Quote:
Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere
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My thoughts on each:
Inspire Boulevard, Brampton:
The buildings are kinda basic looking but my main issue is with the street/public realm design.
1) There's a center lane that serves no purpose than to make the street wider? They should at least turn it into a landscaped median or something because it really does feel too wide imo.
2) Why are the benches facing the on-street parking? People like to sit on benches to people watch, not to stare at a Nissan Pathfinder's right side rear passenger door. They should face down the length of the street imo, or if they face across the street they should at leas be on the building side of the sidewalk. This is also because people don't like turning their back to people For some reason landscape architects really struggle to understand this? I have the same issue with some of the benches along a path at the University of Waterloo. Like imagine if you are about to enter an elevator and there's a guy facing the rear wall of the elevator with his back to the door and his face a mere foot from the elevator's rear wall. You'd think he has Antisocial Personality Disorder and wait for the next elevator to arrive... Because it goes against human nature to turn your back to people like this. This the UW example that also has this issue:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4676...7i13312!8i6656
When I visited this spot the wild flowers had grown significantly larger, making it look considerably weirder, since your view across the flower bed to the other path was now obstructed by plants. I'm sure the person who designed this was well intentioned and trying to encourage people to sit and admire the plants, but they can still do that while looking across the path.
Ex this park in Prague:
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.0820...7i13312!8i6656
The orientation of the benches in Mt Pleasant and Downtown Brampton make much more sense so at least someone in Brampton is competent at this...
3) Okay the on-street parking and bike lane situation is kinda weird... It looks like the demand for on-street parking was higher than anticipated so people starting angled parking onto the sidewalk instead of parallel parking? I see one angled parked minivan overhanging into the bike lane, nice... Now when you're angle parked like that, you're going to have a hard time seeing a bicycle coming towards you when you back out, so cyclists would be likely to have to swerve to avoid the backing out car and potentially get hit by a car preparing to overtake them on their left. This is especially problematic since the bike line is at the side of the road which means they'll be harder to see for drivers backing out than the car traffic that will be closer to the middle of the road, since they'll be more blocked from view by the adjacent parked cars. The roadway is quite wide, so if they need angled parking, I think they can do it properly by taking away that useless median. Then either have a sharrow for bikes or have a narrow bike lane next to the sidewalk or a wide multi-use path instead of the sidewalk.
Preserve Dr., Oakville:
Yeah this is pretty good. I passed through here on a bike ride in November. The path going along the stormwater retention ponds is really nice and has the potential to become an excellent community amenity. Hopefully they can grow the trees along Dundas Road to block the sight and noise of it better. The sections of that path that are like a pedestrian street are really nice too.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4724...7i16384!8i8192
Hopefully they'll extend the path West of George Savage Ave and East of Preserve Dr. (although it kind of looks like they won't?)
Bur Oak Dr., Markham:
The architecture looks kinda cheap and overall looks very residential for what was intended to be a commercial street. I think the setback from the sidewalk is too much too, and the untrimmed shrubs and weeds growing in there add to the vibe of this being a failed commercial street... Looks like about half of the retail units have been converted to residential. Is the road really expected to get so much traffic to justify being 4 lanes wide?
Cathedral High St., Markham:
Hopefully the business owners that are committed to staying here invest in customizing their store fronts over time so that they stand out more. I have to say, it is a pretty big challenge to attract people to pedestrian oriented streets like this in suburbs where you have to compete against strip malls. There's probably less room for error when it comes to place making, architecture, etc than in denser urban neighbourhoods where these kinds of shops have a more captive customer base. It seems like there's fewer vacancies here than on Bur Oak though even though I see no pedestrians. The parked cars are a positive sign (Bur Oak had a lot of unused on-street parking). Hopefully it will help when the neighbourhood is more fully built out. Some of the storefront elements are a bit too residential here too though imo. Like why aren't the store doors fully glass? That's how it usually it with commercial units, whether its in a strip mall or on main street.