{"id":2282,"date":"2011-09-27T09:51:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T14:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vivanext.com\/blog\/?p=2282"},"modified":"2011-09-27T09:51:06","modified_gmt":"2011-09-27T14:51:06","slug":"when-is-a-highway-not-a-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/2011\/09\/27\/when-is-a-highway-not-a-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"When is a highway not a highway?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/vivanext.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Hwy7TownCentreRenderingCropped_BlogImage.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2067\" title=\"Artist\u2019s illustration of a transformed Highway 7\" src=\"http:\/\/vivanext.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Hwy7TownCentreRenderingCropped_BlogImage.jpg\" alt=\"Inside Artist\u2019s illustration of a transformed Highway 7\" width=\"450\" height=\"282\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a question for you \u2013 when you hear the word highway, what comes to mind? Like most, you probably think of a lot of traffic moving at high speed along a roadway that is designed purely to get you from one place to another as quickly as possible. There may be the occasional stop along the way, but highway stops tend to be more functional than appealing destinations in and of themselves. A highway is for vehicles, large and small \u2013 but typically, not a great place for people.<\/p>\n<p>A highway probably doesn\u2019t bring to mind a welcoming, human-scaled streetscape, where people feel comfortable strolling along wide, beautifully-landscaped sidewalks and boulevards. Most highways don\u2019t offer attractive shopping destinations, with store-fronts and restaurants near the sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>So why the question? Highway 7 is evolving and we want your thoughts and ideas about changing its name to something that better reflects its future.<\/p>\n<p>Highway 7 is one of the most important roads in York Region and is the connector between urban areas in three of our municipalities. It stretches from Highway 50 in the west, across Vaughan and Richmond Hill to east of Donald Cousens Parkway in Markham. And certainly, in the past Highway 7 was all those things associated with the word \u201chighway\u201d \u2013 it carried a lot of traffic, and wasn\u2019t designed to be a comfortable, attractive destination for pedestrians or local residents.<\/p>\n<p>But change is coming quickly to Highway 7, and in the not-too-distant future there will be many sections of Highway 7 where people will want to shop, dine and relax. It\u2019s all part of a larger plan \u2013 York Region is planning a system of <a title=\"Visit York Region's website to read about plans for regional centres and corridors\" href=\"http:\/\/www.york.ca\/Departments\/Planning+and+Development\/Long+Range+Planning\/Centres+Corridors+and+Subways.htm\" target=\"_blank\">regional centres and corridors<\/a>, which follow the Province of Ontario\u2019s <a title=\"Visit the Province of Ontario website for the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe\" href=\"https:\/\/www.placestogrow.ca\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=9&amp;Itemid=14\" target=\"_blank\">Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe<\/a>. The vivaNext plan for rapidways and great transit connections along Highway 7 is also a big part of the change, with construction already underway for <a title=\"Look at future artist illustrations of Highway 7\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vivanext.com\/gallery_rapid_construction\" target=\"_blank\">wide, welcoming boulevards<\/a> and <a title=\"Watch a video about the architecture of a vivastation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vivanext.com\/966\" target=\"_blank\">beautiful transit stations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, York Region is looking for suggestions for re-naming Highway 7. Considering the future transformation of Highway 7, what do you think it should be called?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a contest, so there are no rules \u2013 they\u2019re just looking for your ideas. You can make your suggestions to York Region via Twitter (<a title=\"Visit York Region's Twitter page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/YorkRegionGovt\" target=\"_blank\">www.twitter.com\/YorkRegionGovt<\/a>), Facebook (<a title=\"Visit York Region's Facebook page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/YorkRegion\" target=\"_blank\">www.facebook.com\/YorkRegion<\/a>), or you can post an idea here and we\u2019ll forward it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be interesting to see the name ideas people have for one of our most important streets.\u00a0 Tell us what you think!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a question for you \u2013 when you hear the word highway, what comes to mind? Like most, you probably think of a lot of traffic moving at high speed along a roadway that is designed purely to get you from one place to another as quickly as possible. There may be the occasional stop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,19],"tags":[114,47,61,939,48,9],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surveys","category-urban-planning","tag-highway-7","tag-markham","tag-richmond-hill","tag-urban-planning","tag-vaughan","tag-york-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2288,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions\/2288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yrrtc.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}