Waterfront Toronto's consultation meetings last week revealed how the plans for the Martin Goodman Trail along Toronto's downtown waterfront are taking shape. It is exciting to see we are moving closer to see some major improvements in the cycling infrastructure in this area of the city. Final designs have not been chosen yet and among the options some are definately better than others. Now is your chance to have input and help to ensure that the best options are chosen and that any design issues with those options are pointed out before the plans are finalized.

For those of you who were not able to attend the Public Meetings on the Queen's QuayRevitilization EA and the Lower Donlands EA the presentations and display panels are now online. Also on line are comment forms that you can send in by December 19th, 2008. The Queen's Quay Revitalization EA and the Lower Donlands EA web pages have pdf versions of the the presentations, display panels and a workbook form for you to submit your comments. You have until December 19th to submit your comments. You can e-mail in your comments. Send your comments on the Queen's Quay plans to central@waterfrontoronto.ca and send your comments for the Lower Donlands plans to lowerdon@waterfrontoronto.ca.

Page 78 of the Queen's Quay presentation shows the South Side Transit: Martin Goodman Trail 1 way option you can see the entire document at the following link Queen's Quay Revitiliation Presentation Dec. 8, 2008

I attended the Queens Quay consultation where three preferred options were presented in addition to a 'do-nothing' option for comparison. Two of the preferred alternatives had the east bound lanes of traffic removed south of the street car tracks removed and replaced with a continuous off-street Martin Goodman Trail. This was what was previewed in the Quay to the City Event in August of 2006. These were referred to as the 'Southside Transit: Martin Goodman Trail' options. The difference between the two Southside Transit: Martin Goodman Trail' options was what would happen to the car traffic lanes north of the Streetcar Tracks. The options were to have two way or one way traffic. The third option was called 'Center Transit: On Street Bike lanes'. This maintained the current automobile lanes on both sides of the tracks reduced them to one lane each way and added on street bike lanes.

I was surprised to see the option with the On Street Bike lanes presented at this point. It didn't support one of the primary goals of this project which was to have a continuous Martin Goodman Trail through the central waterfront which would link up to the existing trail in the east and west. I was worried that there was opposition forming to removing the road south of the street car tracks. After the presentations was the opportunity for the participants to discuss and comment on the options. I was heartened by the fact that participants, the majority of whom lived in the area, overwhelmingly supported the 'Southside Transit:Martin Goodman Trail' options, there was some debate on whether the road north of the tracks should be 1 way or two way. You still have a chance to weigh in on this before December 19th.

The difficulty with the centre Transit on-street bike lanes option was that where the bike lanes would run along the curb of Queens Quay, especially on the south side of the street, the bike lanes would soon be filled with illegally parked buses and cars pushing cyclists back into the traffic. In other areas where the bike lanes would be along parked cars the dooring hazard would face cyclists. This is one route in the city that an off-street trail should be constructed so cyclists of all skill levels and ages can travel to and through the central waterfront area. This option falls well short of the vision of creating a aesthetically pleasing boulevard along the waterfront that was foreshadowed with the Quay To the City event when the asphalt was covered with grass and flowers.

This is an image of the lower Donlands Trail Plan which is on page 25 of the presentation. You can download the full presentation at the following link. Lower Donlands Presentation Dec. 10, 2008

I wasn't able to go to the Lower Donlands meeting but I have looked over the presentation and it looks like some exciting improvements to the cycling infrastructure could be realized as part of this project. The area for this study takes in the Martin Goodman Trail on the east end of Queen's Quay, the Martin Goodman Trail along Cherry Street south of Lake Shore Blvd. the southern Terminus of the Don Trail, the western end of the Lake Shore East boulevard path as well as the short bit of the old Martin Goodman Trail north of Lakeshore between Cherry Street and Parliament. If you have ridden through this area you know it can be difficult to navigate the intersections and connect between the trails that converge here. This project will realign streets and redesign the intersections and this provides the opportunity to really improve the trail connections and again improve the off-street paths in the area.

The trails plan is just one part of this overall project, and how the trails are configured will depend on the options chosen for the major initiatives envisioned with this plan, creating a new mouth for the Don River and then realigning existing roads such as the Eastern end of Queen's Quay and Lakeshore Blvd. as well as planning a new road network for the portlands. You can see the options being considered in the Presentation document Lower Donlands presentation December 10th, 2008. The trails plan is on page 25 of this document. In addition to dealing with existing main trails it is considering adding connecting trails and scenic trails along the new mouth of the Don.

I haven't had an opportunity to discuss this project with the planners but one thing I see that could impact cyclists is that it appears existing bike lanes on the eastern end of Queen's Quay will be removed from the street and all cyclists will use the Martin Goodman Trail along Queen's Quay. In addition the path that extended westward from the intersection of the Don Trail and the Lake Shore East Trail to Cherry Street south of the rail tracks and then extended between Cherry street and Parliament on the old Martin Goodman Trail section north of Lake Shore Blvd is not included. This means that the cyclists who currently use these two routes would be on the Martin Goodman Trail increasing the volume of users in this area. Page 25 of this document shows three panels with the Secondary Plan vision for the area. One of these is the vision for Trails. It shows that the Lakeshore Blvd. East trail would be extended further downtown beyond Parliament creating a direct commuter route. I think that should be added back into this new plan to give cyclists more options. Again you can have your say on this project by reviewing the plans and e-mailing your comments.

There are some general issues to be looked at as the trails are designed. One is trail width. When the Quay to the City Event was held the volume of cyclists increased 600% at times. Improving the connections thru the waterfront will increase trail traffic so the width of the trail should be more than the 4 m being proposed. These new trails should be at least 5 m. They should be more along the lines of the new waters edge trail that was built in Marilyn Bell park. Other issues to be looked at should be road crossings. The latest innovations should be included such as elephant feet crossings in intersections, bike signals and bike boxes for left hand turns to and from north south connecting streets. These were all things being considered by the planners but sending in your comments to show support for these things will help to ensure they make their way into the final plans and onto the ground.