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Yes I've read the article as well - utter sensationalism by a few businesses (one of which isn't even located on King street, yep) who think that any alteration to the status quo would affect their sales. But if their "thriving business" can't survive on the busiest transit and pedestrian corridor in the city, blaming the city and transit users isn't going to save their business no matter what we do.
Turning King Street into a transit mall is pretty much a no-brainer. You already have the ridership (65,000/day), you already have the new Bombardier streetcars, so all you need is a dedicated right of way and ban auto traffic. And miracle! King Streetcars are now able to sail down King Street, in the middle or rush hour traffic, and actually be on-time and on-schedule for once.
For John Tory, the King Transit Corridor suddenly became his political goldmine, because overnight, he's now hailed as the "transit mayor" (even though his policies in other transit portfolios such as the SmartTrack scam is hardly reassuring). Whatever his intentions, one thing is for sure: in the next Toronto and Ontario election, good transit = good politics, and you won't get elected in this city if you don't support transit investment. Even the latest Progressive Conservative platform calls for greater investment into transit (the PCs even promised to provide full provincial funding for the TTC... what rarity).
Plus, all of the parallel and perpendicular streets are still open to cars. If you can't drive down King, you can drive on a parallel street, park there, and King is only 100 m away.
Plus, all of the parallel and perpendicular streets are still open to cars. If you can't drive down King, you can drive on a parallel street, park there, and King is only 100 m away.
Apparently, for some drivers, walking an extra 100 m is just too much.
All in all, I'm glad this transit corridor is now in full swing, and can hopefully act as a catalyst for more transit and pedestrian-oriented streets (I'm looking at you Queen and Yonge Streets). Long, hard march ahead.
Yes I've read the article as well - utter sensationalism by a few businesses (one of which isn't even located on King street, yep) who think that any alteration to the status quo would affect their sales. But if their "thriving business" can't survive on the busiest transit and pedestrian corridor in the city, blaming the city and transit users isn't going to save their business no matter what we do.
Turning King Street into a transit mall is pretty much a no-brainer. You already have the ridership (65,000/day), you already have the new Bombardier streetcars, so all you need is a dedicated right of way and ban auto traffic. And miracle! King Streetcars are now able to sail down King Street, in the middle or rush hour traffic, and actually be on-time and on-schedule for once.
For John Tory, the King Transit Corridor suddenly became his political goldmine, because overnight, he's now hailed as the "transit mayor" (even though his policies in other transit portfolios such as the SmartTrack scam is hardly reassuring). Whatever his intentions, one thing is for sure: in the next Toronto and Ontario election, good transit = good politics, and you won't get elected in this city if you don't support transit investment. Even the latest Progressive Conservative platform calls for greater investment into transit (the PCs even promised to provide full provincial funding for the TTC... what rarity).
I always thought Toronto has a solid transit infrastructure, paricularly in and near downtown. It is just it is far from taking full advantage of it. Some of the stupid practices are holding it back.
We all know expecting to add more subway lines takes 20 years due to the politics here, but the streetcar system is actually quite extensive, but they just don't work efficiently as they potentially can. The problem is two folds. One is the lack of ROW in general, which is a result of pleasing drivers. Imagine if all streetcar lines have ROW, they will be a lot faster. Two is the excessive number of stops, which is a result of pleasing lazy passengers who can't walk 100m more to the next stop so that the vehicle doesn't have to stop every 2-3 minutes for one or two people to get on/off (some stops are less than 100m apart even!). If the spacing is increased to 400-500 meters in general, which is pretty much international standards, the system will be faster too. With These plus better synchronized singalling system the entire streetcar system will work like LRTs, making transit a lot easier.
I have to say I don't understand why things work as they are now. I just chose to live near work so that I keep the need to deal with the TTC to a minimum. My legs are my transit.
Smarttrack was supposed to be done in 7 year, now how many years have passed? LOL
Cool thread. I wish American cities would stand up and start to enact real change like Toronto. The pain the city is feeling today will yield a much better city in 10 years. In the USA, perspective on taxes and investment, car culture, and politics are so much worse.
People in Philadelphia park their cars on sidewalks, over crosswalks, in the median of major thoroughfares, etc. And transit funding is constantly anemic. Terrible.
I would pick a city with subpar public transportation and great most things else, such as Toronto, over a city with great public transportation and pathetic bull**** everything else.
I would pick a city with subpar public transportation and great most things else, such as Toronto, over a city with great public transportation and pathetic bull**** everything else.
We all know expecting to add more subway lines takes 20 years due to the politics here, but the streetcar system is actually quite extensive, but they just don't work efficiently as they potentially can. The problem is two folds. One is the lack of ROW in general, which is a result of pleasing drivers. Imagine if all streetcar lines have ROW, they will be a lot faster. Two is the excessive number of stops, which is a result of pleasing lazy passengers who can't walk 100m more to the next stop so that the vehicle doesn't have to stop every 2-3 minutes for one or two people to get on/off (some stops are less than 100m apart even!). If the spacing is increased to 400-500 meters in general, which is pretty much international standards, the system will be faster too. With These plus better synchronized singalling system the entire streetcar system will work like LRTs, making transit a lot easier.
Pretty fair assessment, and both of these issues are currently under consideration:
1. With the conversion of King into a full transit corridor, this makes it the 4th streetcar line to be "upgraded" with its own ROW. The first three are the Spadina Line, St. Clair Line, and Queen's Quay Line. Toronto has 11 streetcar/LRT lines in total, with 10 of them all located in or around downtown south of Bloor. I agree that upgrading these lines should be a priority.
I know these are incremental changes compared to say a massive project subway project like Eglinton Crosstown or the Montreal REM, but at the end of the day, they all have a profound impact on the day to day experience of transit passengers.
2. The streetcar stop spacing issue has been a point of contention for years. To be fair, some lines - like the St. Clair 512 Line - has already taken out extra stops and implemented full ROW throughout the entire route (I live next to the St. Clair Line and can attest that it's a breeze to travel on that line compared with the downtown streetcars with far closer stops and mixed traffic).
Pretty fair assessment, and both of these issues are currently under consideration:
1. With the conversion of King into a full transit corridor, this makes it the 4th streetcar line to be "upgraded" with its own ROW. The first three are the Spadina Line, St. Clair Line, and Queen's Quay Line. Toronto has 11 streetcar/LRT lines in total, with 10 of them all located in or around downtown south of Bloor. I agree that upgrading these lines should be a priority.
I know these are incremental changes compared to say a massive project subway project like Eglinton Crosstown or the Montreal REM, but at the end of the day, they all have a profound impact on the day to day experience of transit passengers.
2. The streetcar stop spacing issue has been a point of contention for years. To be fair, some lines - like the St. Clair 512 Line - has already taken out extra stops and implemented full ROW throughout the entire route (I live next to the St. Clair Line and can attest that it's a breeze to travel on that line compared with the downtown streetcars with far closer stops and mixed traffic).
Yeah, 512 is better. But the sheer number of stops of 505 and 501 is unbelievable. They have 2 or even 3 stops between Yonge and University alone - a distance of 800 meters. I mean, a York st stop, 120m from University? Or a Victoria stop, 85 meters east of Yonge? Someone is crazy out there.
These are the extremely cheap/free options of improvement that will make a sizable difference, compared with building something new, which takes more than a decade.
Cool thread. I wish American cities would stand up and start to enact real change like Toronto. The pain the city is feeling today will yield a much better city in 10 years. In the USA, perspective on taxes and investment, car culture, and politics are so much worse.
People in Philadelphia park their cars on sidewalks, over crosswalks, in the median of major thoroughfares, etc. And transit funding is constantly anemic. Terrible.
What can you say, people are obsessed with lower taxes, lower and then lower some more. Eventually you get what you pay for. And then they come back complaining about the traffic as if it is someone else's fault.
What can you say, people are obsessed with lower taxes, lower and then lower some more. Eventually you get what you pay for. And then they come back complaining about the traffic as if it is someone else's fault.
In large part, it's political rhetoric delivered in the form of a marketing scheme. Vote me in and "I'll lower your already-too-high-taxes." In reality, the American experience is "a la carte". If you starve yourself of the sides, you can have a remarkably high quality meal for cheap. But that sucks over the long-run because you can't live like that forever.
Our transportation, education and healthcare are all too expensive respective to quality because we do not contribute and invest enough. Part of it is fiscal responsibility as well (war is expensive!). Regardless, other countries will continue to pass us in those areas and that will greatly affect the QOL for Americans (it already has).
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