Raise the Hammer

That specific stretch of Longwood has great potential because a) there is still room to make changes and; b) with MIP growth there will be demand and resources to make those changes.

Let's go through each of those users of the road: 1. Pedestrians. You've had it rough on that stretch going to McMaster, Westdale Highschool or work. Walking over the 403 bypass in winter is in of itself scary and then throw in cars and trucks doing 60-70km/h a few inches from you - good luck! Let's expand and widen the sidewalk and/or push it back from the motorists. We got the room and it would make pedestrians more confident about walking. Throw in some street furniture and trees while you're at it.

1. Cyclists. You are trying to share the road with traffic going 70km/h? You might as well be on the 403. I'm really surprised more deaths haven't happened yet. I'm not even thinking about trying to turn left or change lanes. Since we have room to play with it, a dedicated bike lane would do wonders to improve safety for all. When you turn those bends, in cars or bikes, you'd like to be prepared for what you face. The dedicated bike lanes can easily dovetail into either bike boxes or dismount areas to turn left and go into the parking lots if you need to turn left.

2. Motorists. You've had it good for so long on that road. With the 403east/west interchange off Aberdeen and no pesky people or businesses to slow you down you've been conditioned to treat it like an extension of the 403. Times change and so do driving habits. It will take some major signals to change those driving habits. The list can be creative from some roundabouts (not sure how effective that would be to slow down traffic) to more timed lights to a major push for two weeks by law enforcement to nab speeders with those very public radar readings. Cootes drive did a blitz in combination with heavy enforcement and people's driving habits changed. It can be done.

So, all those things put into combination can do wonders for that stretch of road. The path of least resistance is to simply have cops do speeding blitzes every morning and evening rush hour for two weeks straight.