Canada's best intersections

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Such a wonderful little commercial section that you'd never know was there. I'll never forget when I first discovered Baldwin Street while walking north from the AGO. I remember thinking: What is this? How can this be?

One of the most satisfying urban pleasures to me is getting a bit lost and discovering a charming little enclave that you had no idea existed. Toronto has these hidden gems all over the place. It's what makes it a great city.

Toronto's backstreet commercial districts are one of my favourite things about the city - think Kensington, Yorkville, Baldwin Village, Mirvish Village (RIP), etc. They're intimate and relaxing in a way that the typical high street thoroughfares are not, and they just make for fun places to discover.

I found Kensington in much the same way - I quite literally had no idea of its existence until I happened to follow some interesting-looking streets meandering away from Chinatown as a kid.

Self-indulgent nostalgia time: It was the summer of 2002 and I was 11. To keep me occupied over summer vacation, my parents enrolled me in a computer programming class downtown. Every day I'd take the subway down to it, but the real fun started after class when I was on my own and free to go wherever I wanted.

From a young age, I had always been happy to tag along with my parents or siblings downtown to go to the museum, restaurants, shows, or visit relatives; and I had long since grown to love those areas I knew well, like Chinatown, St Lawrence, or the Annex - but ultimately I was always just a kid following someone else. This was my first real chance to explore the city on my own, and with my newfound independence I could finally see what lay down all those enticing-looking streets.

On one of my walks through Chinatown, I for whatever reason decided to try walking further west along Dundas. But as the activity there started to peter out after a couple blocks, I turned right to loop back around and ended up being greeted with this whole new fantastic, weird neighbourhood to explore. And I've loved it ever since that day.

[MonkeyRonin]

While we're on the topic of back street commercial areas, Yorkville is a good neighbouhood. Yeah it's ostentatious and douchey, but its urbanity is fantastic: small, narrow buildings with an eclectic mix of futuristic 60s modernism, PoMo, Victorians, and high-end modern boutiques with multiple levels of retail on narrow, well-appointed streets; bisected by commercialized pedestrian lanes, and surrounded by high-rises (it's kinda like the upside down world version of Kensington).

Not the main intersection, but this is probably my favourite section: https://goo.gl/maps/yuA5v5ouHAhw7G1a6

If I let my imagination wander a little bit, Yorkville actually almost reminds me of parts of Tokyo. The scale is similar and they've both got that vaguely retro modern look: https://goo.gl/maps/scH2UzwanrPDsGjp7

[paulwillyjean]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

While we're on the topic of back street commercial areas, Yorkville is a good neighbouhood. Yeah it's ostentatious and douchey, but its urbanity is fantastic: small, narrow buildings with an eclectic mix of futuristic 60s modernism, PoMo, Victorians, and high-end modern boutiques with multiple levels of retail on narrow, well-appointed streets; bisected by commercialized pedestrian lanes, and surrounded by high-rises (it's kinda like the upside down world version of Kensington).

Not the main intersection, but this is probably my favourite section: https://goo.gl/maps/yuA5v5ouHAhw7G1a6

If I let my imagination wander a little bit, Yorkville actually almost reminds me of parts of Tokyo. The scale is similar and they've both got that vaguely retro modern look: https://goo.gl/maps/scH2UzwanrPDsGjp7

That Toronto intersection made me think of this one in Montreal. https://goo.gl/maps/VXY2T1Jf9bZCqKMX9

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Portage and Main is one of the worst intersections in the country simply because they banned pedestrians from it.

clearly you don't appreciate the X-factor

[samne]

Love the old ethnic hoods still holding on. A bunch left in the west end.

Dundas and Roncesvailles (where the Polish and Portuguese meet) is still kinda stuck in time...

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.65379...7i13312!8i6656

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by samne

Love the old ethnic hoods still holding on. A bunch left in the west end.

Dundas and Roncesvailles (where the Polish and Portuguese meet) is still kinda stuck in time...

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.65379...7i13312!8i6656

Every time I drive through there I'm struck by how bleak a crossroads it is. I guess that's because it's so totally devoted to vehicular traffic (which I contribute to when I drive through--hypocrite alert).

Seems like it could be so much nicer, but I'm not sure exactly how you'd go about doing it.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by trueviking

no intersection has more X-factor than Portage and Main.

Would be a lot better if the street-facing facade of the Richardson Building followed the contours of the corner it sits on.

[trueviking]

^ that's the least of its problems....

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Every time I drive through there I'm struck by how bleak a crossroads it is. I guess that's because it's so totally devoted to vehicular traffic (which I contribute to when I drive through--hypocrite alert).

Seems like it could be so much nicer, but I'm not sure exactly how you'd go about doing it.

The main thing would be increased vegetation in the form of planters and window boxes along with some street furniture such as benches. Buildings could also use 1-2 more stories tho.

[SignalHillHiker]

Obviously, we have no excessively big, North American-style, urban intersections. But we have two cute things...

The first is simply a mess of streets in the core. Wherever horses walked, that's where we put a road. But even in our inter-war suburbs, the intersections are designed to be driven on the left. So now that we drive on the right, you end up with near-360-degree left-hand turns. Always fun.



We also have a lot of used-to-be-roundabouts that were North American-ized and turned into giant asphalt fields, or dead-end streets.



Check out that crosswalk lol This used to be two roundabouts side-by-side. Now it's this mess. But the city is changing it, cutting the road down to just one lane and filling in the extra asphalt with parkland.



The two best intersections in the city, though, are Rawlin's Cross (this is one giant roundabout. You can't actually drive through the middle that cuts straight across):



And the intersection of George Street, Water Street, and Beck's Cove (those aren't surface parking lots, but rooftop ones):

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Buildings could also use 1-2 more stories tho.

You're right, there's a disconnect when buildings are short enough to suggest intimacy but the roadway in front of them is big and broad enough to march Roman legions through. If that intersection had Parisian height and larger sidewalks the scale would feel "right."

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Obviously, we have no excessively big, North American-style, urban intersections. But we have two cute things...

The first is simply a mess of streets in the core. Wherever horses walked, that's where we put a road. But even in our inter-war suburbs, the intersections are designed to be driven on the left. So now that we drive on the right, you end up with near-360-degree left-hand turns. Always fun.

...

But you would still have the 360° turns even if driving on the left, (i.e. westbound on Craigmillar turning right on to Cornwall, and westbound on Cornwall turning left on to Craigmillar).

St. John's weird intersections are the result of an unplanned network of rural roads from the 1700s which became more urban over time coupled with uneven topography. Many of the streets followed the topography. Most populated places in North America had some planning, and more even topography.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Architype

But you would still have the 360° turns even if driving on the left, (i.e. westbound on Craigmillar turning right on to Cornwall, and westbound on Cornwall turning left on to Craigmillar).

St. John's weird intersections are the result of an unplanned network of rural roads from the 1700s which became more urban over time coupled with uneven topography. Many of the streets followed the topography. Most populated places in North America had some planning, and more even topography.

True but... I've no way to prove this but I promise you the most commonly-used routes used to be ones where you didn't have to make that near-360 turn. They were the exception for only a few travellers. Now, most people driving that way make that turn.

It's a bit like the intersection in front of Corpus Christi Church:



When you are driving from left to right in that photo, toward downtown, it feels like a blind turn. If we were still driving on the left, that wouldn't matter.

When you're going the other way, driving on the left, you can see more so you don't get that problem. And, driving on the right, most traffic still turns up to take Columbus Drive. So it just feels like a poorly-designed intersection. Whereas, driving on the other side, it's perfectly designed for traffic flow and view planes.

It's one of those things that seems as though it's completely even. If you drive on the left, this lane has it worst... if you switch it, this other lane has it worst. But it's not an even split like that. There are little things that add up that make it significantly worse driving on the right. And they're impossible to prove or even explain really. But just... spend a few days driving around, and they make perfect sense.

And this isn't my nationalism showing. We were switching to right-hand driving with or without Canada. It's not like I'm saying "this is something Canada did to us" lol. It's just a change that had some negative impacts in the portions of the city existing at the time.