Quote:
Originally Posted by Northern Light
There are several things going on in your statement.
Yes, Toronto has somewhat fewer freeways, relative to its size, than its U.S. counterparts; this is particularly true near downtown.
On that, we can agree.
The suggestion that we have few through streets or few arterials is just weird.
|
From the perspective of connectivity, Crawford is right here - Toronto, at least in the central areas, was never centrally planned and thus doesn't have a "true" grid. Blocks are rectilinear, but unevenly sized and spaced, and often intersect at weird angles. And the back streets are often one-way by design to discourage through traffic. The result of this is that most through traffic - whether it be pedestrian, bicycle, car, or surface transit - is pushed to the arterial high streets.
That's a big difference from places with a more rigid grid like Manhattan, or even Vancouver or Montreal, where almost
any street can act as a through route.
Further reading on the history of why our grid is the way it is:
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/07/23...is-not-a-grid/
What any of this has to do with transit usage though, I'm not sure.