Raise the Hammer

Hi Dan,

I would like to echo the opinion that Bay St. really ought to become a two-way street, or at least have a two-way cycle track between Cannon and Hunter.

There is currently no useful southbound cycling route from Cannon/York to the south end between Catharine and Dundurn, a distance of 2.0 km. (Specifically: John is too busy; Hughson is one-way northbound and is cut off by the GO station; James is too busy; MacNab and Park are cut off by the Copps megablock; Bay is one-way northbound; Caroline is cut off by SJAM; Hess is one-way northbound; Queen is too busy [especially with truck traffic from Cannon to King]; Ray has no protecting crossings of Main and King and no bridge over the CP tracks; Pearl has 4-way stops at every corner, very unfavourable light cycles at King and Main, and a bridge over the CP tracks that is supposedly pedestrian-only; Locke has a bizarre two blocks of one-way northbound traffic between King and Main; the streets between Locke and Dundurn don't bridge the CP tracks.)

Moreover, although the new Cannon cycle track generally has a spectacular design, it ends with a massive fail at Hess, with no useful way to cross to the south side of York. (Hess remains pointlessly one-way northbound north of King, and the bicycle route west of Hess on Cannon requires cyclists to transfer to the north side of Cannon/York, from which it is a tall order to then cross York heading southbound.) Therefore it remains true that there is no safe westbound route across downtown between Barton and Hunter.

A two-way cycle track on Bay from Cannon to Hunter (at least) would neatly connect the Hunter and Cannon St. cycle tracks and also provide access to the Napier St/Victoria Park/Head St route to the King St. bridge over the 403. Because of the need to access Napier (or Market) to the west of Bay, the west side of the street would be the logical location for the cycle track.

I don't see why Bay couldn't have a two-way street design plus cycle track at least north of Hunter. This design would also improve wayfinding for motorists. At present Queen St. is the only useful southbound route for motorists between James and Dundurn. Two-way conversion of Bay St. would create much needed redundancy in our street network and reduce the number of automobile trips that involve pointless detours through residential neighbourhoods.

Thanks,

John