The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation's Innovative Design Competition for Toronto's Central Waterfront has resulted in designs with a number of options for Queen's Quay. There is still time for you to comment on them before the final decision on the design is made on May 31st, 2006. The designs have been placed at B.C.E. Place and some shopping centres but are also on the web. Innovative Design Competition for Toronto's Central Waterfront

There are lots of plans for the water's edge, gardens parks and buildings. One element of concern to cyclists is connecting the eastern and western sections of the Martin Goodman Trail. Currently cyclists going west bound follow bike lanes on Queen's Quay till Yonge Street. The lanes stop until Spadina where they pick up again. This stretch of road between Yonge and Spadina is heavily travelled by cyclists and it is important that there be a good connection. The 5 teams of architects have taken a variety of approaches to connecting the Martin Goodman Trail through this area.

All of the teams have PDF files on the Web site outlining their plans. I have taken clippings of the image that best shows their plans for the Queen's Quay boulevard below. If you click on the image it will go to that team's page on the TWRC website where there is a link to download the entire PDF file for that team.

Three of the teams have taken the approach of moving all of the traffic to the current one way westbound traffic lane making it a two way lane and putting the Martin Goodman trail in the space where the current Eastbound lane is. You can see the images below.

The team of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects & Martinez Lapena-Torres Architects. Puts the Martin Goodman Trail south of the Streetcar Right of way. However there is no provision for cyclists on the traffic portion of the roadway.

The Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects & Martinez Lapena-Torres Architects plan presents some difficulties at the intersections with the major north south streets as they have cul-de-sacs for the traffic of those streets. It is not obvious from the drawings how trail users are supposed to navigate those.

The Foster Team has a trail for 'cycles and pedestrians' south of the streetcar ROW however it's road cross section includes bike lanes on Queen's Quay in the 'vehicular zone.' This leaves available to cyclists a quicker alternate through the area when the multi-use trail gets congested.

The Foster's team intersection design identifies the different zones. This intersection would be easier for trail users to navigate.

The P.O.R.T. designs only had one image showing the street design but from it you could see that the Martin Goodman Trail is located between the traffic lanes and the street cars.

The West 8 team also puts the Martin Goodman Trail south of the Streetcar Tracks in its own Right of way. However it does not have bike lanes on Queen's Quay.

The WASAW team does not change the alignment of the traffic lanes leaving them where they are. They do show how bike lanes can be incorporated along the length of Queen's Quay.

Clay McFayden is the representative of the Toronto Cycling Committee on the Stakeholders group that has been reviewing the plans and has been trying to ensure that there is good access through the central waterfront area in the designs. He commented on the designs after attending a four hour meeting where the plans were presented to the stakehoders. "Only one design competitor (WASAW) seemed to have done a cost benefit analysis on moving the streetcar tracks and not surprisingly decided to put the bike lanes near the curbs on Queens Quay. The other four all assume the tracks could be moved and two (Todd-Williams and West 8) put a two way bike lane on the south side and the cars on the north. Foster moved the tracks south and put the whole road on the north side with bike lanes at the sides (all north of tracks). PORT as best as I can recall had a two way lane in the middle of the road ( ! ) with tracks to the south and all car lanes to the north ( yikes! ). The stakeholders group and I generally approve of a two-way lanes on the south side or curb side bike lanes. I made it as clear as I could since the tracks will not be moved, let's have two curb side bike lanes all along. Only West 8 has a real MGT plan, a minimum 18 metre public space by the water and bridges over many slips providing a straight MGT path near the water." Another concern that Clay raised was about transition zones and how to ensure that cyclists can safely navigate from parts of the waterfront where there are bike lanes on the road to portions where there is a two way recreation path similar to the other sections of the Martin Goodman trail. Another thing to take into consideration is how cyclists can connect with the north south streets that connect with Queen's Quay Blvd.

Cyclists who have reviewed the proposals feel that that what ever option is chosen for connecting the Martin Goodman Trail as an off street trail, bike lanes have to be installed on Queen's Quay Boulevard to fill in the missing gap there. Further more they should be installed sooner than later. It could take years to implement some of the waterfront designs that are being proposed. Finishing the bike lanes along Queen's Quay Boulevard from Spadina to Yonge is a project that is long overdue.

The designs are now being reviewed by the jury. You can send in your comments at the following link. Be sure to check the "Central Waterfront" checkbox. Waterfront design comments. I think it is important that the result of this competition includes a real Martin Goodman Trail connection and safe space on Queen's Quay for cyclists who are travelling on the road.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca