Roasting the Eglinton & Allen Intersection Project!

The City of Toronto recently announced two public drop-in events for the Eglinton & Allen Intersection Study to review a long list of design options for that intersection. The first will be on Saturday, May 30 (12 – 3 PM) at Fairbank Public School (2335 Dufferin Street) and the second will be on Tuesday, June 2 (6 – 9 PM) at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute (730 Eglinton Avenue West). My initial impression was that most of the options were clearly car oriented. Let’s go through them and give the project the roasting it deserves! 🔥

Option 1 – Inconvenience Pedestrians and Cyclists

The four designs proposed for Option 1 all have a goal of getting pedestrians (and cyclists) out of the way from westbound traffic turning right onto Allen Road. The first one below calls for a pedestrian and cycling bridge over the on-ramp, the second forces pedestrians in the Cedarvale Station tunnel by removing the north side crosswalks, the third does that plus make the cycle-track bi-directional on the south side, and the fourth involves a diagonal crossing.

Of these four, building a bridge would be the costliest and involve adding crossing distances to those who bike westbound or walk on the north side. The two designs forcing pedestrians into the station tunnel would be terrible for those with disabilities who would have to take the elevator down and back up again, while going up and down stairs and/or escalators would not be pleasant to the able bodied. Any options that convert the cycle tracks to bi-directional on the south side need to be rejected given they would require westbound cyclists to cross Eglinton twice. Finally, please don’t get me started on the below diagonal crosswalk idea which basically requires two crossings instead of one for pedestrians and westbound cyclists!

To sum it up, none of these four designs in Option 1 should be allowed to be brought forward due to their hostility towards pedestrians and cyclists!

Option 2 – Three-Lane On-Ramp

The next two options are both split into three designs. The first pictured below is to change the existing road design to a three-lane on-ramp while keeping everything else intact. The second would also involve moving the east side crosswalk to the other side of the on-ramp, while the third would remove the east side crosswalk entirely. While the first of these designs is not terrible, changing or removing the east side crosswalk could be seen as a negative to pedestrians trying to get to/from the east LRT station entrance and/or the Kay Gardiner Beltline Trail.

Option 3 – Four-Lane On-Ramp

The three designs for Option 3 are similar to those for Option 2, but instead you have a four-lane on-ramp. Option 3C is pictured below. While the first of these may not be terrible for those who walk or bike, there is one significant traffic concern for the four-lane on-ramp. Since Allen Road has two northbound lanes after the on-ramp, the bottleneck of four lanes merging into two becomes even worse than with a three-lane on-ramp.

Option 4 – Limit On-Ramp Access

While the desire to limit on-ramp access to either westbound (pictured below) or eastbound may appear reasonable on their own, both designs for Option 4 need to be outright rejected because they also include forcing pedestrians in the station tunnel and converting the cycle tracks to bi-directional on the south side from Option 1C. Makes me wonder whether this enshittification was done intentionally? 🤔

Option 5 – Eastbound Interchange

For those of you who frequent Ben Nobleman Park, you’re going to hate this next option which involves taking park land to build an interchange loop for eastbound traffic to access Allen Road. As much as this option would preserve cycle track and sidewalk access – though the east side sidewalk would be moved – we need to acknowledge public space is scarce and needs to be protected as much as possible!

Option 6 – Roundabout

Another bad option from a public space perspective would be to build a roundabout on the east side. Not only would this encroach on Ben Nobleman Park (to a lesser extent), but it would also destroy the new plaza on the east side and several young trees! To make matters worse, pedestrians would be forced to use the station tunnel and the south side bi-directional cycle track returns! The way this option was designed goes to show Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s call for using roundabouts to slow down traffic doesn’t work well in constrained urban areas such as Toronto. 

Option 7 – Remove The On-Ramp

If there’s one set of options that would make carbrains go ballistic – especially Doug Ford and groups like ABC Toronto and IntegrityTO – it’s this one! The first design would close the Allen on-ramp while the second would close Allen Road south of Lawrence Avenue. From a pedestrian and cyclist perspective, these are the best options of the bunch since removing access to Allen Road would eliminate on-ramp traffic conflicts and reduce local traffic demand. Closing the highway would also free up land for housing, increased parkland, and other public realm improvements. It’s one of those things which appears crazy initially, but may be the least crazy of the bunch upon closer inspection. 😉

One thing that would be needed to implement this option is signage indicating there is no access to Allen Road from Eglinton Avenue at certain key intersections.

Final Thoughts

While this project wasn’t the first to provide a long list of options initially – something I noticed with yongeTOmorrow – I find this tactic can sometimes turn people off from participating in public consultations. Nonetheless, I encourage you to attend either the May 30 or June 2 drop-in, as well as complete the survey by Sunday, June 14. We should boldly push for closing the Allen on-ramp (Options 7A or 7B), but also recognize Option 2A would be the least bad of the remaining options should closing the on-ramp be deemed too controversial as can be expected in this city.