1 April 1999

To:Chairman and Members of the North York Community Council

From:Roberto Stopnicki,

Director, Transportation Services - District 3

Subject:Turn Restrictions: Wood Avenue at the southbound Bayview Avenue access ramp from Lawrence Avenue East, Lawrence Avenue East at Mildenhall Road and St. Leonard's Avenue at Bayview Avenue

North York Centre South

Purpose:To implement turn restrictions at various access locations to the Lawrence Park Community to both allow limited access to the greater community while negating any significant increase in traffic volumes on any of the existing local roadways.

Source of funds:

All costs associated with the installation of the turn restrictions are included within the 1999 operating budget.

Recommendations:

That appropriate By-Laws be enacted to:

1)prohibit southbound right turns to Wood Avenue from the access ramp from Lawrence Avenue East to southbound Bayview Avenue, between 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday;

2)amend the current restrictions to prohibit southbound right turns to St. Leonard's Avenue from Bayview Avenue, between 7:00 am and 8:00 am, Monday to Friday, buses exempted; and

3)amend the current restrictions to prohibit eastbound right and westbound left turns to Mildenhall Road from Lawrence Avenue East, between 8:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday, buses exempted.

Background:

Report No. 13 of the North York Community Council, as adopted by the Council of the City of Toronto at its meeting held on November 25, 26 and 27, 1998, recommended that Pembury Avenue, at the intersection with the ramp from Lawrence Avenue East to southbound Bayview Avenue, be redesigned to discourage the high speed access to Pembury Avenue from the ramp while maintaining access to/from the greater community to the west of Bayview Avenue and south of Lawrence Avenue East. It was the decision of Council to support a motion by Councillor Joanne Flint to permanently close Pembury Avenue at its intersection with the southbound Bayview Avenue access ramp.

As part of the original investigation of traffic operations on Pembury Avenue, conducted by staff of the Transportation Services Division of the Works and Emergency Services Department, consideration was given to the potential increases in traffic volumes on Wood Avenue, should Pembury Avenue be closed.

With the use of "New Jersey" barriers, northbound and southbound through traffic on Pembury Avenue at the southbound Bayview Avenue access ramp was temporarily prohibited. The results of the investigation concluded that with the closure in place, the majority of traffic which used Pembury Avenue was reassigned to Wood Avenue but that neither the existing traffic volumes on Pembury Avenue and Wood Avenue nor the expected increase in traffic volumes on Wood Avenue are excessive.

Discussion:

With the imminent closure of Pembury Avenue, residents of Wood Avenue are concerned that their roadway remains as the only legal route of access into the greater community. Despite the anticipated volume of traffic being less than 300 two way vehicles per day, local residents perceive that the potential increase in traffic volumes would have a significant negative impact on their quality of life. As a result, they have requested southbound right turn restrictions between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday, from the southbound Bayview Avenue access ramp to Wood Avenue.

Although the volume of traffic is not significant, it has been recognized that should the restrictions be put in place, local residents would have no legal point of entry to access the community between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday. To avoid this situation, modifications to existing prohibitions are proposed to ensure that at least one legal point of access to the community, is available at all times. Currently, the following turn restrictions exist at the intersections accessing the community from Lawrence Avenue East and Bayview Avenue.

Lawrence Avenue East

• eastbound right and westbound left turns to Mildenhall Road are prohibited between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday, buses exempted

Bayview Avenue

• southbound right turns are prohibited at St. Leonard's Avenue, Dawlish Avenue and Blythwood Road, between the hours of 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday, buses exempted;
• northbound left turns are prohibited at Dawlish Avenue between 7:00 am and 9:00 am, Monday to Friday, buses exempted; and

• northbound access to St. Leonard's Avenue is physically restricted by a median on Bayview Avenue.

Staff of the Transportation Services Division were requested to identify alternative means of access to the community, with the implementation of the southbound right turn restriction to Wood Avenue from the access ramp to southbound Bayview Avenue.

To achieve this request, it was determined that modifications are required to the existing restrictions at other intersections within the community. The most appropriate locations, due to their close proximity to both Wood and Pembury Avenues, would be Mildenhall Road and St. Leonard's Avenue.

It was specifically noted that the restrictions at the Mildenhall Road/Lawrence Avenue East intersection were put in place to preclude traffic associated with the Toronto French School on Lawrence Avenue East from travelling through the local community. The specific times of operation of the school is after 8:00 am and therefore, minor modifications to the times of the turn restrictions would be possible.

Considering the request to provide legal access to the greater community and to maintain the necessary restrictions to protect the community from transient traffic associated with the Toronto French School, staff of the Transportation Services Division would support amending the turn restrictions at the Mildenhall Road/Lawrence Avenue East and Bayview Avenue/St. Leonard's Avenue intersections.

Conclusions:

Staff of the Transportation Services Division would support prohibiting southbound right turns onto Wood Avenue from the southbound Bayview Avenue access ramp and amending the times of the existing turn restrictions at the Mildenhall Road/Lawrence Avenue East and Bayview Avenue/St. Leonard's Avenue intersections.

Contact Name:

Allen Pinkerton, Manager, Traffic Operations - District 3

395-7463 (telephone)

395-7482 (facsimile)

ajpinker@city.north-york.on.ca (e-mail)

Roberto Stopnicki,

Director, Transportation Services - District 3

AJP:sf

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