Spadina - The good, the bad and the ugly

OK! - I've successfully managed to switch to Beta Blogger - not to be confused with Beta Blocker.

To continue with more observations from yesterday's long walk. After I reached St. Clair & Bathurst, I headed down to Spadina - to check out the 'LRT' and the general scene.

Well - first the good news. The adult media store pictured above is closing. Sorry guys - this has to count as good news in my books.

Now the not so good news. The Spadina 'LRT' - which means 'Ligh Rail Transit' - was running with heavy bunching. No - this doesn't mean that the merchants were bringing in bananas on the streetcars. It means that the streetcars were running in bunches. On my walk from Bloor to Queen, I saw:

2 occurences of a single streetcar
3 occurrences of two streetcars running together
1 occurence of three streetcars running together
1 occurence of four streetcars running together

Now the theory of dedicated ROWs is that that they're supposed to stop bunching. I guess that's just like the theory that streetcar service can carry more riders than buses - one that doesn't hold water.

The ugly? The street still has a big graffitti problem. A little less trash on the ground - but still quite an unappealing vista. 

More on St. Clair - the sidewalk recedes

Another picture from my walking tour yesterday.
This shows a section where the sidewalk has been pushed back by the streetcar requirements. Other than relatively short queueing lanes at Yonge and at Bathurst, all the sidewalk cuts I saw were to accomodate the new wider platforms.

If we're going to be stuck with this beast, the wider platforms are a requirement. Even the new platforms aren't that wide.

Streetcar fanatic Steve Munro blames the sidewalk cuts in the ever-evil road engineers. However, this isn't what this gal found.

On the section East of Bathurst, the sidewalk gets relatively little use. As I explained yesterday, the stretch is largely devoid of retail. Now if any section of the sidewalk West of Bathurst gets treatment similar to what you see in the picture, it may well be the death sentence for that retail strip.

Observations during a St. Clair W walkabout

Here's a picture of the work in process (let's not say progress!) on St. Clair W.



I took this and a few others on a long walkabout today. I guess I should have been home writing about all those topics I promised to write about in my previous post. However, don't you think that a blog with a few pictures is better.

This picture is from St. Clair W - maybe 5 blocks from Yonge. What struck me here was that the streetcar ROW being constructed doesn't seem to be raised above the street that far. I didn't have a ruler with me - but it seems to be only 4 or 5 inches.

Now on this stretch of the street, this observation is largely moot. I don't think traffic patterns will be affected that much. There is very little in the waty of a retail presence - and hence few delivery vehicle.

However, west of Bathurst, I don't see much that will stop motorists and commecial vehicles from popping up onto the 'dedicated ROW'. Between Bathurst and the end of the line, St. Clair is almost continuously retai/commercial - which means very high frequency of delivery and pickup - which will block the single lane of traffic. Other than certain low-to-the ground sporty cars, most vehicles can make over a 4-5 inch curb.

Assuming this actually gets built West of Bathurst, I won't be surprised if the dedicated ROW is not so dedicated a few months into operation. I wonder what Joe Mihevc will think then.