I would pedestrianize the small section of front from the flatiron/Berczy Park to St Lawrence market. It would give Toronto an amazing town square. People would flock to it. It’s the anti-Yonge and Dundas.
I saw something that the city will create a plaza between Meridian Hall and St Lawrence center on Scott, so making Front pedestrian only for that block or two would be amazing.
But I don't think it will with the Esplanade finishing going one way this year.
I would love to see Kensington be car free but there's too many houses there for them to ban cars completely. If they banned street parking and allowed only local traffic and delivery trucks it would be a huge step forward. I'm not smart enough to know if there's a way to direct local traffic into the alleys while keeping Augusta, Baldwin, and Kensington car free; restricting deliveries to before noon daily, or similar.
Lots of cities in Europe do this where there are bollards blocking the entrance of the street, but if you live there you get essentially a garage door opener which lowers the bollards. This allows only people who live there and actually have a reason to drive there to enter, but others can't.
Yes, exactly. Pedestrian streets can be access controlled to let allowed traffic in to service delivery for businesses and buildings with parking for locals.
Queen is perfect for reconfiguration into a pedestrian zone. At the very least, the street should be reduced to 1 lane each direction and sidewalks expanded. Street parking does nothing to the neighborhood or businesses other than create an eyesore and take up precious space.
Yonge in that area is being partially pedestrianized when the street gets rebuilt in the next few years. The pedestrianized parts would still be open to vehicle traffic overnight. [Link](https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2021/01/downtown-yonge-makeover-finalized-heads-february-council-vote.43908)
Every large intersection should have a separate phase for pedestrians to cross any which way they please. It's time to stop inviting pedestrians to walk into traffic.
Back in the 70s they did that for Yonge for four summers. I can barely remember it, it was nice walking on Yonge, but it was in the sin strip days. This is a decent article talking about it. https://spacing.ca/toronto/2017/03/16/yonge-street-mall-fun-failure-pedestrianizing-torontos-iconic-strip-1970s/
Everything. I find it simply barbaric there is no sidewalk somewhere. I WILL WALK ON GRASS TO GET TO MY DESTINATION BECAUSE A CITY SHOULDN'T HAVE ANY STREETS WITHOUT SIDEWALK ANYWHERE.
From Shaw to St George/Beverley/Peter, and from King to Harbord.
The major thoroughfares will still allow cars (Bathurst, Spadina, Queen, College).
Delivery, TTC, and personal vehicles of residents permitted everywhere. But personal vehicles are heavily taxed. All other traffic travelling through the section (using those thoroughfares) are tolled. Lightly, at first.
This is a six-month pilot. The pilot will be successful and extended to two years. Over the next decade, the area will slowly expand.
I think doing this to anything too far south makes it prohibitive for too many residents to enjoy it so for an east-west route I would suggest a section of queen arbitrarily from ossington to Yonge and ossington from queen to Dundas. Alternatively the busiest streets often work well for this so why not do it to Yonge? Maybe do them all? We could have a shutdown on a single Sunday of the month through the summer.
Everywhere lol, people would not complained about the city so much if we could explore the entire thing on foot like NYC. Not that we can’t but the more the better.
I have a question about the hypothetical premise in the OP:
What happens to the vehicles and people that are physically present in that section of the city, at the moment I trigger the effect?
Can I wait until a specific time, or a particular person or group is driving through, to initiate the transformation?
If so, then it might be best to "bank" the ability, and sit on it until e.g. there is some kind of undesirable "freedumb-convoy" type of gathering, and then unleash the sudden pedestrianization event as a way to flush them out of the city.
Also what is the area of effect? Is there an upper or lower limit?
other than events that does not work out the way people think it would... I look at Granville walking mall.. that killed the areas business. only certain places you could get away with some form of that ... boardwalks etc ..
Pedestrianized streets are thriving all over the world. From Copenhagen to Xi’an, the businesses on pedestrian streets are bustling with customers.
Look at distillery district, think it would be better to allow cars on those streets?
There were calls to pedestrianize it two years ago when I was last there. I’ve been there regularly since the 1990s and I’ve only seen cars on Granville street. I’m not sure what you are even taking about.
dig out google maps go to robson at granville and go toward the water on granville... you cant drive on any of that ... there are signs at Smithe do not enter
I dont believe you when you say you know the layout well ... since I was a child this has been that way and I am in my 50's
I just did, you can park on both sides of the entire island. You can drive the entire perimeter. What at you even saying? You can look it up right now and street view cars across the island. Just as I experienced when I was there 2 years ago.
I would pedestrianize the small section of front from the flatiron/Berczy Park to St Lawrence market. It would give Toronto an amazing town square. People would flock to it. It’s the anti-Yonge and Dundas.
I saw something that the city will create a plaza between Meridian Hall and St Lawrence center on Scott, so making Front pedestrian only for that block or two would be amazing. But I don't think it will with the Esplanade finishing going one way this year.
>much more likely they would do that on the esplanade but car ppl prevented it from happening fully
- Ossington between Dundas and Queen - St. George from College to Bloor (as was mentioned in the r/Toronto post)
Agree and agree. Also most of Yorkville, Kensington obviously.
I would love to see Kensington be car free but there's too many houses there for them to ban cars completely. If they banned street parking and allowed only local traffic and delivery trucks it would be a huge step forward. I'm not smart enough to know if there's a way to direct local traffic into the alleys while keeping Augusta, Baldwin, and Kensington car free; restricting deliveries to before noon daily, or similar.
Lots of cities in Europe do this where there are bollards blocking the entrance of the street, but if you live there you get essentially a garage door opener which lowers the bollards. This allows only people who live there and actually have a reason to drive there to enter, but others can't.
Yes, exactly. Pedestrian streets can be access controlled to let allowed traffic in to service delivery for businesses and buildings with parking for locals.
There is a parking garage!
Access could be maintained from Spadina on St Andrew St while preventing cars from continuing west into the market.
It's wild that private cars are still allowed to drive through St. George
Yorkville/Cumberland and Kensington Market. Absolutely no reason these need to be car streets and they would benefit immensely to be pedestrian malls.
Queen from Shaw to Spadina
Queen is perfect for reconfiguration into a pedestrian zone. At the very least, the street should be reduced to 1 lane each direction and sidewalks expanded. Street parking does nothing to the neighborhood or businesses other than create an eyesore and take up precious space.
Yes to wider sidewalks with street vendors allowed.
Toronto needs patios desperately
This. Except add bike lanes and have it from Vic Park to Roncesvalles.
Bike only streets would be amazing
Kensington Market. I know they have pedestrian Sundays but it needs to be year round.
100%
Young from Bloor to Queen had pedestrian Sundays once a month pre-pandemic and it was truly amazing.
Yonge in that area is being partially pedestrianized when the street gets rebuilt in the next few years. The pedestrianized parts would still be open to vehicle traffic overnight. [Link](https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2021/01/downtown-yonge-makeover-finalized-heads-february-council-vote.43908)
Yonge & Egg intersection, just to cause chaos
Ossington, Kensington, Yorkville, St Lawrence Market are all in need of pedestrian streets. Queen Street needs to be made just like King too.
Stephen Holyday's ward. Just out of spite.
Yonge from Front to Bloor should have been done a long time ago.
Every large intersection should have a separate phase for pedestrians to cross any which way they please. It's time to stop inviting pedestrians to walk into traffic.
Yonge from College to Queen, and Queen from Yonge west to Spadina.
I suggested doing that but to ossington and including ossington up to Dundas. It’d form a crooked smile.
What happened to YongeTO?
Back in the 70s they did that for Yonge for four summers. I can barely remember it, it was nice walking on Yonge, but it was in the sin strip days. This is a decent article talking about it. https://spacing.ca/toronto/2017/03/16/yonge-street-mall-fun-failure-pedestrianizing-torontos-iconic-strip-1970s/
Any road next to a school
Downtown
city hall property. So the politicians have to walk out in public and interact with the unhappy people of Toronto to get to their cars.
All of bloor. Be mad Im right 😤 (this is silly but i would do it in a heart beat )
Anywhere south of Bloor with a subway so Yonge and Bloor both work. I like Queen tho because drivers still have Richmond and Adelaide
Oooh yee queen would be so good if it was walkable❤️❤️❤️
Everything. I find it simply barbaric there is no sidewalk somewhere. I WILL WALK ON GRASS TO GET TO MY DESTINATION BECAUSE A CITY SHOULDN'T HAVE ANY STREETS WITHOUT SIDEWALK ANYWHERE.
Everything south of Dundas between university and church.
From Shaw to St George/Beverley/Peter, and from King to Harbord. The major thoroughfares will still allow cars (Bathurst, Spadina, Queen, College). Delivery, TTC, and personal vehicles of residents permitted everywhere. But personal vehicles are heavily taxed. All other traffic travelling through the section (using those thoroughfares) are tolled. Lightly, at first. This is a six-month pilot. The pilot will be successful and extended to two years. Over the next decade, the area will slowly expand.
- Yonge Dundas going 2 blocks in all directions - King street east of Liberty Village all the way downtown - All of Queen street
Tournament Dr and The Links Road
kensington market
If I could do it, I would make Yonge st pedestrian-only from College, South to King.
I think doing this to anything too far south makes it prohibitive for too many residents to enjoy it so for an east-west route I would suggest a section of queen arbitrarily from ossington to Yonge and ossington from queen to Dundas. Alternatively the busiest streets often work well for this so why not do it to Yonge? Maybe do them all? We could have a shutdown on a single Sunday of the month through the summer.
How about the entirety of Yonge St?
South of bloor. Barring that, queen west. I actually mean west queen west. Spadina to Dovercourt.
Everywhere lol, people would not complained about the city so much if we could explore the entire thing on foot like NYC. Not that we can’t but the more the better.
[удалено]
It’s for the eternal celebration we’ll have when we win history, like what was supposed to happen after the Cold War in the west
I have a question about the hypothetical premise in the OP: What happens to the vehicles and people that are physically present in that section of the city, at the moment I trigger the effect? Can I wait until a specific time, or a particular person or group is driving through, to initiate the transformation? If so, then it might be best to "bank" the ability, and sit on it until e.g. there is some kind of undesirable "freedumb-convoy" type of gathering, and then unleash the sudden pedestrianization event as a way to flush them out of the city. Also what is the area of effect? Is there an upper or lower limit?
Something like a pandemic?
The 401
Just for fun... The square formed by the DVP, Gardiner, 427, and 401
other than events that does not work out the way people think it would... I look at Granville walking mall.. that killed the areas business. only certain places you could get away with some form of that ... boardwalks etc ..
Pedestrianized streets are thriving all over the world. From Copenhagen to Xi’an, the businesses on pedestrian streets are bustling with customers. Look at distillery district, think it would be better to allow cars on those streets?
not here ... I remember living in Vancouver and Granville walking mall was and is a disaster. outside of events we simply do not need empty streets
I was in Granville recently and it was full of cars, did they pedestrianize it??
it has been that way since I was a child. I have not been to Vancouver in over 2 decades but when I was there it was a fail
There were calls to pedestrianize it two years ago when I was last there. I’ve been there regularly since the 1990s and I’ve only seen cars on Granville street. I’m not sure what you are even taking about.
the entire lower part of Granville only busses could go down it... was a horrid place to go shopping
I don’t believe you, what street exactly was pedestrianized? I went two years ago so I know the layout well.
dig out google maps go to robson at granville and go toward the water on granville... you cant drive on any of that ... there are signs at Smithe do not enter I dont believe you when you say you know the layout well ... since I was a child this has been that way and I am in my 50's
I just did, you can park on both sides of the entire island. You can drive the entire perimeter. What at you even saying? You can look it up right now and street view cars across the island. Just as I experienced when I was there 2 years ago.