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There a number of factors why transit is overcrowded. The universities and George Brown college downtown have increased the number of students enrolled dramatically over the last decade. Toronto has finally recovered the jobs lost since 1983, the return of these jobs are mostly located in the downtown core, and the increase in population in downtown Toronto (south of Bloor to the lake, west of the don to Dufferin).

If you live at Bathurst and Fort York, you are not going to regularly walk to work at College Park especially in January. In 2006 (Transit Tomorrow Survey) 38% of people in Ward 20 used transit on their morning journey compared to 30% walk or cycle. Ward 28 43% transit, 25% walk cycle. Ward 19, 33% transit 23% walk cycle. Ward 27 is the closest in balance 30% transit 29% walk cycle. Outside of these %, people drove or were a passenger in a car. When 2011 is release we can see how much it shifted, but people generally don't change their habits. I wouldn't expect to see anything more than a 4% max shift.
 
diminutive said:
This really needs to be stressed more. Even a really major development like Mirvish-Gehry only adds, maybe, 2,600 units. Of those, many wont use peak hour transit or wont do so daily because they're unemployed/not in labor force/commute counterflow/walk/wtv.

By comparison, FCP apparently houses ~10,000 employees, and most of them will have to show up every day between 7am-9am.

I've often been curious about creating a secondary CBD to relieve pressure on the current one. I know NYCC and STC haven't worked out great, though.
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Portlands! Portlands! Portlands! It can be our version of Canary Warf or even Chicago's Loop. Of course, it would be necessary for any new downtown sybways to run under the area.
 
diminutive said:
This really needs to be stressed more. Even a really major development like Mirvish-Gehry only adds, maybe, 2,600 units. Of those, many wont use peak hour transit or wont do so daily because they're unemployed/not in labor force/commute counterflow/walk/wtv.

By comparison, FCP apparently houses ~10,000 employees, and most of them will have to show up every day between 7am-9am.

I've often been curious about creating a secondary CBD to relieve pressure on the current one. I know NYCC and STC haven't worked out great, though.
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This needs to be thrown in the face of everyone that tries to tell others that condos demand subway choo choos. A huge condo like Aura has maybe 1,000 people in it and that ugly beast is 80+ floors. A typical office building has 250 people on one floor and like you said they're making 10 trips a week to and from the building, minimum.
 
A secondary CBD is definitely an uphill challenge. Areas like Canary Wharf or La Défense sprung up because the existing CBDs' office space wasn't built to accommodate large corporate tenants and it was impossible to build large floor plate office towers in central Paris or London.

The same isn't really the case in Toronto, where there's no real obstacle to building generic office towers downtown (e.g. Bay-Adelaide, Richmond-Adelaide, Southcore....).

A more practical approach may be to try to channel more office development along University Avenue Between Queen and College. The area's existing character would support that, it could be PATH connected, and it could induce more trips on the undercapacity University line.

It should be possible to create a modest employment hub around the Unilever site. Rem Koolhas' proposal for tearing down the Gardiner included creating a mixed use employment hub/district around here. Taken at its most plausible, the idea makes sense. The area would have great transit links (DVP, Lakeshore, DRL, GO, streetcars), arguably the best anywhere outside of downtown itself. Even that though is only proposed as ~20k employees, which is way smaller than downtown.

The other area I'd consider promising is the Don Mills - Eglinton area. It could have great transit (GO, DRL, ECLRT, DVP) and the area is already commercial, with tons of surface parking lots which could be redeveloped.

There's always lots of talk about Transit-Oriented Development in Toronto, but 90% of the time we're talking about residential development. There needs to be more focus on encouraging commercial and retail development, particularly wherever major corridors intersect. Even the most unimpressive retail outlets generate way more trips per unit of floorspace than condos.
 
diminutive said:
A more practical approach may be to try to channel more office development along University Avenue Between Queen and College. The area's existing character would support that, it could be PATH connected, and it could induce more trips on the undercapacity University line.
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Good idea in theory but I think a few things make that impractical.

The existing buildings, some of which are historic, are difficult to work around or build onto. Three hospitals dominate that area, especially Dundas to College. I doubt the fortress known as the US consulate could or world easily move.

Too bad because that subway line is indeed underutilized and, like you said, the PATH system is right there
 
innsertnamehere said:
Not really possible, it is in the flightpath of YTZ.
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This seems like the 'tail wagging the dog'. The flight path can be altered to accommodate more permanent development. The airport (which is amazing) is meant to serve the downtown, not the other way around.
 
Ex-Montreal Girl said:
Good idea in theory but I think a few things make that impractical.

The existing buildings, some of which are historic, are difficult to work around or build onto. Three hospitals dominate that area, especially Dundas to College. I doubt the fortress known as the US consulate could or world easily move.

Too bad because that subway line is indeed underutilized and, like you said, the PATH system is right there
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The US consulate is one building. Sure the hospitals take up a lot of space, but besides that, there's lots of redevelopment potential on and around University to build more office space and help make the University line more utilized.
 
University line would be much more used if the northern portions of it, largely north of St. Clair, were to densify. There will be a big uptick in ridership once the Eglinton Crosstown opens as well.
 
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