New Video in a continuing series: A Cyclist’s-eye-view of riding Leslie Street – now with correct camera aperture, and a head-cam!!! (video is letter-box, on it’s end – perfect for smart phones!)
Another ride along Leslie Street in February – Toronto, Ontario, Canada – this time on a Sunday. Fixed the aperture setting on my Samsung SE25 – so not over exposed. And, I mounted the camera to my head!
Leslie Street is one of of four access points that is available to cyclists and pedestrians for crossing Lake Shore Boulevard in order that they may visit the Water Front of Toronto – and the about to open, “Tommy Thompson Park” – which is just a little further south on the reclaimed Leslie Spit. (Leslie St and Unwin Av – Google Map: http://g.co/maps/q4xcz)
From a cyclist’s point of view, these videos attempt to tell the story of how dangerous Leslie Street is for bike riders and pedestrians – and I expect, how harrowing it is to drive it – having to share the road with slower moving things with so much else going on at the same time.
Video: ”If everyday was a Sunday in February – we wouldn’t need Bike Lanes on Leslie Street“
Leslie Street along this short section has four traffic lights and intersects three major transportation corridors: Queen Street, Eastern Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard. The forth set of stop lights is for the il-conceived exits onto Leslie for the Loblaws and Price Choppers parking lots.
The ‘chicane’ on Eastern, just as it approaches Leslie from the West, makes that intersection dangerous because all road users, from any direction – can’t see what’s coming. Add to that the fact that the Eastern Avenue East-bound Bike Lanes end at the intersection, and we have a confluence of use-vectors that add up to Information Overload.
The street as it is now configured is a death trap.
The reconstruction of Leslie because of the TTC construction starting next month (March 2012) is an opportunity for the people of the neighbourhood and our representatives (and staff) at City Hall to imagine a better street.
The Leslie Street Complete Streets Working Group is meeting periodically and has lobbied all concerned about this issue. We are now at the end of the City of Toronto mandated, ‘Pubic Consultation Process’ – with no ground given on bike infrastructure. Now I think, we enter a phase of political organizing – we have to get a ground swell of popular support for cycling infrastructure on Leslie Street.
For more more information, or to get involved – Contact me at, michaelholloway111(at)gmail(dot)com
Video of a little trek I took from Jones Avenue and Queen via Queen Street to Leslie Street, via Leslie to Lake Shore Boulevard.
Some residents of Toronto’s downtown east side neighbourhood known as Leslieville, want the City of Toronto to install cycling infrastructure along Leslie Street when it is redeveloped this year.
This video goes a measure to explain why, it’s dangerous for bicyclists on Leslie – that’s why you don’t see very many of them. But soon, with all the parks opening to the south and a gentrification ongoing in the neighbourhood – this street will be teaming with cyclists… because it is one of only a few Gateways across the Great Wall – Lake Shore Boulevard!
This is a pretty slow Saturday afternoon in February, no snow, no snow banks – just a hellish westerly gusting to about 60 km/hr..
“Just your typical Bike Ride in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon in February“
The TTC is building a ‘Car House’ (the Ashbridges Bay Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) Maintenance and Storage Facility – ) on a plot of land on the South-East corner of Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard – and to connect this cleaning a maintenance facility to the Toronto Transit Authority’s street car grid they are putting in street car tracks on Leslie Street from Queen Street, South down to approximately Commissioners Road.
Building a Grand Union at Bathurst Street and Queen Street West - 1997 (?)
The project is a major construction job:
1) A ‘three-quarter Grand Union’ at Queen Street and Leslie Street – so the new LRT cars travelling north can turn east or west – and so cars on Queen Street, traveling in either direction, can turn south to get back to the Car House;
2) Leslie street will need a new foundation to support the new LRT vehicles, each of which weighs in at 48,200 kg. The new vehicles are 30.2 metres, or 99 feet long – 25% longer than the longest street cars Toronto has now (the ‘articulated’, ALRV) which is 23 m or 75 feet. The TTC ssays they are ripping up the entire width of the street, sidewalks included.
3) The intersection of Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard has all kinds of infrastructure under it. I’m not privy to the details, but I’m assuming water and sewer, electrical, fiber-optic… . Apparently many of the conduit for these elements will not stand up to the stresses that a street car right of way over top of them will create. That means they’re going to have to dig deep and build steel re-enforced concrete conduits for all these various elements – and make sure all are accessible by maintenance crews from a variety of city departments.
So after all this – can we get separated bike lanes on Leslie Street so folks can cycle safely to:
-the Waterfront Cycling Trail (formerly Martin Goodman Trail); -the new Port Lands Parks; and, -the new Tommy Thompson Park on Leslie Spit
The Transportation Department says the road is too narrow for Bike Lanes. The City of Toronto agrees – there is no way to make the street wider, and besides the road will be a TTC right of way in 10-15 years as Leslie becomes a service route. And the TTC says no, we can’t make the street wider – not in this project – the 2 year environmental study is already done – There’ No Time!!!
And they’re all correct … but we still need separated cycling infrastructure in order to help get parents and their children south of the great barrier, the Great Wall – Lake Shore Boulevard.
What to do?
We need your in-put.
The Leslie Street Complete Streets Working Group is meeting periodically and has lobbied all concerned about this issue. We are now at the end of the City of Toronto mandated, ‘Pubic Consultation Process’ – with no ground given on bike infrastructure. Now I think, we enter a phase of political organizing – we have to get a ground swell of popular support for cycling infrastructure on Leslie Street.
One suggestion, for the short term – just paint on bike lanes, or sharrows – for now, then…
Please help – us, all together, we can create a better Leslie Street. Perhaps, as I have dreamt – a Grand Gateway to the green and wild paces along the Great Lake Ontario – just 850 metres to the south.
And a new identity for Leslieville and South Riverdale – place names that will be known by tourists around the world.
For more more information, or to get involved – Contact me at, michaelholloway111(at)gmail(dot)com
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See specifications for the new (LRT) street cars: TTC - http://lrv.ttc.ca/
In this amateur Urban Designer’s opinion, higher density building standards along mass transit corridors in Toronto’s suburbs – that mirror Toronto’s Core densities, with a large number of 3 story walk-up apartment buildings on single or double lots, and zoning changes to permit ‘alleyway Grand Parent Flats’ over top of/instead of garages – can produce the necessary tax revenue needed to fund a Subway network in Toronto like those of London, Moscow and Paris.
Once outside the Circle Line subway, most of these Moscow Subway routes are above ground, separated train lines. The Circle Line is key to the Moscow Subway network – it allows most to avoid the core of the city – instead you use the Circle Line to get to the appropriate spoke in the wheel – and then transfer. Toronto needs a Circle Line to direct LRT volumes that are coming. Just $50Billion – an investment we should undertake now.
When Rob Ford was elected Mayor of Toronto in October 2010 he immediately proposed stopping construction of 3 of 4 Light Rapid Transit (LRT) lines in favour of redirecting the Provincial funding for them to subway construction. Subway construction costs a lot more than street level separated rail – so the bang for the buck fell well short of what residents perceived was needed. The number of kilometres of subway Toronto was going to get under Mayor Ford’s plan – and his inability to get private funding to augment the Provincial 8.4 Billion dollars already in the funding package – paled in light of the public transit commute experience that many Torontonians face each day.
The need for new mass transit in key areas of the city where population numbers are mushrooming - North Etobicoke, North York and North Scarborough - is making public transit – and the highway type roads there – next to useless at rush hour (now 3 hours long, morning and night). Grid lock and the perception that the Mayor didn’t really have a plan, caused a political backlash for the Mayor’s Office on transit. The result was that the Mayor’s public transit plan was effectively killed in favour of the existing LRT plan in a vote at Toronto City Council on February 8, 2012.
People are giving up on public transit and switching to back to cars – which is leading to more expressway grid lock in a city that already has the longest automobile commute times in North America – or citizens are just leaving the labour force, because their commute time and compensation didn’t jive with the erosion of their quality of life – 3 hour commutes combined with the ‘new normal’ 12 hour work day.
The solution so far, for cash strapped cities with-in the neo-liberal schema of extremely low corporate tax rates, has been to invest in low cost surface rail separated from automobile traffic by transit right of ways. This LRT solution is the last option standing, mainly because of the low population densities in a suburban development model that was built based on the car.
We now understand that the model is unsustainable and that higher density development, walking and cycling infrastructure improvement, and more public transit is the long term answer.
Zoning increases needed to make Sheppard subway a reality: Chong
A rendering supplied by the Tridel development group to city planners. It shows what the intersection of Victoria Park Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East might look like after it were redeveloped using density rights allocated from the subway station.
(Image and Text courtesy of Inside Toronto – from the article sighted)
When Rob Ford asked private developers to come up with a workable subway funding strategy based on private borrowing that was financed over time by increases in tax revenues that would arrive through increased development along proposed subway routes – the developers came back with a plan for high towers at major intersections all across suburbia.
They like to build condo’s apparently, and I guess they thought if their banks were going to foot the bill for public infrastructure – at a moment in time when the Mayor was over a barrel – they figured they could ask for the moon – and get it.
Silly, greedy capitalists – by doing so they pretty much killed the privatization of Public Transit in Toronto (likely Mayor Ford’s neo-con, hidden agenda for all public inheritances).
In this amateur Urban Designer’s opinion a less neighbourhood invasive option would make this kind of Subway financing do-able. Higher density building standards along mass transit corridors in Toronto’s suburbs (extending one bus stop width on either side of the corridor) – that mirror Toronto’s Core densities, with a large number of 3 story walk-up apartment buildings on single or double lots, and zoning changes to permit ‘alleyway Grand Parent Flats’ over top of/instead of garages – can produce the necessary tax revenue needed to fund a world class subway network in Toronto.
See more on Subway Financing – Ford Style – at SteveMunro.ca:
Staff is recommending what the Mayor’s Office has likely told them to recommend.
Toronto City Council should stick with the long term plan for transportation and reduce grid lock through encouraging sustainable alternative forms though applicable infrastructure improvements – like cycle lanes, and better walking environments.
Please support the “Alternative B” recommendation by City Staff as presented in “John Street Corridor Improvements Environmental Assessment Study” – in keeping with the City of Toronto’s ‘Complete Streets’ Policy.
To:
City of Toronto Public Works and Infrastructure Committee,
(councillor_grimes@toronto.ca, councillor_layton@toronto.ca, councillor_parker@toronto.ca, councillor_perks@toronto.ca, councillor_shiner@toronto.ca, councillor_minnan-wong@toronto.ca, pwic@toronto.ca - and -
City of Toronto Public Works and Infrastructure Committee,
Please support the “Alternative B” recommendation by City Staff as presented in “John Street Corridor Improvements Environmental Assessment Study” – in keeping with the City of Toronto’s ‘Complete Streets’ Policy.
The Alternatives in Redeveloping John Street
Alternative A: Narrow Lanes with a flexible boulevard
• 3.2 m wide travel lanes to maximize road narrowing and calm vehicular speeds;
• Cyclists move in tandem with vehicles;
• A continuous ‘flexible boulevard’ along the east side that maintains an expanded sidewalk while accommodating occasional deliveries & other programming;
• Narrow 3-lane section south of Wellington Street to accommodate turning movements; and
• Mountable curbs for flexible boulevards and to accommodate truck turns
Alternative B: Conventional Lane widths
• 4.2 m wide travel lanes to accommodate cyclists beside vehicles;
• Deliveries at curbside as currently permitted;
• Roadway width maintained and not widened north of Queen;
• Northbound right turn lane provided at Adelaide Street;
• Lay-by provided in front of Metro Hall; and
• Typical 3-lane section south of Wellington to accommodate turning movements.
City of Toronto’s sustainable development policy – also known as the “Complete Streets Policy” – is described at the City of Toronto website under “City Planning” which is linked to a page titled, “Transportation Planning“, which states, in part:
“Transportation Planning oversees policies and projects with the goal of improving transit, discouraging automobile dependence and encouraging alternative forms of transportation such as walking, cycling, subways and streetcars.
“Transportation Planning delivers a number of services including identifying strategic improvement opportunities, assessing transportation needs that focus on implementing the Official Plan, and developing leading-edge policies on major transportation initiatives in the City and the Greater Toronto Area. We research and analyze transportation and travel trends in the City and surrounding Regions and provide travel demand forecasting services city-wide. We work closely with the TTC, GO Transit and other transportation agencies in the many areas of mutual interest.”
And as well, directly from the City of Toronto Official Plan - (December 2010) in chapter two of which under the title “Shaping the City“, and in a section titled “Policies“ (page 2-26, 2-27 and 2-28) states:
(Item 1 and item 7 of 14 items)
1. Travel demand management (TDM) measures will be introduced to reduce car depndancy and rush hour congestion by:
a) increasing the proportion of trips made by transit, walking and cycling;
b) increasing the average car occupancy rate;
c) reducing the demand for vehicular travel; and
d) shifting travel times from peak to off-peak periods.
…
7. Policies, programs and infrastructure will be introduced to create a safe comfortable and bicycle friendly environment that encourages people of all ages to cycle for everyday transportation and enjoyment including:
a) an expanded bikeways network;
b) provision of bicycle parking facilities in new developments;
c) provision of adequate and secure bicycle parking at rapid transit stations;
and
d) measures to improve the safety of cyclists through the design and operation of streets and through education and promotion programs
In support of the Toronto Cyclists Union ‘Action Alert’ of February 14, 2012
“In June 2011, the short-listed design concepts for John Street were released. Alternative A recommended 3.2m travel lanes where cyclists would ride in the centre of the lane in tandem with vehicles. Alternative B recommended 4.2m travel lanes which would provide an extra 1m of space to cyclists to ride beside vehicles. The extra space would also allow for sharrows or a different pavement pattern to delineate the space for cyclists. In June, the bike union expressed support for the project and Alternative B for these reasons. Now, city staff are recommending to the Public Works Committee that Alternative A be adopted instead.”
(no web address)
Sincerely,
Michael Holloway
Resident Ward 30,
Jones Av. and Dundas St
END
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Find your councillor’s email address via the toronto.ca ward map page; and inform them you want John Street redeveloped as a Complete Street: City of Toronto: Ward Profiles - http://app.toronto.ca/wards/jsp/wards.jsp
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BIO
I manage two blogs here at BikingToronto: "@Blog_FreeWheel" and the "Toronto/GTA Bicycle Route Mapping Wiki". The Blog and the Wiki are two sides of a coin - the blog to discuss bicycle routes and the politics of bicycle routes - and the Mapping Wiki to publish bike route maps contributors and I have discovered to help city planners, cycling advocates and road users to choose and advocate for, safe and efficient cycling routes on Toronto's busy and dangerous car-centric infrastructure.
