The Missing Link: Continuing the Martin Goodman Trail to Stadium Road

A rendering of the new Martin Goodman Trail extension that will be completed by 2015.

POSTED: OCTOBER 22, 2014 I PARKS AND PUBLIC SPACES, CYCLING
BY: SAMANTHA GILENO

We’re working with the City of Toronto to extend the construction of the Martin Goodman Trail on Queens Quay further west – past Yo Yo Ma Lane to Stadium Road – and to the existing trail leading to Coronation Park.  This is good news for cyclists because it means that by mid-2015, there will be a safe, separated cycling route on the south side of Queens Quay all along the waterfront. Finally, the missing link in the Martin Goodman Trail through the downtown waterfront will be connected. 

A bit of background might be helpful to understand why we need to build this western section of the Martin Goodman Trail now. If you’ve been following the Queens Quay revitalization project, you’ll know that construction is currently underway from Lower Spadina Avenue to Bay Street.  It made sense to revitalize this area first for two reasons. 

1. This section of the street is the most central and heavily used part of our waterfront. Revitalizing this area allows us to provide seamless connections to important waterfront spaces such as HTO Park, Harbourfront Centre and Queen's Quay Terminal.
    
2. The TTC corridor between the Bay Street portal and Lower Spadina Avenue was at the end of its service life and had to be replaced. The streetcar tracks west of Lower Spadina were installed in 2000 and were not ready for replacement – which means extending the full vision west of Lower Spadina would not be fiscally prudent at this time. 

So how does that impact the Martin Goodman Trail? One of the key features of the Queens Quay revitalization project is the introduction of a separated off-street Martin Goodman Trail south of the TTC corridor. Because the first phase of construction is occurring between Bay Street and Lower Spadina Avenue only – not the full length of Queens Quay – the design had to include zones at either end of the street to transition cyclists from the southside Martin Goodman Trail back to on-street bike lanes.

While we knew the transitions would work, they weren’t ideal and we recognized that we needed a better solution. First, we tackled the east end of Queens Quay. Over the past couple of years, Waterfront Toronto has been building an interim Martin Goodman Trail on the south side of Queens Quay east of Bay Street. We began with a section between Bay Street and Lower Jarvis Street – this opened in 2013. Now we’re building out the Martin Goodman Trail between Lower Jarvis and Parliament Street.  This section, which will open next spring, will provide a safe, separated cycling route and eliminates the need for a transition at the east end Queens Quay. (More about the Queens Quay East Interim Martin Goodman Trail here.)

We’re also getting ready to eliminate the need for a transition west of Lower Spadina as well. You may remember that our initial Queens Quay design called for a transition at the Lower Spadina Avenue intersection requiring cyclists traveling westbound to cross to the on-street bicycle lane on the northside of Queens Quay. The transition worked, but what we really wanted was a seamless connection. So, working with West 8 + DTAH, we created an interim solution which eliminates the need for the transition at Yo Yo Ma Lane. This new design allows the Martin Goodman Trail to continue uninterrupted on the south side of Queens Quay all the way to Stadium Road.  

Construction is expected to get underway by the end of the year and will be timed for completion by mid-2015. When complete, a separated off-street Martin Goodman Trail will stretch from Lower Spadina through the Bathurst intersection on the south side of Queens Quay. West of Bathurst Street, Queens Quay will be reconfigured with new line painting, in order to move the bicycle lanes to the south side of the street. While the bicycle lanes in this stretch will still be on-street, they will be separated from vehicular traffic by flexi-post barriers.

If you want to dig into the design, take a look at the Martin Goodman Trail West – Project Overview that we presented recently to a group of local community members.