Comment 41871

By Pxtl (registered) - website | Posted June 11, 2010 at 10:09:03

You have to remember the engineer's perspective. I'm an engineer (of the computer variety) and to me it's obvious: 1-way streets are the best solution for the intended function of a road - throughput of cars. The simple number of cars per-second that a strip of road can process before becoming dysfunctionally congested.

That's what a road is for. Flowing traffic. That is its purpose. 1-way streets maximize traffic flow, and therefore let the road meet it's maximum potential as a road.

Of course, all that external stuff like the quality-of-life of the people living around the road are externalities that are difficult to quantify and measure and directly correlate, so they don't get as much interest from an engineer... particularly one who specializes in optimizing traffic flow. Traffic flow engineers aren't designing cities, they're designing networks.

Honestly, _because_ of the engineer's perspective, I actually would rather see the King & Main corridor remain 1 way, at least for the western half of downtown. This would maintain a smooth connection from the QEW into the core, much like the Gardiner provides for Toronto. But I'd also like to see lanes given over to bike lanes, traffic calming measures introduced, the Green Wave reduced to 40km/h instead of the moronic 60 or 70 it seems to be right now, and an enforcement of the 50km/h limit. Hopefully that would be a good compromise - it would slow traffic to a sane and safer pace while still allowing it to move smooth through intersections instead of getting snarled by constant red lights.

Comment edited by Pxtl on 2010-06-11 09:09:28

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