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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

Yes everyone would always want to regulate others so they can enjoy increased freedom. They’re natural human tendencies. The key is the find a fair and effective balance.

Youre right in your points, and I would also be right in saying that those who don’t drive push for the war on cars. Always two sides.
There's no war on cars. Only a desire to shift the transportation balance towards more effective means of moving people around a densely populated city. The way most of our roads are built prioritizes cars too much, even in the pre-war parts of the city that were never built for them. And yes, I am a driver. As far as enforcement goes, a car crash is much more damaging to people's lives and property than the equivalent for pedestrians and cyclists, so I see nothing wrong with enforcing traffic rules for cars more thoroughly.
 
Oh look. This sign is still up.

8ED0D7E4-7DA4-459D-A658-F7B41CBD0C54.jpeg


Has this rule EVER been obeyed, or enforced? What makes them think that drivers are going to obey a “no through traffic” sign when the road ahead will be wide open, with cars turning into it? “Why can’t I go there? There are other cars, taxis and streetcars driving on it.”

Sure, there’ll be a cop at each intersection for the first two weeks. But once the enforcement is gone, King is going to be chaotic, but this time with cars having to share the streetcar lane.

This was the wrong model to follow. Alternating one way streets at each block would have placed a wrong way sign at each block. No enforcement needed. It’s intuitive: cars have to turn off King otherwise they’re driving into a lane going the wrong direction. Self enforced.
 

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Oh look. This sign is still up.

Where is that sign?

Has this rule EVER been obeyed, or enforced? What makes them think that drivers are going to obey a “no through traffic” sign when the road ahead will be wide open, with cars turning into it? “Why can’t I go there? There are other cars, taxis and streetcars driving on it.”

Sure, there’ll be a cop at each intersection for the first two weeks. But once the enforcement is gone, King is going to be chaotic, but this time with cars having to share the streetcar lane.

This was the wrong model to follow. Alternating one way streets at each block would have placed a wrong way sign at each block. No enforcement needed. It’s intuitive: cars have to turn off King otherwise they’re driving into a lane going the wrong direction. Self enforced.

I think the best hope for enforcement would be automatic ticketing using cameras. For 30 metres approaching each intersection where traffic must turn right, only streetcars are allowed to be in the left lane. Anyone else would get a shiny 'road toll' mailed to their addresse.
 
Where is that sign?

Just west of King and Brant in front of the Pizza Pizza. There used to be a lot more of these signs including on the overhead wires as shown a few posts back. Nobody has ever obeyed these. I’ve never seen the centre lanes free of cars and I’ve lived just off of King and been taking the 504 for just over 15 years now.
 
What enforcement?? Its a very rare day to see anyone enforcing lane restrictiveness as well making illegal turns. I seen only once enforcement done on Bay St and a few time at Richmond west of Bay, but never on King or other roads with HOV lanes.

We need to do what Europe does in a few cities I have seen done first hand and ask the question. Offices stand at various locations and write down the car plate number as well time and location for all in fractions including speeding. They go back to the office and hand the list of illegal actions to a person who thens write up the ticket. The ticket is hand delivery to the owner of the vehicle who has x days to pay the fine. If they fail to pay the fine by x days and x days after it, a knock is heard at the door of enforcers who are there to take the vehicle away for non payment. That cost will be added to the over due fine. In many places, the fine can be a week or month wages of the owner. The cost of fines are too low here and they should go up for each ticket a driver gets on a sliding scale to the point, points are place on your driver license. Insurance companies will love this.

Watch out for those drivers who fail to obey the new rules come Monday.
 
Watch out for those drivers who fail to obey the new rules come Monday.

It won’t be hard to find. I hope I’m proven wrong but in a city that flagrantly disregards traffic laws (cars, cyclists and pedestrians), I have a hard time believing that a sign is going to enforce the new rules.

What pisses me off the most is that Toronto has one of the highest police budgets per capita in the world, yet we can’t afford to have cops enforcing the rules of the road.
 
Oh look. This sign is still up.

View attachment 126356

Has this rule EVER been obeyed, or enforced? What makes them think that drivers are going to obey a “no through traffic” sign when the road ahead will be wide open, with cars turning into it? “Why can’t I go there? There are other cars, taxis and streetcars driving on it.”

Sure, there’ll be a cop at each intersection for the first two weeks. But once the enforcement is gone, King is going to be chaotic, but this time with cars having to share the streetcar lane.

This was the wrong model to follow. Alternating one way streets at each block would have placed a wrong way sign at each block. No enforcement needed. It’s intuitive: cars have to turn off King otherwise they’re driving into a lane going the wrong direction. Self enforced.

lol there would still be cars driving the wrong way down the streets. This is Toronto.
 
It won’t be hard to find. I hope I’m proven wrong but in a city that flagrantly disregards traffic laws (cars, cyclists and pedestrians), I have a hard time believing that a sign is going to enforce the new rules.

What pisses me off the most is that Toronto has one of the highest police budgets per capita in the world, yet we can’t afford to have cops enforcing the rules of the road.

I'd say we live in a pretty safe city. Budget per capita <> misspent funds just because you don't personally see roadway enforcement on a stretch of road. But to your point, you do realize at the majority of intersections even if vehicles were to go straight they would be blocked by the expanded pedestrian pathway that will jut out onto the roadway. I think you're blowing a lot of this out of proportion. I count maybe two places that may have issues with compliance due to the presence of a through lane on both sides of the intersection.

See the expanded TTC stops onto the roadway in the attached image for example:
sGL49Yd.jpg
 
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They’re starting to install new far side TTC stops. Here’s the Westbound stop at Spadina. It’s moving away from in front of Fresh & Wild (NE corner) to way further down, past the parking lot next to Quantum Coffee.

A11F6392-3B1D-43BB-B043-7CE4917CE5A2.jpeg


I wasn’t able to find where they’re putting the eastbound stop but it’s probably in front of the LCBO.
 

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They’re starting to install new far side TTC stops. Here’s the Westbound stop at Spadina. It’s moving away from in front of Fresh & Wild (NE corner) to way further down, almost in front of Weslodge.

View attachment 126491

I wasn’t able to find where they’re putting the eastbound stop but it’s probably in front of the LCBO.
They look to be about the length of a LFLRV from the intersection so the new westbound one will probably be a little bit past the LCBO, probably with the last section of a LFLRV being near it.
 
They look to be about the length of a LFLRV from the intersection so the new westbound one will probably be a little bit past the LCBO, probably with the last section of a LFLRV being near it.

Hoping this will alleviate some issues we've been seeing with heavy loading at the front of the vehicle while the back doors basically have nobody entering through them.
 

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