Orchard View’s intersections at both Duplex and Yonge are problematic. The challenges of these pedestrian crossings will increase with intensification. 15,000 more people will reside within a 5-minute walking radius of Eglinton Station within 15-years. The meta-centre of concentration will be east of Yonge, north of Eglinton – crossing Yonge to access transit, shops and recreation facilities. Roehampton-Orchard View is the backbone of an emerging Street Park to augment the area’s limited open space. It requires comprehensive pedestrian crossings. Whereas to date road design has been predominantly vehicle-oriented, accommodating residential densities of 600-people per hectare will require both pedestrian and vehicular considerations. Working examples are to be found in London’s streets. Mid-street islands or refuges divide streets, simplifying pedestrian crossings into safer segments. The Duplex crossing is a simple installation. It does not interrupt the back-of-house routines of the RioCan Centre (see top, next column).

ROEHAMPTON-ORCHARD VIEW PANORAMA

L IBRARY BLOCK PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS, ORCHARD VIEW BLVD

Roehampton-Orchard View‘s staggered intersection is a chicane. These are familiar conditions found throughout Toronto's traditional mainstreets. They were created by haphazard subdivisions in the past, lacking an urban master-plan. Manhattan avoided these problems when in 1811 it introduced its familiar fine-grained urban 'grid iron'. These chicanes challenge vehicular and pedestrian navigation. They distort normal street perceptions and response-protocols, introducing conditions outside the norm. Roehampton-Orchard View is regulated with stop signs (see panorama at top), whereas nearby Soudan-Berwick has traffic lights (see top next page). Both intersections reside within a similar context, bracketing the Yonge-Eglinton crossroad. They have comparable circulations and magnitudes of activity.

SOUDAN-BERWICK PANORAMA

ROEHAMPTON–ORCHARD VIEW PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

Roehampton-Orchard functions without signals. It is congested by left turns from all directions (see above). Pedestrian desire-paths are extensions of the side-street approaches. East-side crossing generators are residences and schools. West-side generators are the shops and retail engine, transit facilities, and Eglinton Park’s leisure-recreation offerings. Installing a signalised intersection (such as at Soudan-Berwick) is of questionable merit at this time. Likewise, left turns are recognised as the greatest challenge to vehicular and pedestrian circulations alike. The alternatives presented here for discussion are of a passive nature, involving pedestrian islands or refuges. They are situated mid-street to break pedestrian crossings into two events, and organise traffic routines.