With an average of 4,500 pedestrians per hour, Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue is one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the City.
This week, I successfully moved a motion to install a pedestrian priority phase at Yonge and Eglinton, commonly referred to as a pedestrian scramble.
The motion also introduces a pedestrian scramble at Roehampton, Orchard View Blvd and Yonge. This is an offset intersection which residents have pointed to time and time again as a clear hazard.
The introduction of these scrambles will be coordinated with retiming of the traffic lights along that entire section of Yonge, ensuring that this change doesn’t delay drivers along Yonge or Eglinton.
I am also addressing pedestrian safety concerns along Roehampton Avenue and Broadway Avenue with additional signage to support the current functioning of the roadways, as well as a plan to comprehensively review the one-way designations once construction diminishes.
With the long-awaited opening of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, the Yonge and Eglinton corridor needs to be re-imagined to better serve the tens of thousands of pedestrians who navigate these crossings on a daily basis.
Both of our local neighbourhood grocers that closed last year, Fruit Baskets and Fresh Buy Market, are returning to the neighbourhood and will continue serving the affordable fruit and veggies that so many of us rely on.
When notified of the upcoming demolition, my office and I immediately reached out to the business owners directly to offer our support. We contacted nearby property owners to identify new space opportunities and advocating to ensure that these businesses were able to remain.
We are grateful to everyone who worked together to ensure that these businesses were able to find nearby retail space in the neighbourhood - and in both cases - to secure even larger space, which allows more people to access more affordable food.