Tags: toronto
10/09/08
OPP launch holiday blitz
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Mister-Wong
MixxOPP will be keeping an extra close eye on seat belts. Their annual fall seat belt initiative kicks off today through to the 12th. Officers will be looking to ensure drivers and passengers are buckled up and following the rules of the road.
09/04/08
Toronto gives green light for 'pedestrian scramble'
New configuration at Yonge and Dundas will allow pedestrians to cross in all directions, but will likely leave drivers seeing red .
JEFF GRAY
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
August 28, 2008 at 3:27 AM EDT
Starting today, one of Toronto's busiest downtown intersections - Yonge and Dundas streets, where 10-story flashing billboards, Eaton Center shoppers and Ryerson University students converge - will undergo a small but radical change meant to symbolize the city's plans to put pedestrians ahead of drivers.
Before the morning rush hour, city workers will remove coverings from new pedestrian crossing signals and unveil Toronto's first experimental "pedestrian scramble" intersection, a traffic-light configuration that stops cars in all directions with a red light to allow pedestrians to cross in all directions, even diagonally.
From behind a windshield, however, the change may not be so popular. It will mean much longer red lights for drivers to make way for this new 28-second, pedestrian-only phase in the traffic-light cycle. Currently, the longest wait at this intersection for drivers (those on Yonge Street) is 31 seconds. As of today, the longest wait for a green light will stretch to 57 seconds, and green lights for drivers will also be five to eight seconds shorter.
The scramble concept, long ago implemented in several other cities around the world, is also known as a "Barnes dance," after Henry Barnes, a traffic commissioner in Denver credited with coming up with the idea there in the 1950s and reportedly making pedestrians so happy they were "dancing in the streets."
08/11/08
Explosion shuts Highway 401, snarls traffic
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/08/10/closures-explosion.html
An early morning explosion in north Toronto shut down roads and services in the city, including a 16-kilometre strip of Highway 401, Canada's busiest road.
A large neighbourhood — bounded by Keele Street, Dufferin Street, Sheppard Avenue and Wilson Avenue — was evacuated. Drivers and pedestrians were not allowed to enter the area, and city buses were taking alternate routes to avoid it.
Yorkdale Shopping Centre, a busy mall along Highway 401, appeared to have been evacuated Sunday afternoon, although the city said no official evacuation order had been issued.
Sgt. Cam Woolley of the Ontario Provincial Police said Highway 401 was closed from Highway 400 east to Highway 404/Don Valley Parkway. Some cars were spotted on the roadway, but these vehicles had permission because they are taking evacuees out of the area, Woolley said.
He said traffic was extremely heavy along the 401 leading up to the closed areas, with the eastbound express lanes of the 401 near the 400 looking like "a big parking lot."
The southbound lanes of Highway 404, heading into Toronto, were also jammed.
Alternate routes drivers can take include:
Highway 407, a toll highway, runs parallel to Highway 401 across the city. Highway 7 and Steeles Avenue are smaller alternate routes.
Highway 400 southbound, bringing drivers into Toronto from cottage country was moving well, but drivers cannot enter the eastbound 401, so they will be forced to go either westbound on the 401, or south on Black Creek Drive.
Highway 427, bringing drivers to and from the airport, was moving well.
The Don Valley Parkway was moving smoothly, but drivers cannot enter the westbound 401, so they are forced to go either north on the 404 or east on the 401.
Toronto Transit Commission initially closed subway service in the area of the evacuation, but service has since resumed.
Bus routes being diverted from the affected areas included:
107 Keele North.
108 Downsview.
165 Weston Road North.
29 Dufferin.
84 Sheppard West.
96 Wilson.
Go buses were also diverted:
No buses were stopping at the Yorkdale bus terminal, which was closed due to its proximity to the site of the explosions.
Brampton, Oshawa and Canada's Wonderland buses were operating to York Mills only, with riders experiencing delays of 20 to 30 minutes.
08/05/08
Traffic wasn't half bad, cops say
Link: http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/08/05/6352921-sun.html
One fatality up north, minor crash in T.O. amount to sterling weekend
By JASON BUCKLAND, SUN MEDIA
With the Caribana celebration and civic holiday this weekend, Toronto area roads were busy but, for the most part, problem free.
"With what was going on, and all the people we had around," Acting Staff-Sgt. Scott Collins said, "it went quite well, actually."
There were no fatal vehicle collisions in Toronto over the long weekend and only one in central Ontario.
A man was killed on his motorcycle in Orillia, OPP said yesterday.
And a man was put in hospital with minor injuries after a crash last night at Danforth Ave. and Danforth Rd.
The holiday weekend was not without its notable traffic incidents, though, as several drivers made decisions they likely regret heading into the short work week.
A driver at a Tim Hortons off Hwy. 407 got so nervous when he saw a police cruiser, cops say, he put his mom's car in reverse instead of drive and backed right into a lightpole, getting the attention of the very officers he was trying to avoid.
And a driver from New York was caught -- also along the 407 -- going 227 km/h in his Infiniti G37.
CORNY EXCUSE
When asked why he was driving so fast, he told the OPP he had just eaten corn soup and really had to use the washroom.
"I've heard about the ethanol in corn making cars go fast, but this was something else," OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley said.
All in all Woolley was very impressed with the weekend's collision numbers.
From this date last year, Ontario is down 30% on fatal crashes on the province's roads.
"That's about 80 less people that are dead as a result," he said.
5,000 traffic charges laid over the long weekend
Link: http://www.680news.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20080805_080220_8620
By: Jaime Pulfer
Toronto - At least 5,000 charges were laid on the highways over the weekend, about a ticket every three minutes in the Toronto area.
OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley told 680News over 150 excessive speeders had their vehicles seized over the long weekend, including a driver from New York, who had passengers in the car. He was clocked at 227 kilometres an hour on Highway 407.
Woolley said that when the man was asked why he was driving so fast, he told the officer he had just eaten corn soup and had to use the washroom.
But, the street racing legislation, which went into effect over 10-months ago, has been getting a lot of credit.
The street racing legislation went into effect at the end of September and Woolley told 680News at least 80 people are alive because of it.
"If you can put this into perspective, that's 80 more people that are alive compared to the same time last year, so this isn't some little fluctuation," Woolley said.
He added that there's been a 40 per cent drop in fatal high speed crashes compared to the same time last year -- something he said he's never seen in his 30 years as an OPP officer.
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