Xmas transit observations #2 - The St. Clair debacle

OK, for Christmas I broke down and drove to have family Christmas. I wasn't going to haul all my loot back home on the TTC. (Good thing, one of my gifts was a heavy cast-iron, enamled lined dutch-oven. It's actually more of a man's cooking tool - but that won't stop me from using it.)

Out of curiousity, I drove back along St. Clair W - from about Christie all the way to Mt. Pleasant. The roadway between Vaughan and Yonge now has the streetcar ROW built. Some observations:

1. The lanes are on the narrow end.
2. The lanes are constantly curving left and right to accomodate turning lanes and streetcar platforms.
3. The turning lanes are quite modest in length - between one and four passenger car lengths

This is at odds with what I've read in other places. There was a rather strident letter in The Star a few weeks back accusing the city of building a monster roadway on that stretch. The assertion is blatantly false. Due to the narrow lanes and the curving back and forth, there is really about 1 1/2 usebale traffic lanes when no vehicles are parked.

The roadway on the Bathhurst to Yonge stretch is likely to cause a significant congestion problem - but not a catastrophic one. The primary reason is that there is little in the way of commercial activity.

The same can't be said for the remainder. If the same design is followed West of Vaughan, the street will be at a standstill. Any type of commercial loading or construction requiring trucks to get in and out of sidestreets, loading areas etc, will cause traffic backups. In some cases trucks will need to mount the ROW to be able to back into loading areas.