Gerrard East Complete Street

Design Features

• Intersection safety measures including corner radii reductions, pedestrian head-start signals, and right-turn-on-red restrictions and removals;
• Maintaining one vehicular travel lane per direction, narrowed to City lane width guidelines to encourage improved speed limit compliance in off-peak hours;
• Bi-directional cycle track on the south side, including an interim north side (westbound) cycle track which can potentially be converted to parking once the Regent Park redevelopment is complete and the bi-directional cycle track opens east of Parliament Street;
• Parking removal on the north and south sides of Gerrard Street East for the entire stretch; with the opportunity for Wheel-trans or pick-up and drop-off lay-bys on the south side;
• Boulevard improvements, including wider sidewalks, and new or improved tree planting areas; and
• Raised crossings at unsignalized intersections

The City is also in tandem exploring future opportunities to improve safety and accessibility for all road users between Parliament Street and St. Matthew’s Road and Blackburn Street. Changes may include:

• A bi-directional cycle track on the south side of the street
• New or modified traffic signals and pedestrian crossings

While we aim to provide fully accessible content, there is no text alternative available for some of the content on this page. If you require alternate formats or need assistance understanding our maps, drawings, or any other content, please contact Dominic.Cobran3@toronto.ca.

The project will engage stakeholders, including businesses, resident groups, and community organizations along Gerrard Street, between Sherbourne Street and St Matthew’s Road and Blackburn Street.

Virtual Public Meeting

The virtual public meeting was held on May 17, 2022 at 6:30 pm.

Project Materials

• Presentation
• The project survey closed on May 17, 2022

A report of public consultation activities can be found under the ‘project updates’ tab of this webpage.

Complete Streets – Complete streets are streets that are designed to be safe for all users: people who walk, bicycle, take transit or drive, and people of varying ages and levels of ability. They also consider other uses like sidewalk cafés, street furniture, street trees, utilities, and stormwater management.

Road Reconstruction– This is the primary scope of this complete street project. It will include reconstruction of the roadway pavement and sidewalks. The overhaul of the current road infrastructure presents the city with a unique opportunity to include other improvements in the scope of work, including:

• Making intersections safer by reducing corner radii, installing head-start lights for people walking and restricting motor vehicles from making right turns on a red light;
• Maintaining single motor vehicle travel lanes in each direction, to help limit speeding;
• New bi-directional cycle tracks on the south side of the street. Temporary uni-directional cycle tracks will remain on the north side of the street;
• Making improvements to the boulevards by adding wider sidewalks and tree-planting areas;
• Making un-signalized intersections safer for pedestrians.

Watermain Replacement – The City will replace the watermain and the City-owned portion of substandard water services between Sherbourne Street and Parliament Street. Coordination of this replacement with the road reconstruction allows for minimized cost and disruption to the community.

Widened Sidewalks – Current sidewalks are 1.4 to 1.7 metres wide, and the passable space is only 1.0 m wide at some constrained locations. The City is proposing to widen sidewalks to 2.1 metres where possible to meet the City’s standard outlined in Toronto Accessibility Design Guidelines or absolute minimum 1.5 metres to meet the Province’s Accessibility Regulations. The widened sidewalks allow for simultaneous passage of two persons using mobility devices (e.g. a wheelchair).

Curb Extensions – Curb extensions visually and physically narrow the roadway, creating safer and shorter crossings for pedestrians while increasing the available space for street furniture, benches, plantings, and street trees. They may be implemented on downtown, neighborhood, and residential streets, both large and small.

Curb Radii Reductions – Curb radii reductions reduce angled corners at intersections, improving road safety, as crossing distances for pedestrians and vehicles making turns is reduced, thereby reducing the possibility of collisions. They also help to slow down right turning vehicles.

Raised Crosswalk– Raised crosswalks are being proposed at all un-signalized intersections. This will increase driver awareness of crosswalks and will require them to slow down. It can also improve the visibility of people walking and also reduce build-up of water and other elements at intersections. A dedicated crossing area for people cycling is also proposed to run parallel to pedestrian crossings.

Crossride– A crossride is dedicated space at an intersection, identified by unique pavement markings, for cyclists to legally ride their bicycle through an intersection without dismounting. A crossride may appear alongside a pedestrian crosswalk as a separate facility.

Layby Parking – The proposed design includes area of dedicated layby parking. Some of the dedicated space will allow for loading and unloading of TTC’s Wheel Trans buses making it easier to access community spaces such as the Toronto Public Library or the Yonge Street Mission Davis Centre.

Bi-Directional Cycle Track- This is being proposed along the corridor from Sherbourne Street to Parliament Street. The bi-directional cycle tracks will be separated from sidewalks and vehicular traffic to provide safety for all users on the street.

Left Turn Queue Boxes – Staff are proposing to add this safety measure for people cycling at the intersection of Gerrard Street East and Sherbourne Street. This feature allows people cycling to wait and observe traffic signal instructions in a space separate from other road users.

Protected Island Design – Raised concrete islands are proposed to physically separate cyclists from vehicles at Sherbourne Street intersection.

Green Infrastructure – Green infrastructure is the natural vegetative systems and green technologies that collectively provide the street with a multitude of economic, environmental, health and social benefits. This can be in the form of permeable pavement, bio-retention planters and rain gardens to name a few, These elements will not only enhance the streetscape, but also acts as a safety feature by separating the cycle track from motor vehicle travel lanes and sidewalks.

Mixed-Use Shared Street – Shared Streets are most often found in areas supported by a high level of pedestrian activity, usually in mixed-use areas in the Downtowns and Centres but can also be found in residential neighbourhoods. Shared Streets are streets that blend and blur the spaces and zones of the street – sometimes designed without curbs. Different modes share the space together, but pedestrians typically have the highest priority. This is one scenario being considered for the Anniversary Park connection across the Gerrard Street East slip lane on the north side of the park.

Future Cycling Connections – The proposed design will connect to future north/south cycling routes along Sumach Street and/or Sackville Street from Wellesley Street to Shuter Street. Although these future cycling facilities are not part of the current project scope, the proposed design would help facilitate these connections to create a more robust cycling network in the area.