Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon
With the exceptions of the Princess/Donald, Smith/King and St. Mary/York pairs, all remaining one-way downtown streets should revert to two-way traffic.
This would reduce traffic speeds and result in more pedestrian friendly downtown area, particularly south of Graham.
There is absolutely no need for streets such as Garry or Carlton to be one way speedways given the relatively low traffic volumes.
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Completely agree. That, or if they remain one ways – there's no reason for them to be 4 through lanes. Consider pedestrian bump-outs, converting one lane to 2-way cycle track and/or have angled parking on one side. Lots of ways to improve Edmonton and Kennedy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryB
^^ The idea has merit. One challenge I see is the forced closure of three blocks of streets due to Portage Place. This forces a lot of local south bound traffic onto Carlton. There is really no way around that and shrinking the lane count each way isn't going to make it better. Based on that it may be an idea to add Carlton as a southbound only exception.
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I agree to an extent, but I also feel like the block of Carlton between Portage & Ellice is crazy overbuilt. I know they use it for staging of major arena concerts sometimes – but they're already removing the parking lane, and Carlton would be just fine to lose a lane for cycle/wider sidewalks and staging can still take one of the 3 empty lanes. Because Portage traffic can turn onto Memorial from either direction, wouldn't really bother me for Carlton to shrink or become 2-way.
Once all 4 towers at TNS are done, all of a sudden Carlton is going to become a very active, busy street (for pedestrians and more traffic). I think improving the feel of the street and slowing down traffic there will be needed. Donald south of Portage is essentially a two-lane through street with turning lanes (functionally) and way busier – I think Carlton could (and should) easily go on a lane diet.