Some images from last-night's Community meeting...

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Missed this post before!

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Of all of the above ideas from the TMP, I'm most enthused about the Caledonia extension.

There's lots of other good ideas, but I think the 401, the Allen, and the Rail corridor all serve as significant connectivity barriers irrespective of transportation mode.

That the barrier effect could be reduced, and that it would feature Cycle Tracks, well streetscaped sidewalks, and defer some auto traffic from over-clogged Dufferin to everyone's benefit makes that one a real winner.
 
Northern Light said:
Missed this post before!

***

Of all of the above ideas from the TMP, I'm most enthused about the Caledonia extension.

There's lots of other good ideas, but I think the 401, the Allen, and the Rail corridor all serve as significant connectivity barriers irrespective of transportation mode.

That the barrier effect could be reduced, and that it would feature Cycle Tracks, well streetscaped sidewalks, and defer some auto traffic from over-clogged Dufferin to everyone's benefit makes that one a real winner.
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Agreed. Wherever it is possible to connect across such barriers, we should be doing it. It never made sense to me, for example, that the Sheppard line was only built to Don Mills and not Vic Park, because to get to Don Mills station from the east, you have to force a lot of buses through the very congested Sheppard and 404 interchange, congesting that much more, and why I am very glad to see that the Bloor Danforth extension is not ending at Scarborough Town Centre, but continuing to Sheppard and McCowan for those exact reasons: don't exacerbate a pinch point, ameliorate it! I mean, that's what transportation infrastructure is meant to do, right? Make it easier to get from point A to point B?

So yes, extending Caledonia Road further north will make a big difference in that area, for active transportation too.

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interchange42 said:
Agreed. Wherever it is possible to connect across such barriers, we should be doing it. It never made sense to me, for example, that the Sheppard line was only built to Don Mills and not Vic Park, because to get to Don Mills station from the east, you have to force a lot of buses through the very congested Sheppard and 404 interchange, congesting that much more, and why I am very glad to see that the Bloor Danforth extension is not ending at Scarborough Town Centre, but continuing to Sheppard and McCowan for those exact reasons: don't exacerbate a pinch point, ameliorate it! I mean, that's what transportation infrastructure is meant to do, right? Make it easier to get from point A to point B?

So yes, extending Caledonia Road further north will make a big difference in that area, for active transportation too.

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Agreed w/all of the above.

A tangential offering to that point.

Trevor Heywood has an excellent blog called Metroscapes; within that blog, he created a project to look at the all the connectivity barriers (highways, railway corridors etc.) to getting around in Toronto.

He then ranked which ones he thought needed fixing the most, w/explanations as to why.

metroscapes.ca

Toronto Crossings

. This page is now defunct, and has been consolidated into the main Toronto Railways and Highways page
metroscapes.ca metroscapes.ca

I highly commend it.
 
I suppose any pedestrian bridge is better than nothing, but that pedestrian bridge across the 401 dumps its users into the middle of a windswept wasteland at the south end of an infernal "Smart" Centre, i.e. a massive parking lot peppered with big box stores. What is a pedestrian going to do there? There is not even a bus route along Billy Bishop.
 
Strange Advance said:
I suppose any pedestrian bridge is better than nothing, but that pedestrian bridge across the 401 dumps its users into the middle of a windswept wasteland at the south end of an infernal "Smart" Centre, i.e. a massive parking lot peppered with big box stores. What is a pedestrian going to do there? There is not even a bus route along Billy Bishop.
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Well, I have managed to make it safely walking though a parking lot before whenever need be (even if it's not something I do other than when I have to)… but that site could just as easily be redeveloped in the future like the proposal here, that's the best reason to improve pedestrian connectivity.

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interchange42 said:
Well, I have managed to make it safely walking though a parking lot before whenever need be (even if it's not something I do other than when I have to)… but that site could just as easily be redeveloped in the future like the proposal here, that's the best reason to improve pedestrian connectivity.

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I hope the Billy Bishop site is redeveloped. I guess my point is that the bridge would get very little use because its northern end-point currently is not a desirable destination for anyone on foot. Perhaps a small handful of residents of the newish condo buildings at Wilson and Tippett would be interested in wandering over to Yorkdale.
 
I sincerely doubt this area is going to see a redevelopment anytime soon. They just finished the plaza to the East, and to the South West a car dealership is being built.
While I have no interest in walking anywhere, this "shortcut" would be ideal if I ever needed to. The closer to Allen the more enticing.
 
Strange Advance said:
I hope the Billy Bishop site is redeveloped. I guess my point is that the bridge would get very little use because its northern end-point currently is not a desirable destination for anyone on foot. Perhaps a small handful of residents of the newish condo buildings at Wilson and Tippett would be interested in wandering over to Yorkdale.
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I did see that the billy bishop site was included in the update downsview masterplan and was going to be dense. I may be mistaken but this is from what I remember when north crest was showing a diagram of the aimed densities in that area.
 

it fails to amaze me when many mall developers simply can't wrap their head around the idea of having mixed-use above a mall...other parts of the world especially Europe and Asia have done this for centuries.
 
...so are they living spaces around The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul? It's the only mall I can think of that's been around for centuries.
 
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