Comment 113390

By mdrejhon (registered) - website | Posted August 11, 2015 at 12:22:52 in reply to Comment 113292

Educational caveat automatically being added for general reader "decide for yourself" purposes.

https://raisethehammer.org/article/2664/...

I agree there are beautiful 1-way boulevards, with wide sidewalks, trees, big curb bumpouts for non-traffic parking lanes, fancy intersections with great markings, etc.

Likewise, there's dangerous 2-way streets with no bike curbs, narrow sidewalks, and in some sections, no crosswalk paintings at intersections.

For example, the massive big-radius curb curves on St. Joseph Drive and James Street S, allows cars to turn REALLY FAST, scaring pedestrians who cross at this intersection. That is what James Street South pretty much is. Automobile optimized section, as it's also a mountain access.

And I agree there are ugly/bad 2-way streets, too -- including B-A-R-T-O-N that is people-unfriendly in sections -- though some people like the nitty gritty -- it's a street we both love & hate.

There's overlap. For further reading why 2-way streets can be bad and 1-way streets can be good, see this other comment.

On that note:

The Right Tool for the Right Job definitely. Not all streets in all of Canada needs to be people-friendly (We don't need driveways and houses on Highway 401 -- ha! -- as much as I like Complete Streets). A proper Main/King 2-way conversion, in the LRT era, is absolutely critical, however. The time for Main/King urban expressways is over. I concede that can be botched into a dangerous 2-way street. Likewise, I concede it can be made into a beautiful 1-way street. But it's more long-term fixable than a permanently botched 1-way (e.g. putting separate LRT tracks on Main and on King, keeping sidewalks narrow, letting all cars zoom by traffic-prioritized-to-cars instead of traffic-prioritized-to-LRT/pedestrians), etc. If we are forced with an LRT decision (whether we like it or not; I do; but many others don't), the two-way options are, on average, more appealing (and city council botchings more fixable over the longterm) than the one-way options -- we can't trust the city to do a people-friendly 1-way conversion staying 1-way yet.

An informed reader can make informed judgement. Vote for it, or don't vote for it, whether you agree or disagree with me. For example, even myself I rather not have the LRT built, if the pair of rails cannot be kept together (e.g. breaking them 1 separate rail each for Main/for King -- a whopping 600 meters apart in some sections like near Sherman!) because that slams shut the door for future Main/King 2-way conversion, and makes it easier for future city councils to keep them as urban expressways if they wished, as an example. Cherry picking bad 2-way examples and good 1-way examples don't tell the whole story, but Main/King status quo definitely needs to be made far more people-friendly, regardless "one-way or another" (pun).

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-08-11 12:48:00

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