Five ways Toronto transportation changed this week

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It was a big week for transportation in Toronto, with a series of decisions that will change the way people move around with city. A primer on developments you may have missed:

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Children under 13 might ride transit free in Toronto, but the days of just strolling on are numbered. The TTC board decided Monday to require children 6 and older to carry a Presto fare-card, starting next year. And children 10 to 12 will need a TTC-issued card to prove their age, an attempt to cut down on fraud.

"I think it's a matter that will take some getting used to, but it's the right way to go," said Toronto Transit Commission chief executive Andy Byford.

The TTC explains that the shift to automated entrances means passengers will need a fare-card to access the system. It is assumed that children younger than 6, though, will be able to enter with an adult.

Building a safer city

Amid a spate of pedestrian deaths and worsening trends, Toronto council on Thursday voted for a five-year road-safety plan budgeted at $80-million. This is far less than advocates were hoping for, and only two-thirds of this would be new money, but the plan is somewhat more aggressive than the version tabled last month.

In a sign that war-on-the-car rhetoric may be fading, the debate featured politicians from both the core and the suburbs arguing for traffic calming and lower speed limits.

The debate also included a detour into the question of texting while walking. Councillor Frances Nunziata argued it was no different than texting while driving, and council agreed that the city should ask the province to ban "actively using" hand-held electronic devices while crossing the road. The province promptly declined.

A perennial fight ends (maybe)

The years-long battle over transit in Scarborough appeared this week finally to have staggered to a halt.

After hours of sharp debate, council voted 28-15 Wednesday evening to push ahead with a one-stop subway extension to Scarborough Town Centre. Mayor John Tory argued this decision "should represent the concluding words" of the debate.

Although the project is years away from completion, and no vote is final, this is probably the closest Toronto has come to settling the issue. But the project could still generate some heat. The estimated price-tag jumped recently to $3.16-billion, but that figure is based on a minimal amount of design work. Council's support for the project will lead to more precise cost estimates, with few expecting the price not to rise again.

Not just Scarborough

The East End subway project was presented as part of a bigger plan that includes pushing forward on the Downtown Relief Line, long identified by planners and transit leaders as the city's top priority. Council approved Wednesday a tentative alignment for the DRL – a project which is budgeted at $6.8-billion but not currently funded – and authorized staff to push ahead on the planning process, including confirming possible station locations.

Among the many parts of this transit package was council directing staff to continue planning work on extensions to the Eglinton light-rail line, now being built, in both the east and west ends of the city. And they gave the city manager authority to pursue a deal with the province for a discounted fare when a trip involves both GO Transit and the TTC within the city.

New life for Yonge

As Yonge Street cleaned up and then densified, the roadway itself remained largely the same. But that could soon change. On Thursday, the city launched a request for proposals to redesign the street downtown, including widening the sidewalks, adding bicycle lanes and cutting motor-vehicle space in half.

Local Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam said that designs for phase one – from Queen and College – are due next summer, and work would be done by 2020. When complete, the street would be remade from the lake to Davenport.

"We want the most creative urban minds to come together and bid on this RFP, because we don't want to be shy about it," she said. "I have more condominium and rental towers being built along Yonge Street than anywhere else in the country. We simply need more space."