A bold experiment is taking place on Toronto’s main drag: four weeks of pedestrian-only pockets carved out of Yonge St., with one lane of traffic each way.

As experiments sometimes go, however, not all subjects realized they were taking part. By Monday morning, the new, reduced traffic lanes were already taped down. Predictably, bewildered drivers pronounced the changes “horrid” and “ridiculous.”

But informed of the impending fair, some drivers said they’d be back Friday — on foot. Licensed streetside patios, picnic-ready benches and flower planters will appear later this week.

As area councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam describes it, Celebrate Yonge is an experiment in the tradition of Banting and Best, not Jekyll and Hyde.

“This is just the beginning of a whole new Yonge St.,” she said Monday.

While the four-lane stretch from Queen to Gerrard has a reputation for congestion, Wong-Tam says traffic studies have shown that it carries only 500 vehicles per hour. That many lanes can support 1,500 vehicles per hour.

Illegally parked delivery vehicles are largely to blame for snarls.

“People just (stop) randomly. It’s chaos,” she says. Celebrate Yonge has marked specific loading zones for delivery vehicles and by-law officers will move delinquents along.

Along the same strip, data show that people outnumber cars 200 to one, Wong-Tam says.

“We want to be honest about who is actually using Yonge St.,” she says. “It is literally the most pedestrianized street in all of Canada, and yet the conditions for sidewalks are very poor.”

Whole portions of Yonge St. were closed to cars during pedestrian malls in the 1970s. But merchant support waned as shop owners began complaining about shoplifting and vagrancy.

In 2009, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg temporarily converted five blocks of Broadway to a pedestrian-only mall. The changes were made permanent in 2010.

Celebrate Yonge is being hosted by the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, whose communications manager, Abigail Gamble, says the fair is a one-time event. Permanently reduced traffic lanes would be a hard sell with Mayor Rob Ford, who campaigned on ending “the war on the car.”

Wong-Tam insists she will take her lead on the future of Yonge St. from the business community and constituents. But pressed repeatedly, she finally offers her own vision.

“I think Yonge St. is the most important main street in Ontario,” she says. “When visitors to Toronto come to visit during World Pride in 2014 or the Pan Am Games in 2015, my question to Torontonians is: Are you ready for your world close-up?”

Wong-Tam says that when condolences began streaming in from all over Canada after the Eaton Centre shooting in June, everyone had a connection to Yonge St.

“If that is the street and that is the face of Toronto to Canada, then I want it to be the best face we put forward.”

Do you remember a different Yonge St.? The Star wants to hear your best stories. Send us your memories by Thursday, Aug. 16 at 5 p.m.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Email: kallen@thestar.ca

Post: Kate Allen c/o Toronto Star, 1 Yonge St., M5E 1E6

Phone: (416) 869-4436