Raise the Hammer

- jason sez: "great observations. I've written about this before in reference to Portland and Montreal. Fantastic, complete one-way streets in those cities."
-- We get it. You love Portland. You're free to move back any time. You seem to want us to be followers, not leaders.

- jason sez: "Our problems are absolutely the timed lights and crazy restrictions at city hall on sidewalk patios. I suspect that wonderful neighbourhood in France sees a lot more consistent traffic than King in the IV, making it easier to keep traffic slow. I've always felt the International Village, and King West where you ate yesterday could be like this:"
--I thought the problem was one-ways and all the lanes? Now it's the timed lights and inability to impede the sidewalks?

- jason sez: "Plants tons of large street trees, and get rid of the metal grates that keep them small and withered. Deprogram the lights and encourage (not restrict) businesses from bringing patios right to the sidewalk edge along with other displays, bike racks etc....."
-- Now the problem is metal grates? Maybe it's the abuse the trees get from passers-by, and/or lack of care from city arborists? Again, the issue isn't synchronized lights or lack of patio space.

- jason sez: "One way streets don't have to be horrible, but we do them 100% wrong because we're addicted to high speed traffic."
-- I thought they were horrible which is why you want them converted? Now it's that they move too quickly? Make up your mind, man!

- jason sez: "One of the great benefits of two-way King however is ease of access for west end/Dundas customers heading downtown. Shop-keepers brought this up decades ago when the conversion first happened. All of the customer base west of the core is now whisked past the core on Main and can't come east on King to shop."
-- Are there a lot of people heading from the west end and Dundas coming downtown? My family is from the west end and haven't been downtown in years. A number of friends also live in Dundas, and they don't come downtown unless they're visiting me. Their families don't come downtown. Who is coming from the suburbs to visit the core?

- jason sez: "One only needs to look at King/Queen/College in TO to see how versatile and excellent retail streets like this function as two-way with slower traffic and curb parking. If they can do it with their millions of people, surely we can."
-- Again, let's be followers, not leaders. I've been to those streets, and recently, too. There's lots of traffic zipping around, including streetcars. What's your point? Millions of people don't live on those streets, and those in your "millions" don't visit those streets daily, weekly, or even monthly. A coworker lives right downtown on College st. She doesn't visit any of these shops as they don't carry clothing, food, or items she'd purchase. Is she the minority?