The section of Bronson that had pedestrian walks completed last fall used the City’s traditional “roller coaster” sidewalk design, as shown above. The whole width of walk “dips” for every car crossing. Motorists gets a smooth entry to their driveway; pedestrians get a thrill ride on undulating concrete. And in winter, walk plowing is hampered by the grade changes; the surface becomes only intermittently cleared bare.   Above: The City discourages businesses along Bronson because it so hazardous for motorists to stop. In front of this business, the whole front yard is paved so motorists can cut across the … Continue reading Rescue Bronson (part iii) : roller coaster sidewalks

A number of speakers at the recent City Hall open house on the Western section of the new LRT line (WLRT) favoured the Carling route. That route has a number of advantages, including distance from many of speakers favouring it over the Richmond Road options, a belief that there is more intensification potential there, and a firm belief that the WLRT should take priority over any other future LRT routes, so if the Carling-OTrain route knocks out the attractiveness of future southward or northward LRT routes that would have otherwise used the OTrain cut, well, too bad for them. A … Continue reading How much more intensification would make Carling the WLRT choice?

Corrugated metal siding is popular for renovating existing houses and constructing new ones. Its low cost is definitely a factor. Sometimes when metal siding is installed it looks decidedly boring. Maybe that is intentional, for example smooth siding on a side wall that isn’t supposed to attract attention. My liking for corrugated siding comes in part from its texture. Running the pattern in two directions or two colours can be fun, as evidenced by this picture of the Capri Pants Housing from  the previous post:   or from the checker board texture on the exterior of MEC in Westboro. Occasionally, there is … Continue reading Not corrugated metal siding

Construction crews are busy greening the new OTrain multi-user pathway. Today, they have started spraying on the grass seed. An accompanying mulch shades the seeds a bit, and its bright green colour shows where the seed has been spread.   the turquoise-green isn’t totally convincing, not nearly as much as the green dye sprayed on lawns to make them green in warm dry climates like Florida and Arizona.  Continue reading Spring in sprung, the grass is … painted on

The strip of greenspace that runs between Byron and Richmond Roads in the west end is either a linear park, or a transit right-of-way, depending on your view as to the availability of said space for the LRT transit initiative. The WLRT design folks are trying to tread a difficult path in saying they will use some of the Richmond Road right of way for LRT but not the linear park. It just doesn’t seem readily apparent that this can be done. As a member of the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) for the WLRT, I had my share of frustrations … Continue reading western LRT (part ii) : Byron strip

Not unexpectedly, the four “finalists” for the western continuation of the LRT mainline are all variations of the Richmond Road / Macdonald parkway alignment. In the next posts, I’ll look at several aspects of the route selection, but first, to Dominion Station.  All four options show Dominion Station right where it is, the western-most point of the transitway trench where it joints the Macdonald Parkway.   The current Dominion Station was a last-minute add-on to the transitway. It does provide convenient walk-in service for the adjacent low density housing and a cluster of high rises. Many buses had to stop at … Continue reading Western LRT (part i): Dominion Station

  Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you. At least the sticker is well printed and properly applied. It makes for a better environment than the hate-weenie who sticks up bright green Stop stickers everywhere. Continue reading Listen Up !

  I spotted this mini van parked on Somerset opposite the Plant Pool complex. What poor parking ! Didn’t even pull all the way into the space. What a lazy parker ! Then I went around to the front of the car and saw this:   Another lazy parker ! They can’t even be bothered to park their car in the space when its free and carefully bricked out for them. Or maybe they arrived together, how else could two cars so conveniently share one space? Sorry, I fail to understand that attraction of treadmill running so much that they can’t use … Continue reading Cozy Parker