TWO ARTICLES ON THE ISSUES: Jan. 17
Toronto Star:
Mayor John Tory opposes removing two vehicle lanes on a six-lane stretch of north Yonge St. as part of a plan to build separated bike lanes and wider sidewalks, despite city staff and the local councillor saying that’s the best way to improve the area.
Tory’s continued opposition to the “Transform Yonge” plan, after city staff looked at alternatives, is frustrating Councillor John Filion, Ward 23 Willowdale.
“Downtown North York should be more than a sea of highrises with six lanes of highway running down the middle,” said Filion, who will make his case to the public works committee Friday. “This area has been neglected for far too long. The city needs to invest in creating a beautiful (main street) that connects the buildings and the people who live in them.”
The $51.1-million plan would see Yonge from Sheppard Ave. to just north of Finch Ave. get: separated bike lanes on both sides; wider boulevards; better pedestrian crossings; and a landscaped centre median. To make room for cyclists and more sidewalk, one vehicle lane in each direction would be removed between Sheppard and the Yonge intersection with Hendon Ave. on one side and Bishop Ave. on the other.
Last February, a majority of council members including Tory voted to pause the project. Amid concerns over increased gridlock, city staff were asked to explore the option of keeping all vehicle lanes and putting the bike lanes on one of two neighbouring streets, Beecroft Rd. or Doris Ave.
In a new report, city staff say that, of those two alternatives, Beecroft makes the most sense but the original “Transform Yonge” plan, with bike lanes on Yonge, is superior and the Beecroft option would add $20 million to the cost.
“The overarching goals of the ‘REimagining Yonge’ project are to provide consistency and vibrancy to the public realm in keeping with the economic importance of North York Centre, address state-of-good repair and safety issues along the corridor, provide cycling infrastructure connectivity, improve pedestrian amenities, and facilitate efficient traffic movement through better utilization of the surrounding road network,” the report states.
“While the (alternatives are) a viable option for addressing the study objectives, ‘Transform Yonge,’ identified during the Stage 1 phase of study, is being recommended as the overall preliminary preferred alternative as it better supports the objectives of the study . . . and can be implemented at a lower cost with less disruption to the North York Centre.”
On CP24 Monday, Tory said he supports remaking north Yonge but wants the bike lanes on Beecroft. Ignoring the report’s main finding, he focused on public consultation notes in the appendix saying some residents are concerned about the potential traffic impacts of losing two vehicle lanes.
“I got elected to make traffic congestion much better, not worse,” he said during a regular appearance on “The Mayor” show.
The report predicts lane reductions would have “minimal” impacts on local travel times, noting most congestion is south of Sheppard where Yonge is already four lanes.
Leaving six vehicle lanes to the north, staff say, would restrict the city’s ability to widen sidewalks to make the strip more vibrant and safer for pedestrians.
The report notes that, between January 2010 and December 2017, that stretch of Yonge saw 78 collisions involving pedestrians and five involving cyclists. Eight of them were seriously injured or killed.
When Tory was asked Tuesday to elaborate on his opposition to “Transform Yonge,” his spokesman Don Peat emailed the Star: “Mayor Tory supports updating and improving Yonge St. in North York.
“But he does have concerns about eliminating two lanes of traffic in the Yonge and Sheppard area. He believes bike lanes running on neighbouring streets, along with public realm improvements to Yonge, would be a win-win for the area that wouldn’t increase congestion.”
Filion acknowledged some people are opposed. Residents from the 905-belt driving the entire strip would be slowed the most, he said.
“It’s fair to say there are a large number of people who don’t think it’s a good idea but, based on 20 meetings I’ve participated in, there is a larger group that think it’s not only a good idea but an idea that is absolutely necessary for the future of the area.”
City council will have final say over the project, likely at the end of January.
Toronto Sun:
Let’s call it a perfect trifecta.
First, Mayor John Tory and the city’s transportation officials ruined Bloor St.
Next up was King St.
Now the cycling zealots and the highly-paid leftist city bureaucrats who prop them up have set their sights on one of the most congested corridors in Toronto –Yonge St., in the former city of North York.
Coming to a public works committee this week is the $51.1-million plan to REImagine Yonge St.– from just south of Sheppard Ave. to north of Finch — with cycle tracks that will reduce six lanes of traffic north and south to four.
You read that right.
Led by the well-past-his-due-date NDP Councillor John Filion — aka the author of the failed food cart experiment — the city’s social engineers are determined not to rest until they inflict their cycling ideology on two intersections that have repeatedly been listed as among the top 10 in the city for gridlock. They are Yonge and Sheppard and Yonge and Finch.
The city’s lengthy report — which uses endless bafflegab before cutting to the chase (deliberately methinks) — contends that traffic demands are high during weekday peak periods, with 74% of the traffic originating from York Region during the morning hours and 73% of traffic headed to the same destination during the afternoon rush hour.
In other words, Yonge is used as a commuter route.
Buried in the bowels of the city’s report is also a small chart that shows cycling in the North York Centre area accounts for a mere 1% of trips in the morning peak period.
But don’t let those facts get in the way of a good argument. As of late, particularly with Tory at the helm, logic and common sense has been tossed out the front doors of City Hall, never to return in the near future.
Council already shelved the whole idea last year, refusing to approve the $4-million in funds needed to proceed to a full design. But never underestimate the tug of an election year and Tory’s need to be liked by the leftist loons on council so none of them run against him.
This project has followed virtually the same M.O. as Bloor and King Sts. — starting with paying lip service to very legitimate business concerns and an absolute refusal by the city’s social engineers to recognize that taking away parking spots will affect the street’s retail businesses.
The consultation sessions were stacked with the cycling lobby and as many residents have told me, the city’s holier-than-thou transportation bureaucrats may have listened to their concerns but did not “hear” them.
As this week’s report to the public works committee shows, the transportation bureaucrats — after being instructed to spend an extra $750,000 (or $2-million in total) to study cycling tracks on the ring roads east and west of Yonge St. instead — came back with the same conclusion.
The report says putting cycling lanes on Beecroft Ave. , while enhancing Yonge with new sidewalks, planters, street furniture, reconstructing the centre median and repaving the actual road, would be just too expensive — some $71-million in total.
(How they arrived at the figure is a story for another day.)
Former mayor Mel Lastman, who made North York Centre the success it is today, said Tuesday city officials are “completely out of their minds.”
He said Yonge is busy enough and cycling tracks will only force traffic into the surrounding residential communities and on to the already congested ring roads.
“There’s not enough traffic lanes there now,” he said. “This is going to kill Yonge St.”
Like I said, the mayor and the leftist cabal at City Hall have already ruined Bloor and King Sts.
It’s time to take the socially engineering road show to the ‘burbs'.
