Comment 31142

By jason (registered) | Posted May 19, 2009 at 18:35:12

it appears to me as though two-way LRT won't work on Main for a few reasons:

  1. Main is more suited to become a 4-lane road with turning lanes at intersections. King isn't wide enough to be designed in this manner.
  2. If Main were to house the LRT, there would be zero opportunity for street parking along both King and Main due to the narrower design of King and the loss of 2 lanes for LRT on Main.
  3. During the day, street parking on King from Sherman to Wentworth is mostly empty. Plus, it hasn't done much for business up until now. LRT bringing in shoppers and people who want to be there will help businesses much more than cars speeding through to the suburbs.
  4. King is more suited to LRT and it's spinoff effects due to the existing streetwall along it's length.

Some other points: 1. Side streets can see street parking increased and make up for the loss along King. 2. King can still see parking from John to Bay and Queen to Dundurn. That's a lot of street parking. 3 Main can see parking from Dundurn to Sherman, and possibly east of Sherman with a simple parking cut-out into the southern sidewalk which is quite wide east of Sherman.

Undoubtedly some parking will be lost with an LRT plan, but having the LRT on King will allow for quite a bit of parking to be added back in and will give drivers a normal 4-lane road option on Main, and pedestrians a strip of wonderful old buildings just waiting to be brought back to life along King, filled with shops, cafes, hotels, restaurants and residences.

The more I look at it, the more I like the current recommendation.

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