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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

The detailed schedules are all online - I think there removal from stops is more a labour/cost issue than anything.

I don't think Nextbus predictions that off, most of the time. It takes current location and history of how that route has been doing at that time of day into factor (predictions fall apart somewhat at the beginning of a new schedule period, until the dataset is big enough - and a new period did begin a couple of days ago (for weekday runs).

Which stop is problematic? I find predictions are worse, if you are not far after the route has left the terminal on frequent routes, as it just doesn't know when the vehicle is actually going to leave.
If nextbus says 4 mins away I'll make the bus if I run. I pretty much always leave when it says 5 mins away. And nearly every time it's actually 10 mins or more away.

(I'm mid route btw)

AFAIK art least 1 operator a day is assaulted, I can totally see being "behind schedule" being one of the reasons.
 
If nextbus says 4 mins away I'll make the bus if I run. I pretty much always leave when it says 5 mins away. And nearly every time it's actually 10 mins or more away.

(I'm mid route btw)

AFAIK art least 1 operator a day is assaulted, I can totally see being "behind schedule" being one of the reasons.
Funny, for the last three years or so most TransSee has offered me time ranges within when it expects the vehicle to show up, based on traffic.

Anyone who assaults a frontline worker because the politicians of this city are too spineless to take any space away from the almighty car and implement transit only lanes immediately forfeits their right to have their argument entertained.
 
If nextbus says 4 mins away I'll make the bus if I run. I pretty much always leave when it says 5 mins away. And nearly every time it's actually 10 mins or more away.

(I'm mid route btw)

AFAIK art least 1 operator a day is assaulted, I can totally see being "behind schedule" being one of the reasons.
I definitely get that at my stop for the westbound 504 on the east side of downtown. I noticed as soon as a car arrives at Distillery Loop it predicts "7 minutes" to arrive at my stop at Ontario Street. Sometimes the thing doesn't even leave the loop for 7 minutes, but as soon as it's in there "7 minutes" is set, and it stays at 7 until the second it leaves the loop. Sometimes it can haul out of there super fast, and if there's little to slow it down, say on a Sunday morning, it will make it from there to Ontario Street in about 3 minutes. This is a problem since the feed only updates something like, I think every 90 seconds? So the prediction jumps from 7 all the way down to 2 minutes instantly. It's been like that ever since they opened the Cherry Street track years ago.
 
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If nextbus says 4 mins away I'll make the bus if I run. I pretty much always leave when it says 5 mins away. And nearly every time it's actually 10 mins or more away.
Odd. There's likely something wrong in the dataset.

I tend to look at the vehicle location as well before I leave, as I know the minimum it can take. Though that's easier as I'm 2 minutes from the stop (1 if I run!)
 
I take the King streetcar most days (I would walk, but now there's a toddler involved, and he's a slow walker) and I have never thought to check an app to see if it's coming. It's always coming, within the next few minutes.

Though a digital sign at the stop to let me know on those rare occasions when it really will not come could be helpful.
 
Funny, for the last three years or so most TransSee has offered me time ranges within when it expects the vehicle to show up, based on traffic.

Anyone who assaults a frontline worker because the politicians of this city are too spineless to take any space away from the almighty car and implement transit only lanes immediately forfeits their right to have their argument entertained.
Why is everything a false dichotomy? Plenty of streets are single lane. A bus lane would eliminate the street effectively.
I definitely get that at my stop for the westbound 504 on the east side of downtown. I noticed as soon as a car arrives at Distillery Loop it predicts "7 minutes" to arrive at my stop at Ontario Street. Sometimes the thing doesn't even leave the loop for 7 minutes, but as soon as it's in there "7 minutes" is set, and it stays at 7 until the second it leaves the loop. Sometimes it can haul out of there super fast, and if there's little to slow it down, say on a Sunday morning, it will make it from there to Ontario Street in about 3 minutes. This is a problem since the feed only updates something like, I think every 90 seconds? So the prediction jumps from 7 all the way down to 2 minutes instantly. It's been like that ever since they opened the Cherry Street track years ago.
wow didn't realize it updates so infrequently!
 
Obviously single lane streets don't apply to what I was talking about.
That’s what I was getting at. You don’t know the situation but are throwing out a solution and angry at the city.

Bus lanes only make sense on 3 lane suburban streets, how many routes are late general vs routes that travel on 3 lane roads?

Even things that people here love like banning street parking are already in effect during rush hour on most major streets
 
Bus lanes make sense on any street where there is more than one lane. If you disagree, then you can't get mad at the TTC for not sticking to their schedules, as the solution to bad schedule adherence is a private right of way.
 
Bus lanes make sense on any street where there is more than one lane. If you disagree, then you can't get mad at the TTC for not sticking to their schedules, as the solution to bad schedule adherence is a private right of way.
Plenty of cities have vehicles in mixed traffic and roughly keep a schedule.

I can’t think of many 2 lane roads worth taking down to a single lane 24-7
 
Half the time 2 lane roads become one lane cause someone decides to park on the right lane. The problem is enforcement not designations. A sign is dead if no one cares to read and enforce it. There is no point of painting lanes red if people are going to break the rules. They also have to look into quick stop zones, maybe immediately on side streets for all those food couriers that needs to make these quick stops.

Maybe they need to reduce the number of stops. Create some "off peak" stops that would be skipped during rush hour to improve travel speeds and reduce congestion when cars have to get around a stopped bus.

Then there are some routes that just can't be helped like 19 Bay.
 
Half the time 2 lane roads become one lane cause someone decides to park on the right lane. The problem is enforcement not designations. A sign is dead if no one cares to read and enforce it. There is no point of painting lanes red if people are going to break the rules. They also have to look into quick stop zones, maybe immediately on side streets for all those food couriers that needs to make these quick stops.
Allowing cars to bypass streetcars doesn't help congestion, it makes it worse by putting cars in front of the streetcar at the next traffic signal. That means slower streetcar service and faster driving. And that in turn means less streetcar ridership and more car traffic. Which in turn results in slower driving, so nobody wins.

Maybe they need to reduce the number of stops. Create some "off peak" stops that would be skipped during rush hour to improve travel speeds and reduce congestion when cars have to get around a stopped bus.

Then there are some routes that just can't be helped like 19 Bay.

The stops at minor streets have no effect on roadway capacity since those intersections are not the limiting factor in a road's capacity. The ones which do reduce capacity for cars are the ones at major arterials, which are also the ones which cannot be skipped since they are the transfer points to other routes.

We should definitely continue to remove closely spaced stops, but the rationale needs to be to speed up streetcars, not speed up motor traffic. Focusing on the latter is a recipe for totally screwing up all of the transport networks. Central Toronto is way beyond the population density at which focusing on fast motor traffic is a viable transport strategy.

One possible improvement for traffic flow is to change the setup for transit priority at major arterials during peak periods.

Currently it extends green lights while streetcars are sitting at the nearside stop, in the hopes that the light is green when the streetcar is finished loading. A lot of this extra green time gets wasted since vehicles are stuck behind the streetcar and pedestrians already have a Don't Walk signal by that point.

An alternative could be to extend the green light as the streetcar approaches the nearside stop, to clear the traffic in front of the streetcar. As soon as the streetcar reaches the stop, the light would change to red, and there would be a minimum-duration phase for perpendicular traffic including pedestrians. The downside of this method is that streetcars would always need to be stopped for at least the minimum duration of that phase, which is around 30 seconds at downtown intersections. I think that the dwell time currently averages around 25 seconds at major stops so that could add a few seconds for streetcars with below-average dwell times. The question is whether that delay is more or less than the delay caused by motor traffic which currently blocks their access to the stop. Another advantage of this setup is that it provides a disproportionately large benefit to the streetcars with longer dwell times, which are also the ones with longer headways. So that should help even out service. The current system penalizes streetcars with unusually long dwell times since they miss the green provided by the priority system since that green is timed based on an assumed dwell time.
 
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Allowing cars to bypass streetcars doesn't help congestion, it makes it worse by putting cars in front of the streetcar at the next traffic signal. That means slower streetcar service and faster driving. And that in turn means less streetcar ridership and more car traffic. Which in turn results in slower driving, so nobody wins.



The stops at minor streets have no effect on roadway capacity since those intersections are not the limiting factor in a road's capacity. The ones which do reduce capacity for cars are the ones at major arterials, which are also the ones which cannot be skipped since they are the transfer points to other routes.

We should definitely continue to remove closely spaced stops, but the rationale needs to be to speed up streetcars, not speed up motor traffic. Focusing on the latter is a recipe for totally screwing up all of the transport networks. Central Toronto is way beyond the population density at which focusing on fast motor traffic is a viable transport strategy.

One possible improvement for traffic flow is to change the setup for transit priority at major arterials during peak periods.

Currently it extends green lights while streetcars are sitting at the nearside stop, in the hopes that the light is green when the streetcar is finished loading. A lot of this extra green time gets wasted since vehicles are stuck behind the streetcar and pedestrians already have a Don't Walk signal by that point.

An alternative could be to extend the green light as the streetcar approaches the nearside stop, to clear the traffic in front of the streetcar. As soon as the streetcar reaches the stop, the light would change to red, and there would be a minimum-duration phase for perpendicular traffic including pedestrians. The downside of this method is that streetcars would always need to be stopped for at least the minimum duration of that phase, which is around 30 seconds at downtown intersections. I think that the dwell time currently averages around 25 seconds at major stops so that could add a few seconds for streetcars with below-average dwell times. The question is whether that delay is more or less than the delay caused by motor traffic which currently blocks their access to the stop. Another advantage of this setup is that it provides a disproportionately large benefit to the streetcars with longer dwell times, which are also the ones with longer headways. So that should help even out service. The current system penalizes streetcars with unusually long dwell times since they miss the green provided by the priority system since that green is timed based on an assumed dwell time.
Removing transit stops needs to be done very carefully, there are many transit users who can really not walk far and having stops 'too far apart' will mean they must return to using WheelTrans or taxis. As you note, stops at major intersections are necessary for transfers and a greater use of Express buses on busy routes will help too.

You are certainly correct that the City needs to do a FAR better job on transit priority at traffic lights; currently it is clearly not a City priority to install or maintain or tweak this.
 
Many downtown centres around the world have efficiently banned street parking. Only allowing delivery trucks for only a few minutes, then its out. Sometimes only allowing deliveries outside of the times the businesses are open (IE. before 10 AM and after businesses close for the evening).
 
Many downtown centres around the world have efficiently banned street parking. Only allowing delivery trucks for only a few minutes, then its out. Sometimes only allowing deliveries outside of the times the businesses are open (IE. before 10 AM and after businesses close for the evening).
I'm not just talking about downtown though. And I think our current system of a few streets allowing it but only outside rush times is a fair compromise.
 

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