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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

Shameful.

I can't wait for the 2023 rebuild. I hope sufficient LRT-prep is done (raised level boarding platforms flush against side of new streetcars). Even if cars are allowed initially, the introduction of LRT elements will open the door to complete removal of cars from King streetcar tracks eventually.

Also, King streetcar should be fully upgraded to LRT specifications by the 2030s-2040s. (Better than today's Spadina / St.Clair).
The Ontario Line intersects at King-Bathurst and at King(Corktown). That is going to dramatically increase pressure to LRT-ify King.

The next fleet purchase can include longer trains (7-segment Flexity or 9-segment Flexity, or coupled 60-meter 2LRV with new couplers), to allow 150,000 passengers per day on King LRT.


1571515030504.png
 
As far as we are hijacking this thread.

To a point. But Toronto is far beyond that point.

We reached a point where at Queens U, during good weather, we now have more bikes per hour on College during peak period, than cars per hour,. Some hours have counted well excess of 1000 bikes, while cars in peak period lanes are limited to approximately 800 cars per hour. Even freeway lanes are limited to 1700 to 2100 cars per hour per lane -- that's about 1 car every 2 seconds. But that's not possible in downtown traffic signalled streets, and congestion collapse occurs far below 1000 cars per hour per lane.

Now, a single subway track can exceed 60,000 ppphpd (Peak People Per Hour Per Direction) in some of the best systems worldwide.

TTC subway carries 40Kppphpd, which matches 20 lanes of 2000 single-driver cars, as seen in this classic 1950s/1960s era advertisement:

View attachment 208025


(Side note: I encourage more transit, but understand why there's the feeling of "I'm keeping my car, over my dead body! Add more lanes, add more lanes...."...

I own a 2011 Hyundai Elantra Touring, baby blue color, car keys dangling, even though I use transit more often and mainly use cars for transit-inconvenient trips, one tankful of gas per month.... though NEVER drive here downtown; the critical pain point passed and now more and more people just want better transit downtown. At some point it becomes a majority in the region, and that filters to the electorate. (Look at the Climate-aware Millenials too)

It's the "New York" and "London UK" mentality: Economy depends on transit improvements more than cars in these ultradensified areas. There's a densification critical mass where car lane value starts devaluing relative to replacement with transit. In a situation where super-densification continues without ability to do any road capacity increases. Megacities are way more livable with transit than being dependant on cars, and you really truly notice that if you visit world cities.

In fact, there are currently enough proposed/approved condos/offices downtown to double the number of towers downtown over the next 15 years. And that's not going to end. We're next to a Great Lake, with lots of eastward/northward/southwards expansion room, in a favoured-country in today's geopolitics/climate, and the pressures of Toronto is going to still be continued superdensification (with only a few pauses for corrections). There is intense pressure in Toronto to keep densifying.

So now you're getting it -- you're seeing where the downtown economy mathematics are going.

As Toronto downtown continues to superdensify, the financial & economic profit pressure (businesses booming downtown) favours turning King into a 60-meter "low-floor mini equivalent of Calgary C-Train". More commerce, more economy, more business... Sure, a few single-occupant-car-dependent businesses might have difficulty, but the rest of the downtown economy succeeds way more. Even the King Pilot had big undocumented spinoff benefits and indirectly made it much easier for residents to move to places like Liberty Village (and continue densifying there, too). Onwards goes the outwards Toronto densification.

It's the Tokyo Factor, It's the New York Factor, it's the London UK Factor. All World Cities tends to starts converting SOME car lanes into transit because megacities start profiting more when it's impossible to cram any more cars on a lane. Transit in megacities/world cities tend to become the equivalent of the nuclear reactors of people throughput that powers a megacity economy. Toronto is entering the World City League. It is only a few car lanes sacrificed to increase people throughput to power a megacity economy.

The Toronto downtown economic pressures finally overcomes the "I want to keep car lane" mentality, so the pros finally starts outweighing the cons, and then -- eventually -- unable to widen roads further -- Toronto is willing to jettison all vehicles fully away from King streetcar tracks (except at intersections). The dominos are already slowly flipping, and it's already done elsewhere (successful metro-speed metro-frequency non-metro routes that pushes 6-figure-passenger-per-day). Electorate demand, voter demand, politicians start listening -- it's slowly happening. (P.S. How did Transit Pilot happen? Bingo. And Phase 2 will almost definitely domino later this century.)

This is why I am almost willing to bet my mortgage that within half a century, the King streetcar route is eventually becoming an (approx) ~60-meter level-boarding transit-priority LRT route.
I was really struck by the most recent population projections published by the province: https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/demographics/projections/table4.html
Ontario’s midline population estimate for the City of Toronto is 4,270,000 by 2046. That would make Toronto’s population density higher than Greater London’s today. The reality that Toronto is a BIG city that requires serious public transit will become increasingly “in-your-face”. And yet, we can’t be entirely surprised by the resistance we will continue to encounter towards dedicating more road space to transit. When my father was born in 1941, Toronto’s census metropolitan area was still shy of a million people. That’s the city he grew up in and HE STILL votes (he’s a pretty progressive guy, but many voters his age are not!) I have the impression that big-city thinking receives less resistance in cities like London and New York, but, of course, they were already very big cities 100 years ago. Their voters grew up with big-city attitudes.
 
I was really struck by the most recent population projections published by the province: https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/demographics/projections/table4.html
Ontario’s midline population estimate for the City of Toronto is 4,270,000 by 2046. That would make Toronto’s population density higher than Greater London’s today. The reality that Toronto is a BIG city that requires serious public transit will become increasingly “in-your-face”.
In some respects, Toronto is more ready to install transit than many North American cities.

Toronto is so fortunate to have saved our streetcar network (callout to Steve Munro), and there is potential cheap rapid transit hiding in plain sight unbeknownst to many, with the right optimizations. The LRT-ification of the Toronto streetcar network has already been going halfheartedly for decades (Spadina, St. Clair) but finally picked up pace with the new streetcars (which now really look like LRTs) which are nearly identical to the LRTs under construction elsewhere. With each progress, it becomes a shorter and shorter stone throw to achieve true high-capacity rapid transit.

By 2030s, if the Ontario Line is built, there is an incredible number of interchanges for King 504 TTC streetcar:
  • TTC Dundas West
  • GO King-Liberty
  • OntarioLine King-Bathurst
  • TTC St. Andrew
  • TTC King
  • OntarioLine Corktown
  • OntarioLine East Harbour
  • TTC Broadview
Five subway stations and one GO train station, on a single "streetcar" route!

No other streetcar routes will be this blessed, not even the full length Queen route. It's pretty much "in-your-face" eventual impetus (over a couple decades) to gradually turn King into a dedicated LRT. The "better-than-today's-Spadina" type, with raised yellow edge flush against the doors -- level boarding just like a subway train -- with longer 45 meter or 60 meter LRVs or consists -- easily capable of "capital costs cheaply" moving 150,000 people per day.

Even if TTC has no plans yet -- it's going to be increasingly obvious that they will have to upgrade 504 -- as a cheaper upgrade than building a new downtown subway.. Even the area footprints of the "onstreet platforms" on King are already bigger than the Spadina/St.Clair platforms, simply by virtue of taking over former parking spots on King.
Without needing sidewalk space, they can potentially "Hulk" them up into mini station-looking stops similar to ION LRT in the 2023 rebuild. Provide a taste of the metro experience with flush boarding to today's new streetcars long before fleet-addons.

Car driving can still be allowed on King for now (kick the "car-ban" can down the road to 2030s) but at least the new 2023 King platforms will at least be ready for continued LRT-ification.
 
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It is a great idea to turn the King car into the King LRT car, but auto gods will have to understand that transit along King is paramount. The pilot has proved that, now if a LRT is built with all theses connections coming in the future, it'll be a slap in the face for them they don't know is coming, but it benifits everyone else.
 
So a row of express busses will be stuck behind king street cars. Will this actually be faster?
 
There is room to pass on King

No, there isn’t. There is effectively only one lane each way on King Street. The former curb lane is used for transit stops, bike share stations, art installations, semi-permanent patios and taxi stands. There’s a right turn lane at every intersection but it’s not intended for passing because the lane ends on the other side. Unless streetcar drivers stop at an intersection to allow a bus to pass it on the right, which would be a tight squeeze for buses, then these buses will be driving in gaps between streetcars.
 
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