Highway 7 - Kitchener to Guelph

[ijmorlan]

Though, I'm curious what you mean by it "divides downtown Toronto". In what way does it divide anything? Just its physical presence? I know there have been decades worth of research and theory developed that attempt to make the claim that highways and rail lines and such divide cities in negative ways. More often than not, though, the reality is quite different. These high volume arteries function like the arteries in a human being. They provide important connections and thoroughfares through an area, which is especially important when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands to millions of people. We absolutely need them.

I actually don’t think the Gardiner as a barrier is anywhere near the biggest problem with it. You can now walk from well north of it to well south of it without even going outside, and as spare space not used by Lakeshore Blvd. gets turned into useful space like the Bentway, it becomes much more of a mixed bag from an urban design standpoint. For me it is the incredible expense associated with maintenance. Also, my opinions are mostly formed around the issue of the connection to the Don Valley Parkway and points east, rather than the expressway as a whole. I’m quite confident we shouldn’t be re-building the Gardiner–Don Valley connection; I’m less sure about where exactly I would have the QEW/Gardiner end as they come into downtown.