Just ban blowers outright, makes no sense when leafs get blown from one property to another, and then back again.

Yup its the only suburban neighbourhood in north America that is completly car free.

Trouble is zoning laws in Ontario and anywhere else in north America prevent cities from building more neighbourhoods like this.

Examples include things like minimum parking requirements, minimum setback, fire codes and even policing all play a part in shaping this. If you ever look at new suburban developments, think how hard its to get a convenience store or small supermarket build right inside the suburb.

Its a shame because we really should not be building suburbs with the same two or three single family homes repeated over and over, its really inefficient. We should start having townhomes, fourplexes, small 4-5 level mixed use condos, subways and trams with busways incorporated. Existing suburban layouts should also start adding missing middle housing inside whereever possible by changing zoning.

“Pedestrian streets” are not really “new”, it’s just something that we as North Americans have forgotten about.

We see large Walmart parking lots as normal and 6 lane “strodes” as nothing weird in cities and suburbs.

Yup with inflation the $60 would be somewhere between $80-85 dollars equivalent in buying power.

So its technically cheaper. $60 today is $40-45, 14 years ago.

Line 2 subway cars nearing their 30 years end of life really really soon…

Between line 3 just closing abruptly due to lack of maintenance, the Ontario Science Center closing abruptly due to lack of maintenance, Amsterdam Bridge along the waterfront closing due to lack of maintenance. I would not be supprised if Humber Bay Pedestrian Bridge is the next to go, its not been maintained in ages and looks close to end of life.

I think i see a pattern forming in Ontario in general. Ellington won’t open anytime soon but most stations already look like they are lacking some maintenance as well.

Was the tittle not “Groundhog Day Reloaded”?

To quote a line from Interstellar.

“We can care deeply - selflessly - about those we know, but that empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight.” -Dr. Mann.

It sucks that cars are so inefficient.

Is it just me or don’t European trucks look better then North American trucks? Probably safer for pedestrian traffic as well as automobile traffic, as the driver does not have his sight lines obstructed by the front hood.

AI fused faces in the background tripping me out. More arms/hands then people as well.

That’s like saying “why don’t you just swim across” instead of using the car ferry.

So does he go to prison or something? Or did he get a fine to pay?

“When cities are designed with mostly drivers in mind, they tend to be built for commuters and not residents, making them less attractive to live in or even visit outside of work.”

Cities need to be designed for the people and families that live there. Not people driving in from the suburbs.

Also, I wonder if NewYork will ever consider doing what Amsterdam did (in the 1970~1980) to combat its traffic issues (caused by car), and only allow pedestrian/cycaling traffic.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3052699/these-historical-photos-show-how-amsterdam-turned-itself-into-a-bike-riders-paradise

When the tram goes up hill its at the front, when its going back down its at the back. For this specific line at least.

Video of trams in Stuttgart in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdzCyQyKvfg

Walkable as is in “enjoyably” walkable. Walking across a Walmart parking lot across a 6 lane road, and then to across another large carpark of nothingness to maybe a bus stop, all the while trying to not get hit by a car is not a classification of a walkable city.

Worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ

Widening roads and Hwys actually does not reduce traffic, most city planers have known this since the 1930s. The concept is called “induced demand”.

In its simplicity, as a roadway become wider more people choose to take it for a small amount of time, and then once again traffic builds up to past levels.

Here is a great video that summaries the concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZwOAIect4

This is why the 401 in my opinion is way too wide, it should really be redesign to be more efficient in on/off ramp locations. The collectors and express concept is really poorly implement as well IMO within the Toronto area and there are two many of/on ramps.

The best design on 401 hwy at the moment is a stretch located between the 410 & James Snow Parkway in both directions. Lanes are reduced with a dedicated HOV, and trucking traffic is restricted to the right lane with passing traffic on the left. The right hand lane rarely “disappears” as well, allowing trucking to stick to the right without being pushed out onto a off ramp.

What Ontario really needs is better road classifications, we really lack highspeed roadways, instead we only design “strodes” or Hwys. Where we should really be adding highspeed roads instead (no signalised intersections and no driveways)

Strodes are awfully designed for all road users, from pedestrian traffic (walking/cycling) to automobile traffic.

Some of the older well designed roads we used to have in Toronto unfortunately have been butcher like the Allan Rd and Black Creek Drive.

Think the equivalent of adding signaled lights and pedestrian sidewalks to a highway bad, with a ton of driveways on and off the Hwy.

Yup, rail for long distance commercial transport. Regulate trucking (as its a profession).

Truck speed limiters for all commercial trucks over 10ft in size. Restricted truck sizes in city centers limited to cargo trucks or maybe 15ft maximum at certain hours.

Prevent truckers form overtaking each other on the hwy or any roads over 80kmh in speed. Restrictions for trucks to stay on the right.

Redesign on/off ramp location so the right lane does not “disappear”. This IMO is the largest reason for traffic as all truckers hog the center lane because of the disappearing right lane.

For roads like the Gardiner trucking should be restricted at certain hours.

Totally agree, our cars are too huge IMO, no need for it TBH. Its always great to travel the world (if you can). Nice to see the different ways people live.

Toronto needs to implement a few things as potential solutions.

First, make the city more affordable for families to live in, ie. make a 3 or 4 bedroom unit easy to find and male its price compared in sqft the same as a single family home in the GTA (suburbs). Our cities need less commuters and more actually people living on them. Things to look at are missing middle homes, tackle parking requirements, take a look at fire codes and zoning in cities to allow low rose 6-7/story developments aimed at families and not investors.

Second, implement a greater increase in transportation infrastructure, this means closing streets to only transit such as trams, buses, taxis, and cycling. Focused on making the city walkable and livable from a pedestrian standpoint. This will cause more people to want to live on the city. The concept of a 15min city is the key.

Third, implement a low carbon, or low emission zone in toronto. Specifically starting in the downtown core, probaby up till saint clair or maybe even Ellington. Prevent larger and less file efficient cars for coming into the city to promote greater transit and less pollution, again urguing more people to choose to live on the city.

Fourth, look at infrastructure planing in Ontario. Out road and street design are not well thought out. We need to stop developing “strodes” and classify our roadways between streets, roads, and hyways for effectively. We need to cut down infrastructure costs as well, we can do this by cuting down on the amount of signaled intersections, and instead we should look at roundabout or traffic circles as much as possible. Most moneys cities spend are in the continued maintenance of traffic signals/lights. A roundabout is only built once and the maintenance costs in substantially lower.

Taking about classification of roadways, Ontario has almost no high speed roads, instead we implement “strodes” which are neither safe for pedestrian traffic or cycaling. This also sucks for transits. Instead we need proper design where hwys spill into high speed roads, which meet low speed roads, then into low speed streets and residential neighbourhood streets. We treat everything either as a hwy or a road at the moment, and each road has multiple driveways whicj causes congestion.

In the example of the Gardiner its was originaly designed as a high speed road with a limit of 90km, but its currently treated like a hwy. All the off ramps also empty out directly onto low density low speed streets.

IMO, the only place in all of Toronto that shows some sense of planing is a small section of the Allan road traveling north. The section looks like this.

You have the 401 hwy connect you to the Allan Rd (high speed road with no lights), empty out into a low traffic low speed city street, which then connects you into a suburban low speed speed. You have no traffic lights in this location (except the one intersection across the Allan at the top right), this section should really be a full two lane roundabout.