Raise the Hammer

i agree with you to a point ryan, but the problem in this situation is grossly excess lane capacity on cannon/ york. dundurn is simply the last resort to head south to get to the 403. with 4 lanes of traffic feeding these bottlenecks, there is enormous pressure on a few small streets to take the burden of trucks crossing an almost entirely residential area from caroline to breadalbane.

what i am suggesting is keeping them out of this area entirely. if you look at a map, there is no good spot for these trucks to cross this neighbourhood or the also predominantly residential neighbourhood bound by cannon/york and barton west of bay. the real solution is having truck traffic use the 5 lane highway designed to move truck traffic from the industrial areas in the north end to the QEW from which they can easily access all directions, burlington street.

and i agree, this is the promise of the red hill, the silver lining. truck free downtown!

i truly believe, and i have thought about this a great deal, the local problems with truck traffic originate at two major points in the lower city: wellington and wentworth at burlington street. if trucks were not permitted to head south west past these points and were instead forced to take the designed route east towards the QEW most of the truck problems we are discussing would vanish.

the real capacity to limit is wentworth street north and wellington street north, then all these problems shift to a largely under utilized corridor, burlington street. i drive on burlington several times a week. not exactly bumper to bumper, and the speed limit is very strictly enforced (for some reason). (and, i know, you will ask what to do about the small industrial area that feeds queen street north, and i haven't a clue. i don't know how much truck traffic uses that route anymore. apparently the city wants to put a stadium down there or something so it will become mostly sidewalks and bus and bike lanes anyway)

truck traffic is a huge systemic problem and must be dealt with as such. pushing a bubble in the wallpaper down will only move it around. i believe we need to take back all of our residential areas, not just those who organize the best. if dundurn street wants trucks off dundurn the real solution is to get them off wellington and wentworth.