Results tagged “traffic”

City Council is wrapping up its monthly meeting (extended to a third day to accommodate a full agenda and some election-laced rhetoric), one which has been particularly action packed. In addition to banning new bars and restaurants on Ossington for a one year "cooling off" period, and passing a precedent-setting green roof requirement (the first in North America), Council has considered several proposals for addressing the balance—or redressing the imbalance—between the different modes of transit on our city streets. The Jarvis lane reallocation grabbed Monday's headlines, and today Council has voted to install sidewalk, transit, and cycling improvements on Roncesvalles, and also passed a comprehensive Walking Strategy which will (among many other excellent measures that have garnered almost no press) introduce pilot no-right-turn-on-red restrictions on ten especially pedestrian-heavy intersections. Given that the city has approximately 2,100 signalized intersections, this represents the smallest foray, an experiment really, in redistributing roadway space.

What to make of a map of cycling accidents that shows that the most dangerous street for cyclists also happens to have a bike lane? The Star's Map of the Week blog presented that dilemma to cyclists in yesterday's map of traffic accidents involving cyclists. With all 1,068 of the accidents reported to police last year plotted on the map, some clear patterns emerge: as you might expect, most accidents with bikes happen downtown on main streets. College (complete with bike lane), Queen, Bay (with its diamond lane), and Bloor all stick out on the map as having high levels of accidents throughout the core and into the west end, while relatively few accidents occur in northeast Scarborough or on the Gardiner.

Following her usual route home from work, Della Hazelton made her way down Yonge Street in the early evening of October 2, 1907. On the south side of Bloor, the forty-two year-old widow stepped off the curb and was part-way across the street when she was startled by an approaching streetcar. Jumping back, Hazelton was struck by a northbound car, thrown under its wheel, and killed instantly. Constable Hobbs, who'd been directing traffic at the intersection, and other witnesses testified at a subsequent coroner's inquest. They confirmed that the driver, Frank E. Mutton, had slowed his big touring car—and had even sounded his horn—as he approached the busy intersection.

Photo by Lex in the City.

Dalton McGuinty unveiled a new plane yesterday, which will be used by the OPP to deter dangerous drivers on Ontario highways. To encourage courteous motoring, the plane is armed with four Maverick air-to-ground missiles and a 30 mm cannon capable of piercing two inches of armour plate. Actually the plane just reports bad driving to ground units, but I'd bet my idea would be more effective.

Jarvis Street, circa 1910. (City of Toronto Archives)

Cows cause traffic tie-ups on the QEW. Best line of story: "We have someone en route with rodeo experience." Rodeo experience. To get a cow to move off the damn road. (Did nobody just try waving food in front of the cow's face?)

The last time we looked at accessible pedestrian signals (APS), those chirping and cuckooing crossing indicators for the visually-impaired, it was with some surprise at the city's claim that it simply couldn't afford to install APS at more than a handful of intersections each year. Instead of allocating enough money to improve availability of a fairly basic service to visually-impaired residents, the city instead looked for corporate sponsors to pick up some of the considerable slack, resulting in pedestrian signals "funded by IBM" and other organizations dotting the city, a virtual declaration that the city was abdicating its responsibilities.

Frequent northbound travellers on the Bayview Extension have probably noticed the "Pottery Road" street sign pointing to a glorified supermarket driveway at the top of the hill, just south of Moore Avenue. Some may even have wondered how it relates to the more familiar street of the same name almost 1.5 kilometers to the south, winding up the valley wall to Broadview Avenue. The answer to this puzzle is that the two Pottery Roads used to be one, connecting Broadview and Moore Avenues, roughly following Cudmore Creek for much of its length.

With parking at a premium this holiday season, shopping malls see an increase in lazy, self-important jackasses who park in Accessible Parking spaces and abuse legitimate disability permits. The mind boggles at the selfish sense of entitlement this takes, and the Toronto Police Service won't care that you "just had to return a video." The Parking Enforcement Disabled Liason Unit have just entered a month-long enforcement blitz, focusing on those who park illegally in...

Photo of Ani DiFranco by Maria Bree. This week, our must-see show is Ani DiFranco at Music Hall Theatre. Having seen her in concert multiple times, Musicologist can vouch for the fact that the Righteous Babe is an amazing live musician. There seems to be some stigma about liking Ani, but don't fall victim to that or you'll be missing out. If you're looking for something free, Ottawa's Melissa Laveaux plays Hart House's Arbor...

Each week, Torontoist shows off the most interesting, creative, and cool submissions to our Torontoist Flickr Pool. We're especially partial to photos that show our city in a new light, highlight a recent event, and remind us why we live here. Join the Flickr pool and show us what you've got.

Last night, one of Torontoist’s adolescent fantasies came true … no, not that one…we finally saw synth pop group The Spoons in concert!

Drake, you ho, this is all your fault. The Ontario Municipal Board has approved a high-rise residential project on Queen Street West at 48 Abell Street, just steps from the Gladstone and everything hipsters cherish about Toronto's arts scene. Developers intend to build 7 condos in total with affordable housing, and the ratio of "normal people" to "artists with cool hair" will be thrown into upheaval. Unfortunately, there's not much that we or neighbourhood-preservation groups like Active 18 can do. The condo developers officially have the green light.

Sure, there are tons of benefits attributed to streetcars/light rail -- and most of us would choose anything over a bus -- but this morning there was the sort of calamity unique to our city's streetcar system.

Jane Pitfield and David Miller are going to be seeing a lot of each other until November 13. The round of mayoral debates has started and both of them came out swinging for their first debate last night according to the Star. Incineration and David Miller's record were two of the big issues.

If nothing else, we like two things at Torontoist: the TTC, and bands about spoons. But before there was Spoon, one of the best bands currently making music (and certainly the best one out of Austin, Texas) there was The Spoons, a new-wave band coming straight from the hip and edgy streets of...Burlington. The band enjoyed some short-lived success in the 1980s, especially on the college circuit, and fizzled out as the decade came to an end.

With the temperature inching just above freezing this weekend Torontoist might just have to bring out our bike. We miss riding it around town, dodging cabbies, avoiding horse crap (if you're Matt B.) and just feeling the cold Toronto air in our freezing faces. Ah, bike-riding in Winter.