{"id":26050,"date":"2020-02-27T22:59:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T03:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26050"},"modified":"2020-03-06T18:11:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T23:11:32","slug":"full-impact-of-yonge-street-road-diet-needs-to-be-assessed-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/full-impact-of-yonge-street-road-diet-needs-to-be-assessed-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Full impact of Yonge Street \u201croad diet\u201d needs to be assessed: Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A proposal to dramatically change the current traffic flow of Yonge\nStreet from Orchard Heights in the north to Golf Links in the south could be\nsubject to further review this fall, separate from the study from which it\noriginated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Council members took their first formal review of the Town\u2019s\ndraft new Master Transportation Study, a plan which proposes a \u201croad diet\u201d on\nthe Yonge Street corridor which would see the current traffic flow reduced to a\nsingle lane in each direction, a centre lane dedicated for turning and the\nbalance of road space turned over for bike lanes and\/or on-street parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft Master Transportation Study was presented to lawmakers at last\nweek\u2019s General Committee meeting by project manager Jonathan Chai, who said a\nsimilar traffic pattern was being explored by the City of Brampton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe assessed Yonge Street from an operational perspective as well as a\nsafety perspective,\u201d said Mr. Chai. \u201c[A road diet] basically means there are\ntwo lanes in each direction on Yonge Street today and that could be reduced to\none lane in each direction. In order to do that, the way that turns are made\nfrom Yonge Street today, they are shared with the thru-lanes. As soon as a car\nis waiting to turn left and access a driveway or to turn onto Wellington\nStreet, for example, effectively the number of travel lanes becomes one thru-lane\nper direction in any event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe feel [a road diet] would be a key recommendation for the Town\nthrough the Downtown Core. The other benefit of the road diet would be there\nwould be more space for sidewalks and for streetscaping to improve the overall\nattractiveness of the street for people to gather. You could also provide\ndedicated parking spaces along Yonge Street where you don\u2019t have the dedicated\nturn lane. A number of opportunities are opened up by this improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time Council has considered a model to change the\nlane configuration of Yonge Street through the Downtown Core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar model was proposed in the last term of Council by then-mayor\nGeoff Dawe, one which would have seen Yonge reduced to a single lane in either\ndirection with the balance of space turned over for a significant increase in\non-street parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That idea fizzled at the table and this latest \u201croad diet\u201d proposal was\nalso received last week with a degree of skepticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happens when there\u2019s a bus and it stops?\u201d asked Mayor Mrakas. \u201cWe\nblock the traffic, or would there be a lay-by for the bus?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Chai responded that a more detailed feasibility study would need to\nbe undertaken to examine the full impacts of the road diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will say that with two lanes, you can design it in a way such that\nyou have the turning lane at the intersection, but set back or on the other\nside of the intersection, there could be space for a bus lane,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\nare ways to do it and more studies need to be done to address that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe detailed feasibility study would include more detailed traffic\nanalysis as well as probably a preliminary design. We\u2019re envisioning it as a\nconceptual design to look at how those lanes could be implemented within the\nexisting corridor and the existing right of way. We would need to work with\nYork Region to make sure they are in agreement with the conceptual plan that\nwould be developed and the traffic analysis would need to support the\nrecommendations of that conceptual plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysis, however, will need to be extensive, Council agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the \u201croad diet\u201d proposal came out of the draft Master\nTransportation Study, Council voted to take this particular proposal out of\ntheir overall approval of the Study in favour of looking at the proposal on its\nown to consider the full impact such a change might have on the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a decision set to be ratified this week, Council voted to refer the\nmatter for further consideration as part of the 2021 Capital Budget talks set\nfor this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a substantial idea to reconfigure our downtown core with this\nroad diet which we have, as a group, agreed that downtown revitalization is one\nof the primary objectives of this term, and what I have before me says that the\nroad diet concept is generally referred to as a transportation improvement\nconcept,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cI get that, yet I am also asked to\nendorse in principle moving forward with this concept [but] I have very little\ninformation from a broader perspective to understand what the impact [is]. At\nthe same time, we\u2019re going to be asked to move forward on a $50 million project\nfor the revitalization of our Downtown Core. I would like to understand the\nrelationship of those two pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting Councillor Thompson\u2019s motion to refer the matter to the\nCapital Budget process was Councillor Rachel Gilliland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis allows us to have more time to learn and grow and see what that looks like,\u201d she said. \u201cI still have a hard time envisioning what that would mean for our Yonge Street downtown core. I am interested in seeing what Brampton has to offer. I think it would be good to pass it by the Economic Development Board [and] the Community Advisory Committee to get their feedback as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal to dramatically change the current traffic flow of Yonge Street from Orchard Heights in the north to Golf Links in the south could be subject to further review this fall, separate from the study from which it originated. Last week, Council members took their first formal review of the Town\u2019s draft new Master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Ma","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 13:11:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}