Reducing traffic on Leslie Street via merge lanes on Lake Shore and left turn lanes on Eastern to new Entrances to both Box Stores
(click on image for larger)
In an article entitled “Cycling To The Port Lands: creating a ‘Gateway’ at Leslie Street through the ‘Great Wall’ – Lake Shore Boulevard” – I tried to shine a light on all the problems that cyclists and pedestrians face in trying to access the new park, walking and cycling infrastructure that the City is developing to the south of Lake Shore Boulevard as part of the Water Front Toronto project, and the Leslie Spit Urban Wilderness innovation, Tommy Thompson Park.
It turns out my vision of Leslie Street as one of the key “Sentry Gateways” to the new infrastructure is not a new idea. Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto has been planning around this idea for years.
Making Waves: Central Waterfront Plan Part II -http://www.toronto.ca/waterfront/waterfront_part2.htm(pdf)
c) Promoting a Clean and Green Environment
( to see it full size click on image – or go to the toronto.ca link under the image)
City of Toronto CENTRAL WATERFRONT PART II PLAN Map "D" - http://www.toronto.ca/waterfront/pdf/waterfrontplansec4_c.pdf
In this plan from 2002 Leslie Street is marked as a key pedestrian, cycling and public transit access point to the proposed Lake Ontario Park.
And more recently at Water Front Toronto, under the tab “Portlands Greening” this:
“In April 2005, Waterfront Toronto along with the three orders of government announced a $10.5 million investment and plans for greening the Port Lands and improving public access to the area’s lakefront. This project includes work to improve the key gateways in the area such as Unwin Avenue, Leslie, Cherry and Commissioners streets, all of which are the major corridors that connect the city with the Port Lands and the primary routes that lead to a future Lake Ontario Park.”
(http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/explore_projects2/port_lands/port_lands_greening)
A major redevelopment of Leslie Street is set for this spring (2012). The TTC has recieved the appropriate approvals to build an Ashbridges Bay Maintenance and Storage Facility for the new fleet of LRT vehicles on an empty parcel of land at the SE corner of Leslie Street and Lake Shore Blvd.. In order to connect it to the TTC’s track grid they need to lay rail on Leslie from Queen Street to Commissioners. The project will require a complete rip out of the street – sidewalk to sidewalk – black top right down to the street’s footings — and some major underground infrastructure re-jigging as well.
For some reason the TTC has tried to minimize the extent of the construction to come – they have said in planning documents (“Ashbridges Bay TTC Maintenance and Storage Facility – September 8, 2010″ - http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/lrv/pdf/epr/appendix-c-8.pdf) that the street will not be changed. In saying this they have signaled to the relevant City departments that required changes as part of the City’s Long Term Plan) need not now be actioned upon. These changes not now being acted upon include improvements in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
(Part of the City’s long term transportation plan is known as the “Complete Streets” framework, where it is understood that the city’s transportation foot print, especially in the older parts of the city, is at capacity and that thus car pooling, mass transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure needs to be accented when major public infrastructure redevelopments provide an opportunity).
So because the TTC has signalled this is a minor alteration to Leslie Street – for example - the City of Toronto Transportation Services has not done traffic counts towards making Leslie Street a better traffic corridor – even though several major land-use changes have, and are happening all around Leslie Street right now. Included are the new Box Stores: Canadian Tire, Loblaws and Price Choppers – and a gentrification of the residential population of the community – caused by the housing price boom which is ramping up house prices, especially in Leslieville, but also in South Riverdale and the West Beaches. A more prosperous population is more likely to have access to a car and thus drive to their shopping destinations – and thus increase traffic volumes in the neighbourhood in general, but especially along Leslie Street which is the route the city is enabling to service the Box Store Row that is developing there.
The TTC’s ‘nothing-to-see here’ attitude also puts planning blinkers on the City as the massive Water Front Toronto Development is just announcing a speed-ed up scheduling of development on the Port Lands - not to mention the imminent opening, 7 days a week, of Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit.
The Park Lands developments to the south of Lake Shore and Leslie Street and the idea that Leslie Street is one of the Great Gateways to these new public places – places that the World will visit – and the entire population of the GTA will use periodically over their lifetimes – is anathema to the Box Store Corridor tha Leslie Street has recently started to become.
In a great article in SpacingToronto (24 Jan 2012) ”Leslie Street – Gateway or Gate to the Waterfront?” Dylan Reid points out the crux of the problem is four lanes on Leslie Street – or two?
“The key question is, could Leslie Street lose a lane of traffic in order to create bike lanes and more pedestrian space? Currently, Leslie from Queen to Lake Shore is four lanes. Outside of rush hour, two lanes are used for parking and only two lanes are used for traffic, but during rush hour parking is prohibited to allow two lanes of traffic in the rush hour direction.”
But I think I sussed a way to have our cake and eat it too!
The problem is there is near capacity of traffic volume on Lelie Street – yet more and different typs of traffic is projected. We have to somehow reduce the volume of traffic on Leslie Street.
The biggest soarce of traffic – outside the rush hour commutes – is the Big Box Malls. 90% of the traffic in and out of these Malls happens via an intersection built just for them – and it funnels traffic onto Leslie Street – it must go – but how?
(click on image to see larger)
Leslie Street looking North - Mall Exit Intersection
Below is a mashup I made over a map of the Leslie Lake Shore area. I have added new infrastructure that entices traffic away from Leslie Street by adding on and off merge lanes to Lake Shore Boulevard that feed a new Enterance/Exit for the Loblaws parking lot and Price Choppers lot respectively. Also, left turn lanes on Eastern Avenue will feed new bigger and more direct Enterance/Exits on the Northern flanks of these two Malls as well.
(click on image to see larger)
Map of Leslie Street as Gateway to Water Front
The Lights Leslie Street at the Malls Exits should be taken out, and the Exits reduced to one lane in and out (instead of three, with a left turn advanced green).
This should speed up traffic flow as well as remove 500 vehicles per hour from Leslie. With more room on Leslie infrastructure for cyclists and pedstrians should increase those types of traffic and eventually, as the TTC impliments their planned service route along Leslie, volumes into these malls should increase significantly with out coincident increase in car traffic on Leslie Street itself!
At the same time this new vision will open up Leslie Street for separted Bike Lanes, wider sidewalks a greener more inviting streetscape – that will connect the Waterfront Trail (formerly Martin Goodman Trail) and create a truly World Class Gateway to the new and innovative park lands to the south of Lake Shore Boulevard.
mh
Posted: January 28th, 2012
Author: michael holloway
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Creating a ‘Gateway’ at Leslie Street through the ‘Great Wall’ – Lake Shore Boulevard
Update: 25 January 2012 - Lito Romano – TTC Community Liaison Officer (lito.romano@ttc.ca) has sent out a notification about the next meeting of the “Leslie Street Streetscape Working Group – it’s:
January 31, 2012
6:30 pm-8:30 pm
South Riverdale Community Health Centre
955 Queen Street East
They’d like people to RSVP to make sure there’s enough chairs and such, by January 27th 2012 – via lito.romano@ttc.ca
December 8, 2011
Lake Shore Boulevard defines the northern extent of Toronto’s “Port Lands”. The East/West automobile corridor is a ‘Great Wall’ to cyclists and pedestrians. Highways are wonderful for moving cars and trucks from point A to point B quickly – but in doing so they create barriers for everything else. These ‘Great Walls’ also have the effect of funneling traffic towards ‘Gateways’ that breach them periodically.
In the mashup below I’ve attempted to illustrate how Leslie Street and Cherry Street are the ‘sentry tower’ Gateways to Toronto’s Port Lands and Tommy Thompson Park.
(click on image for larger view)
Gateways to Toronto's Water Front
Leslie Street and Cherry Street are Gateways to the Portlands because they both connect to The Martin Goodman Trail, which circles the Port Lands and connects the City to the new Tommy Thompson Park Cycling and Walking Trails at Unwin Avenue and Leslie Street.
Carlaw Avenue, Logan Avenue and the Don Roadway do get cyclists and walkers across the Great Wall, but they only connect to Commissioners Street – then you have to travel East or West along Commissioners to access the Martin Goodman Trail.
Below is the embed of the map in the image.
View The Gateways to Toronto’s Water Front in a larger map
One of the big issues in Leslieville has been ( and is ) the way this neighbourhood is cut off from the Water Front – namely The Port Lands, Tommy Thompson Park and the Martin Goodman Trail – ironically, by transportation infrastructure ( designed solely for automobile traffic ).
On Tuesday I rode my bike from Jones Ave. and Dundas St. E. across the Great Wall that is Lake Shore Blvd. through the Leslie Street ‘Gateway’ to the Tommy Thompson Park Bicycle Trail.
Below is my safe route that avoids the murderous hell that is Leslie Street from Queen Street East to Lake Shore Boulevard.
View Leslieville to Leslie Spit via the Tommy Thompson Park Biking Trail in a larger map
Opportunity knocks!
Because the TTC is building a street car barn at Lake Shore and Leslie to house part of the fleet of new Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) street cars - Leslie Street between Queen and Commissioners is about to be completely torn up in order to install street car tracks. The construction is to be so extensive that a re-visioning of the entire streetscape is in the works.
Cycling advocates see an opportunity to better connect cycling and walking infrastructure to the Portlands and the new Tommy Thompson Park Cycling and walking trails. The enabling of transportation infrastructure for more than just cars will not only connect this neighbourhood to the new parkland infrastructure – but it will connect the entire City of Toronto to it.
Several consultation meetings between residents and stake holders and the city have already taken place; they are on-going.
( New Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) Maintenance & Storage Facility/Public Consultation – http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/lrv/index.htm#pc )
On November 9th I attended one such meeting. Architects presented a landscape proposal for Leslie Street below Lake Shore; and Lake Shore Boulivard itself between Leslie Street and Ashbridges Bay. In the proposal the Martin Goodman Trail remains pretty well where it is and a walking trail is added that weaves through a hedgerow shrubby, bulrushes and deciduous tree planted landscape contoured with lowlands and berms, and including seating. Councilor Mary Margaret McMahon ( http://www.councillormcmahon.com/ ) suggested bike lock-up hoops and someone else, drinking fountains.
( Perimeter Landscape – Ashbridges Bay Maintenance & Storage Facility – http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/lrv/pdf/2011-11-09_perimeter_present.pdf )
A further consultation meeting about Leslie Street north to Queen Street is in the works. A planned meeting for September 28, 2011 was postponed. It was re-schedualed for this week, Tuesday December 6th 2011, but that meeting was also postponed – to give architects more time to work through proposals made at other meetings.
( To get on the email list to be informed when this meeting is re-schedualed see the bottom of this article. )
So for cyclists and pedestrians – the issue is not how the proposed landscape architecture will look through the windscreen of an idling car stuck in grid lock on Lake Shore Boulevard – but rather how to get to the cycling and walking infrastructure that is being proposed to be a part of it.
Paul Young, Cycling Advocate and Health Promotor at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre petitioned the City to instal Bike Lanes along Leslie Street at a Public Consultation Meeting on September 14, 2011 at the Toronto Fire Academy – 895 Eastern Avenue. The City has so far replied that the Street’s foot print is too narrow for 2 lanes North and South, plus Bike Lanes. They suggest alternate Cycling Routes be found.
From the minutes (Item 4 – http://www.toronto.ca/involved/projects/lrv/pdf/2011-09-14_minutes.pdf – my emphasis):
“TTC provided the following comments:
-$750,000 is the allocated budget for streetscaping of the study
area.
-Landscaping for the perimeter of the facility will be funded
separately
-Traffic Study indicates 4 lanes must be maintained in roadway
thus limiting the amount of space we have for streetscaping.
-Traffic lanes on Leslie should not be narrower than 3.3 metres.
-Pedestrian and cyclist safety should be considered in any re-design
of Leslie Street, including intersections and mid-block entrances to
the commercial plazas.
-TTC will use multi-use poles where feasible in order to reduce
sidewalk clutter.
-The poles on the east side of Leslie St. do not have the required
bearing capacity- (ie limited use).
-City of Toronto Transportation have been asked to participate in all
future working group meetings, and public meetings associated
with Streetscaping, Construction Staging and Traffic Management.
-City of Toronto Transportation has commented on the traffic
counts and is of the opinion that the numbers being used are
satisfactory for this exercise.”
I find cycling on Leslie Street between Queen and Lake Shore to be hell on two wheels, so I’ve been doing just as they suggest.
Imagine an area, a semi-circle extending north to Queen Street and centred by the intersection of Lake Shore and Leslie. This area is full of danger points of for cyclists and pedestrians.
Here’s a map I made that high-lights several problems areas I have noticed cycling and walking in the area – and some solutions I’ve imagined.
View Problems & Solutions: Leslie St. Gateway area in a larger map
List of Danger Points on Approch to the Leslie Gateway
1. The north/South Bike Lanes, Jones Avenue and Greenwood Avenue, end at Queen Street which, is a busy and dangerous route. Queen Street does not have Bike Lanes.
To connect the Greenwood Bike Lane to the Lower Don Recreation Trail, Knox Avenue is the obvious choice for a new Separated Bike Lane – it is a mere 20 metre jog West of the end of the Greenwood Bike Lane and the street already connects to the Lower Don Recreational Trail. ( The Bike Lane must be Separated along here because Knox is a through-way for Canada Post trucks, I suggest the western boulevard of 895 Eastern Avenue with planters separating the Bike Lane from the street – to replace the loss of green along the boulevard. )
Because there is no room for cyclists through the Leslie Street Gateway, I suggest a Cyclist’s Bridge over Lake Shore Boulevard at Knox Avenue.
2. Next is the problem of how to connect the Jones Avenue Bike Lane to the Lower Don Recreation Trail, which in turn, connects to my proposed cyclists bridge at Knox Ave..
Again, just a 20 metre jog to the West of the end of the Jones Avenue Bike Lane is a lovely, quiet neighbourhood street called Berkshire Avenue – which runs from Queen to Eastern, just West of the Eastern Avenue Chicane. A Cyclists Cross Walk needs to be installed at Eastern and Berkshire Ave..
On the South side of Eastern Avenue there are a series of film studio warehouses with massive parking lots that are rarely full – a perfect route to the Lower Don Recreational Trail. A Bike Path could be constructed along the eastern edge of the warehouse parking lot and then proceed between the eastern most warehouse and the back of the Price Choppers Store – where there is a 3 metre wide gap that cries out to be a Bike Path.
( On the map “Problems & Solutions: Leslie St. Gateway area” [http://g.co/maps/6z757] an info box shows on load titled: “Street View of proposed Bike Path route – Eastern Avenue, behind Price Chopper, to the Lower Don Recreational Trail“ - click on “more” (bottom right of info box), then click “Street View” in the drop down menu.)
3. Eastern Avenue, one block south of Queen, is a highway in all but name. At rush hour it generally runs faster than the posted speed limit. As Eastern approaches Leslie Street from the West, it chicanes north creating an extremely dangerous crossing area for cyclists and pedestrians – and a stressful predicament for car drivers trying to enter and exit residential streets to the North – and shopping malls to the South. Even with Bike Lanes on Eastern I feel very vulnerable through the chicane. Plus the Bike Lanes dissapear in favour of right turn lanes at Leslie in both directions.
In order to research this piece I did the ride again today – at 4:30pm. The on-Leslie experience for a cyclist is lots of turning cars and lane changing that forces you to the curb ( if you don’t take your lane ) and lots of waiting at lights. On “GO!” drivers power off the intersection in order to get to the next set of lights to stop at. The result being you’re pushed towards the curb – and then you catch all the impatient drivers at the next light – and do it all over again.
4. At Mosley Street just to the west of Leslie, at the exit from Price Choppers, there are too many traffic vectors in a tiny amount of traffic space. Fast moving traffic off of Eastern Avenue exits onto Mosley and either proceeds to Leslie, or turns into the Price Choppers parking lot. West bound traffic on Mosley – at the Price Choppers entrance - curves north towards Eastern Avenue – they may either slow to negotiate the right curve or decide to turn left into the parking area. Traffic exiting the Price Choppers lot may go right to Leslie, or reconnoiter well down Eastern to the west and hope no one is exiting onto Mosley and risk a left into the curve on Mosley – that stops short at the stop sign at Eastern. For a car it’s perfect fender bender territory – for a cyclist or pedestrian it’s a confusing, life threatening corner.
5. The intersection of Leslie Street and the Loblaws’ parking lot entrance – right across from the Price Choppers parking lot entrance is not a street but is fully Traffic Lighted like an regular intersction. There are three total lanes of traffic going in and out of each parking lot (left turn lanes on both). The crosswalk on the Price Choppers side is not clearly marked – add to that the fact that there is no clear definition between where the sidewalk ends and the crosswalk starts – the side walk continues across the intersection, dipping down to road level and becomes part of the street. Trucks and cars are regularly stopped or parked on the right hand side of the extra wide West bound ‘IN’ lane into Price Choppers – making the intersection more confusing than it already is.
—————————————–
I’m on Lito Romano’s email notification list. The next meeting of the Public Consultation Procss has not yet been set. I will post an update here when it is decided.
If you want to voice your opinion contact Lito Romano – TTC Community Liaison Officer ( lito.romano@ttc.ca ) and ask him to notify you when the next meeting of the “Leslie Street Streetscape Working Group’ meeting is set.
mh
Posted: December 8th, 2011
Author: michael holloway
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: The Great Wall | 3 Comments »
@OccupyToronto - official
I’ve been doing a lot of media for OccupyToronto the last month and a half, so haven’t posted here much.
This morning while doing Occupy research, I came across Brendan Kennedy, an avid cyclist and a Staff Reporter with the Toronto Star – who is covering Occupy Toronto for The Star.
( I was building my Twitter stream of people on-the-ground at St James Park – in advance of possible Police Services enforcement of a City of Toronto eviction notice; an action protesters say they will counter with non-violent, civil disobedience. )
Brendan Kennedy TO Star Staff Reporter
Last year before the Civic Elections, Brendan Kennedy wrote about commuting to work by bicycle from Finch and Islington to The Toronto Star building at 1 Young Street – and back. It’s a good example of a do-able, long commute by bicycle.
Here’s the video that goes with the article:
The article touches on eveyrthing I find important around the issue of cycling infrastructure: the quality of the roads in Toronto for cyclists, the less dangerous, off-main-artery routes that a regular commute reveals, and the annoying nature of the path system which as Kennedy says, [Is] “..indirect and meandering, designed for recreation, not commuting.”
“
Moving forward: Is the bicycle the solution to transit woes?
” - Sunday, October 10, 2010 - http://www.thestar.com/news/transportation/article/873415
“For me, the bicycle has always been the better way.
There are the obvious benefits: exercise, affordability, doing your part for the environment.
I also love the agility a bicycle affords — how it becomes an extension of your body, letting you slip through tight spaces to explore the city’s intersecting alleyways; or, during rush hour, zoom passed rows of gridlocked cars.
For commuting, I appreciate the predictability. I never have to listen to traffic reports, worry about construction detours or wait for a bus.
When I’m ready, I go.
7:32 a.m. – Southwest corner of Finch and Islington
It’s lonely in the suburbs for a cyclist.”
.. read the rest…
Twitter – @BKennedyStar - https://twitter.com/#!/BKennedyStar
Video: Commute by bicycle
mh
Posted: November 22nd, 2011
Author: michael holloway
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Der Spiegel reports that Germany has crossed the 1/5 mark in renewable energy sourcing. Photovoltaics are leading the way in the increase in sustainable energy supply over the last year – which has seen Germany’s non-nuclear, non petrochemical portion of energy sourcing climb from 18% to almost 21% – so says an industry report on the matter…
08/30/2011
Crossing the 20 Percent Mark
Green Energy Use Jumps in Germany
dapd
Germany is experiencing record highs when it comes to use of renewable energies.
During the first half of 2011, the share of renewable energy sources used by Germans in their total energy mix grew to one-fifth — a hefty boost over 2010. It’s a small step toward Germany’s ambition to phase out nuclear power.
It is a report that is bound to please Chancellor Angela Merkel. Just months after she expended significant political capital to guide Germany’s future energy production away from nuclear and toward renewable sources, a report by a leading energy industry group indicates that production of renewables in the country is rising rapidly.
According to the report, released on Monday by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), renewables accounted for fully 20.8 percent of production during the first six months of 2011. “Renewable energies have crossed the 20 percent mark in Germany for the first time,” the association said in a statement.
In 2010, green energy consumption totalled 18.3 percent of total demand.
The increase, the BDEW says, is unconnected to Merkel’s decision to immediately close seven nuclear power plants in the wake of the March disaster at the Fukushima complex in Japan. But it does give a boost to Germany’s long-term effort to phase out nuclear power completely by 2022. Chancellor Merkel has said the goal by then is to draw 35 percent of production from renewables.
Solar Also Rises
Total usage in Germany remained stable from 2010 at 275.5 billion kilowatt-hours, but energy from sources like wind, biomass, hydroelectric plants, solar panels and waste incineration rose to 57.3 billion KWh in the first six months of this year.
Wind power, the most important source, rose to 20.7 billion KWh, or 7.5 of total usage. Biomass (5.6 percent), photovoltaic solar (3.5 percent), and hydroelectric power (3.3 percent) were next in line. Waste incineration and other sources covered 0.8 percent of total demand.
The real change came in the photovoltaic sector, where output almost doubled — up more than 76 percent since 2010. “Because of the volume of new photovoltaic installations and the amount of sun during the spring, solar energy knocked hydroelectric from third place for the first time,” the BDEW said in a statement.
…
..read the rest.
Via Grist – http://www.grist.org/renewable-energy/2011-08-31-germany-sets-renewables-record
mh
Posted: September 1st, 2011
Author: michael holloway
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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