“Now that the TMU students are back it’s even more clear that this section should be closed for cars, the sidewalks can’t take the demand and people just spill into the road,” the Redditor shared on Wednesday, alongside a photo of a congested stretch of the sidewalk on Yonge St. and Dundas St.
Absolutely. New York City banned cars in Times Square over 15 years ago! It’s way past time that whole area should be car-free.”
A decade ago, a debate over rebuilding Yonge would have been conscripted by right-wing councillors into a fight against the alleged “war on the car.” The mere suggestion that cars should lose space to transit or cyclists or walkers was enough to unleash caterwauling. But things have changed. The first pandemic wave a year ago presented cities around the world with an urgent need to rethink what their streets could be. The resounding conclusion was to make more room for people.
Last week at Toronto City Council, before the vote on a proposal to halve traffic on Yonge to two lanes from four, a few voiced the old war-on-car worries, but with none of the pound-the-table angst of years past. One councillor quipped that he was “listening to the gasping death rattle of autosaurus.” The final decision was a landslide: 21-5 in favour.
For the first time in more than 100 years, city council has signed off on a possible redesign for one of the city’s most iconic stretches of road.
Yonge St. between Carlton and Queen Sts — heavily favoured by pedestrians — is proposed to see car lanes reduced to just two and widened sidewalk space with bike lanes between College and Gerrard Sts, added seating, planting and gates to allow for road closures in pedestrian “priority zones” in several blocks.
From the energetic core of Toronto, to the beautiful and placid shores of Lake Simcoe, Yonge Street is one of the longest streets in the world. In normal times, it is a vital connector for tens of thousands of GTA residents every day, and large sections of the street - particularly in downtown Toronto - are major destinations in their own right due to their plentiful options for shopping, entertainment, and dining. However, as Toronto has grown and evolved, the transportation needs on this busy thoroughfare have shifted. Indeed, between 1996-2016 there has been a massive 73% increase in the population, and a 43% increase in overall employment in downtown Toronto along the Yonge Street corridor.
Everyone knows about Yonge Street — not only as a place to gather — but with the proliferation of condos along the street and nearby, it’s also become a highly desirable place to live.
The pandemic may have slowed things down for now but with the boom in development and the high volumes of pedestrian activity expected to return, the City continues to look at ways to increase pedestrian space and to improve the way people move through and experience it.
Let’s paint a scene we all know too well. A client references an unreal experience they came across. An activation, right on a main street in some European city, and it was amazing. Naturally, the request that follows is to replicate that concept, recreate that level of excitement, and it’s your job to figure out what street it could live on. But the unfortunate answer, time and time again, is “We just don’t have that here in Toronto.”
As cities all over the world rethink what their new reality will be post-pandemic, Toronto stands strong with an incredible opportunity at foot. And things look hopeful for a new direction for its iconic main street as long as the powers that be stay focused on delivering new possibilities with generational benefits, rather than focusing on the issues of the past.
Hi! It’s us, the kids of Toronto. We know that eventually we will be adults, but we feel like no one listens to us. We see what's happening in our city but it's like no one seems to ask us what we think.
We love Toronto, like the Jays, Raptors, Leafs and all that. But the city is so much more! We like to do things that are outside, active and fun - and we want to be able to get to our schools, activities, and friends’ homes without having to go in the car.
As we grapple with this current moment in Toronto’s history, it has given us pause to reflect on what type of city we are, can be and will be.
Leading up to the beginning of the pandemic, most can point to the vibrancy of our city, especially as seen from a global reputation perspective. In late October, Toronto was once again celebrated as one of the top global cities claiming the 13th spot in the prestigious World’s Best Cities Report.
Hot on the heels of City Council's approval of the redesign of Yonge Street in North York, another section of the important Toronto artery looks set to follow in its footsteps with a complete transformation in the downtown core. The Yonge TOmorrow initiative appeared before the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on January 11 and was recommended for adoption, clearing the way for it to move on to a Council vote on February 2. The plan seeks to transform the section of Yonge between Queen Street and College/Carlton Streets into a highly pedestrianized road, removing the majority of vehicular traffic along the stretch and nearly doubling the sidewalk space with a pedestrian-friendly design.