Its much better for the pedestrian as the replacement boulevard would be roughly 35 meters wide, enough for a crossing on a single light, compared to the current setup where it takes 2. Toronto's other 8 lane boulevard, University Avenue, is roughly 40 meters wide and can barely be crossed in a single signal. While not an ideal pedestrian situation, it is a far cry from the Gardiner.





The problem with the current gardiner is the highway off ramps. Cars fly off of them going 80-90km/h and don't look for pedestrians at all at the bottom. I have nearly been hit a couple of times walking past a gardiner off ramp. The pillars from the gardiner also make it easy to not see a pedestrian when turning.



There is also the issue of general urbanism. the longest distance to cross both the gardiner and the rail corridor is over 170 meters right now, far too long in far too hostile of an environment to be a "nice" walk.

The report states that emissions would drop with the at grade boulevard, largely because less cars would be using it.



The replacement would have 3 intersections, Cherry, Parliament, and Sherbourne. The current distance to walk under the Gardiner (and across the 6 lane Lakeshore road) are roughly 65, 45, and 100 meters, with all 3 requiring 2 light cycles to do. The new boulevard would be 35 meters wide, and as I mentioned, would take a single light signal to cross.



in general right now the Gardiner varies in width between 60-100 meters and does nothing but to serve the movement of vehicles, the exact opposite of what you want in the middle of the city.



The gardiner also largely serves a single purpose of getting cars downtown. There is very, very little "through" traffic. The cars that use this road get off in the city, so its not that big of a deal to have 2 or 3 additional blocks to travel. Most DVP traffic gets off at the Eastern Avenue overpass, the Gardiner traffic largely gets off at Spadina, etc. this is a grade seperated road that serves a local purpose, unlike the further west portions of the Gardiner or the DVP which serves to get people in and out of the core.