add the stuff in-between (mainly at Davisville) and it gets a little closer.
 
Add the stuff in-between (mainly at Davisville) and it gets a little closer.

No, that is included in the Y&E node ... the nodes themselves aren't very descriptive of the area they represent ; ) A while back I found a map which had a clear indication of which node included what area.
As a side note, just about all of these 'office market reports' only inventory buildings larger than 50K or so, so smaller buildings aren't at all covered.
 
I agree -- it is "walkable" in the technical sense, but not in the "enjoyable" sense. Lots of large chain restaurants and fast food, but weak on interesting streetside boutiques and other forms of food/retail. There is definitely a lack of cohesion and consistency, the disconnectedness that taal refers to. But it is getting better.

(I wonder if we should take this discussion to the NYCC neighbourhood thread?)

I thought it has a good & interesting selection of restaurants, Korean & Japanese.
 
I thought it has a good & interesting selection of restaurants, Korean & Japanese.

I agree and more there are more other cuisines so to speak closer to Sheppard ... I think one of the differences is Y&E tends to have more of a small town neighborhood feel just 1 block or so north of Yonge, and that partly factors into it.
 
I find that the main thing that makes Yonge Street unpleasant to walk on in NYCC is the fast moving traffic next to you. The lights are clearly prioritized for Yonge Street so most cars are speeding at 70km/h between Sheppard and Finch during the lunch hour. Some traffic calming measures would help a lot, though this would probably be considered a "war against the car". Also, I find that the tree lined median south of North York Centre Station helps a lot. I find the walk between Sheppard and North York Centre a lot more pleasant than the walk between North York Centre and Finch. This median should definitely be extended. Then there's also the aggressive drivers (I almost got turned into yesterday), but I'm not sure what we can do about that.

Same impression here... Used to live at Yonge and Sheppard for 6 years and while the area appears urban, it is very sub-urban in terms of pedestrian-driver priorities. Keep an eye on drivers turning from- and to- Yonge: they don't pay much attention to the pedestrians and assume that they have a priority even if there is a green light for crossing intersection... Things get a bit better when you walk between Park Home and Sheppard, but even there the walk along Yonge Str is not impressive--windy and sterile. I had some hopes for Whole Foods, but that store is depressing--big, dark, and uninviting. Somehow, it is very different from the one close to Avenue Rd and Bloor or in Oakville. Yonge and Eglinton (where I live now) is way more pedestrian-friendly and its street's retail is more interesting, diverse, and on a human scale... I don't see an easy fix for NYCC, especially for Yonge and Sheppard... Those gas stations south of Sheppard need to go (will not happen), Sheppard itself needs to become more pedestrian-attractive, similar to Eglinton and Mt. Pleasant (will not happen), drivers have to learn to respect pedestrians... Not in my lifetime.
 
I think it's pretty good, but obviously can be improved. It has the bones for good walkability, with several good sections.

For example this:
http://goo.gl/maps/WNPjf

I like that they kept the pre-war retail with small storefronts.
 
lol.. Cuisine of India was pretty good!

Is that place just an empty lot now? (Haven't been up there for a while)
It is an empty lot currently but they just started digging the foundation of a new condo a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully that will improve things.
 
I find that the main thing that makes Yonge Street unpleasant to walk on in NYCC is the fast moving traffic next to you. The lights are clearly prioritized for Yonge Street so most cars are speeding at 70km/h between Sheppard and Finch during the lunch hour. Some traffic calming measures would help a lot, though this would probably be considered a "war against the car". Also, I find that the tree lined median south of North York Centre Station helps a lot. I find the walk between Sheppard and North York Centre a lot more pleasant than the walk between North York Centre and Finch. This median should definitely be extended. Then there's also the aggressive drivers (I almost got turned into yesterday), but I'm not sure what we can do about that.




As more development occurs along Yonge north of Empress/ParkHome to Finch Hydro corridor, the tree lined centre median should be extended northward as well. Along with the system of wide boulevard pedestrian sidewalks. Depending on developmental pressure, there might be opportunities to put in more signalized intersections on this stretch of Yonge Street which would slow down traffic and give pedestrians more opportunities to safely cross Yonge Street. But that's a double edge sword since signalized intersections also have left turns lane in centre median and would take space away from tree lined centre median.

The North Yonge Planning Study also includes wide boulevard sidewalks, protected bike lanes and tree lined centre median between Finch Hydro Corridor and Steeles and generally about 40 storey buildings around subway nodes,... but that won't be implimented until the Yonge subway line gets extended north of Finch - in about 30 years.

It would have been nice to get that tree lined centre median extended south on Yonge in between HullmarkCentre and EmeraldPark (I had to mention HullmarkCentre, otherwise Mods would complain I'm going off topic again). It won't happen because of what I mentioned earlier,.. there's 4 signalized intersections on this 1500 feet stretch of Yonge. The dedicated left turn lanes take up all the centre median space.

To the south, the city have looked at eliminating the left turns lanes on Yonge to Glendora (south of Proctor&Gamble building) and Johnston (south of HeroBurger) since those are dangerous high risk left turns without signalized intersection; and replacing the left turn lanes with tree lined centre median - basically just south of Poyntz/Anndale to Avondale/Florence. Likely to happen after Yonge & Poyntz/Anndale intersection is done sometimes next summer or once that little plaza with HeroBurger south of Shell gas station gets redeveloped.

Those narrow sidewalk on east side of Yonge between Avondale and Glendora are my pet-peeves since it's in between 15 condo towers of Avondale and the south-entrance for Sheppard-Yonge TTC station - it's packed with pedestrians at rush hours and Yonge Street traffic is only inches away with no buffer zone - transit users are constantly getting road spray.

BTW, what would you folks think about bike lane on Yonge Street in NYCC - it may mean more narrow lane width (decrease vehicular traffic capacity) or ripping out tree lined centre median.

BTW, Cuisine of India relocated to a take-out place on Yonge north of Davisville.
 
BTW, what would you folks think about bike lane on Yonge Street in NYCC - it may mean more narrow lane width (decrease vehicular traffic capacity) or ripping out tree lined centre median.
Yes please! During the summer I biked a few times from Yonge/Bloor to NYCC and stayed on Yonge the whole time. I felt completely comfortable between Bloor and Yonge Blvd., but past that point biking feels pretty dangerous. Yonge/401 is the worst point, especially after you cross the 401 (right here), where you end up in the middle of the street with cars speeding after exiting the 401. Bike lanes here would be great, though it would require reconfiguration of the entire interchange.
 

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