08-07-2023, 02:12 PM
(08-07-2023, 12:51 PM)the_conestoga_guy Wrote: Low-key, the investment that I have been the most excited about lately was the changes made along from Margaret from Victoria to Wellington. It seems like the main focus from the city has been to build out the downtown grid. But those changes seem to be much more involved, because it includes cuts into the road surface and widening curbs to fit MUTs.
The changes along Margaret basically just involved some paint and affixing concrete blocks. The implementation was so much quicker, yet the end result is 90% as good as the downtown facilities.
I really hope it’s a sign of things to come, with more cheap and rapid changes building out from the core.
The Margaret work is part of the downtown grid actually, but MerelyKate and others convinced city staff it was worth doing the extra 150 meters across to Breithaupt in order to make the connection to the spur line. Plus I think there was some funding freed up from the cancelled sections.
I think the downtown grid could be done cheaper with more temporary materials, but that also has downsides (cars frequently hit barriers in Toronto and push them into the bike lane).
Margaret was easy to do because there was already significant right of way, but it still feels like a retrofit, continuing straight on Margaret isn't ideal at this point (at least from what I can see in the pictures).
That being said, I don't think the time consuming part is construction. Downtown grid took years of advocacy and planning and public consultation and work. And the delays in construction were largely to do with resistance to the work being done (look at Duke and Ontario cancelled).
If I've learned one thing, it's that there's plenty of money, the ONLY thing we're short of is political will. Which is why I don't think it's so important how or what we do (as long as prices are within reason, I'm looking directly at you Phase 2 ION) what is important is the political will.
Hell, the DTG was absolutely tenuous as it was...the proprietor of Legacy Greens managed to kill the Ontario section. The region is trying to kill the Duke section. VPNA NIMBYs succeeded in killing the Water St. diversion. Think about how much has been compromised from the original very modest plan. We were lucky the thing passed at all. There was strong resistance from Market interests to the Cedar St. section, and the VPNA NIMBYs really wanted to kill the whole Joseph St. section.
I.e., don't ever publicly critique something like the DTG even if you think "oh...x would be slightly better"...because all you do is make it more likely that we don't get anything. Of course, privately, feel free to give feedback to staff building it, or council, (and generally I think this is also a private/safe place to discuss it).