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Adjei
Senior Member
I don't think you can really make a comparison. The bike station in Rotterdam is located in their main railway station. Union Station has a facility like this but it's substantially smaller. Mount Dennis station wont be the main station for Toronto. Part of this has to do with culture. In the Netherlands, cycling is part of their culture. Everyone does it. They have developed extensive bike lanes and other amenities due to this. Toronto and Canada as a whole doesn't have such a culture. Here cars are more important and it's apparent in everything here. Look at the recent Gardiner debates as a first hand example of this. They have also extensively developed their transportation station in Netherlands and a city like Rotterdam which is smaller than Toronto has a comparable transit system to what we have here and even in some aspects surpasses what we have here.
CDL.TO
Moderator
If you look into what the Netherlands was doing back in the 60s and 70s, it's clear that the reverse is more true. Back then, they were building parking lots, widening streets, and planning urban expressways just like the rest of the western world. Following a backlash, they developed extensive bike infrastructure which led to it being an ubiquitous part of the culture, not the other way around.
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Indeed. Much of central Amsterdam was very nearly razed for various crazed 'modernization' schemes. Same goes for Paris where there was (briefly) an effort to build a giant elevated highway along the Seine on the Right Bank; what they did get, an expressway below street level, is only now being revamped.
Obviously on many issues of urbanism Europe is way ahead of most of North America....but it's a mistake to think of it as an un-interrupted thing. The postwar era was dangerous for cities everywhere.
Obviously on many issues of urbanism Europe is way ahead of most of North America....but it's a mistake to think of it as an un-interrupted thing. The postwar era was dangerous for cities everywhere.
Adjei
Senior Member
Think culture is the wrong word to use but currently one can say that they are going in the right direction while we seem to take 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards on many issues.
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We're getting there slowly but surely. A mobility hub at Weston and Eglinton? Back in the day the southern 427 extension to the Gardiner was supposed to be built through here. Major progress in the way we look at transit.
muller877
Senior Member
I'm still trying to figure out where someone would want to bike from the Mt Dennis station. If your destination is east you'll park your bike at Keele. The only other way is up the hill to Weston. And that's some serious pedalling uphill. Not something most people would want to do.
Monarch Butterfly
Superstar
For the people from Weston (northwest), it would be generally flat for bicyclists. To the east, I think that Caledonia would be the station to bicycle to. Going home up the hill from Keele would be a problem.
B
barit
Guest
Given that the scheduled completion date of the Eglinton Crosstown is 2020, does anyone believe that it will be completed on time? Let's use the last possible day in 2020 as December 31. That leaves just over 5 1/2 years to complete 13 underground stations including the station at Don Mills Road as well as all of the surface stops and related electrical substations, emergency exits, and complicated engineering to link Eglinton West, Yonge and Kennedy subway stations. Also, Eglinton subway station needs to have it's platform extended 30 meters north to properly connect with the Crosstown. Any thoughts?
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
2022 seems more realistic. I am hopeful though because this is a Metrolinx project, not a TTC project.
nfitz
Superstar
Unlikely. Metrolinx has stated moret hat the schedule would be updated when they achieve financial close with the preferred bidder. I'd expect at that time we'll get a realistic update on the schedule.
Presumably the schedule is part of the discussions on cost with the preferred bidder.
ehlow
Senior Member
Well considering that no major transit construction projects are completed by the original target date.. (Spadina extension for example)
Personally I think that the completion date given at the beginning of the transit project is the best-case optimistic date if nothing goes wrong. Inevitably a few things go wrong or fall behind.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
Last I heard the ECLRT was on schedule. I don't see anything to indicate that it will fall behind schedule, but we all know how things work in this city.
ehlow
Senior Member
Things seem alright as far as we the public know, but they haven't even started the stations so who knows what will happen over the next 5 years.
nfitz
Superstar
How can it be on schedule when establishing the schedule is part of the bid process?