King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[W. K. Lis]

People don't read the signs, they see the lights and go straight through.

Also for the right turn arrow, it should be flashing to show that they have priority. A steady right turn arrow should mean the drivers should still have to stop to allow pedestrian to walk straight. A transit specific signal light should have been added. (Maybe create a specific TAXI traffic signal that only lights up from 10 PM - 5 AM, but I wouldn't hold my breath for that.)

 

[animatronic]

People don't read the signs, they see the lights and go straight through.

Also for the right turn arrow, it should be flashing to show that they have priority. A steady right turn arrow should mean the drivers should still have to stop to allow pedestrian to walk straight. A transit specific signal light should have been added. (Maybe create a specific TAXI traffic signal that only lights up from 10 PM - 5 AM, but I wouldn't hold my breath for that.)

Flashing turn lights are not the international standard. The whole point of adding turn lights was to get rid of flashing greens which mean different things in different jurisdictions.

 

[animatronic]

A lot of people here are demonizing drivers/bikers/pedestrians for their behaviour. Whole some actions can be attributed to malice, at a certain point you have to recognize that there are design issues are causing certain behaviours. "905 drivers are idiots" is neither a solution nor a reason.

 

[DSC]

I was out on Sunday night and saw several cars going straight through several intersections. Frankly I could understand why they did so as the signage at many locations is virtually invisible at night (and none too obvious during the day) as it is hung above the street light 'range' and what you see is a green light and a blur.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I was out on Sunday night and saw several cars going straight through several intersections. Frankly I could understand why they did so as the signage at many locations is virtually invisible at night (and none too obvious during the day) as it is hung above the street light 'range' and what you see
is a green light and a blur.

More likely the drivers might think those were lane specific signage. No through traffic on the right lane?

 

[aquateam]

Flashing turn lights are not the international standard. The whole point of adding turn lights was to get rid of flashing greens which mean different things in different jurisdictions.

I was completely shocked when I found out that flashing green lights were functionally meaningless in BC. I wonder how many Canadian drivers have turned left in Vancouver thinking they had priority only to be t-boned by oncoming traffic.

 

[innsertnamehere]

the other peculiarity I noticed in BC compared to Ontario is turning restrictions are usually illustrated with a sign showing what movements you CAN make, instead of Ontario which has the signage show the restricted turns. I.E. a BC style sign on King would be a right turn arrow with a green circle around it. The sign would mean you can only turn right.

 

[TransitBart]

Toronto would probably install Bullard instead of bollards.

He might be thick enough to stop a truck.

 

[aquateam]

the other peculiarity I noticed in BC compared to Ontario is turning restrictions are usually illustrated with a sign showing what movements you CAN make, instead of Ontario which has the signage show the restricted turns. I.E. a BC style sign on King would be a right turn arrow with a green circle around it. The sign would mean you can only turn right.

I didn't realize they did that in BC, they do that in Quebec too. I think somebody posted a link about how legally you need to sign what cannot be done (i.e. that which is not forbidden is allowed) but I don't see why that would apply in Ontario but not BC (maybe Quebec because they have a different legal system).

It makes much more sense to say what you can do instead of what you can't: psychologically, telling someone to do something is much more effective than telling them to *not* do something because to *not* do something, you need to hold in your head the idea of what you can't do, which makes you more likely to do it. That's a common principle in athletic coaching.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I prefer the Ontario way, to be honest.

 

[Leo_Chan]

I would just like to add how the traffic signals work on Highway 7 at Town Centre Blvd, where there are dedicated centre median bus lanes that form a "T" intersection. There is a dedicated traffic signal that has 4 lights: green forward arrow, yellow, red, and white vertical bar. The vertical bar is for buses turning (while the red light is still on) and the green forward arrow is for buses going straight. The bus turning phase occurs before the normal traffic turning phase(s) . What I'm questioning is how a turning bus will cross the intersection if there is a straight bus in front of them, which will result in the need of waiting for the next signal phases. This is assuming the lights don't know which way the bus wants to go.

I know this doesn't directly relate to the King Street Pilot, but it's just something to think about.

 

[MetroMan]

They're installing more yellow textured strips to the sides of streetcar stops today. They're no longer just across, they form an enclosed transit box up against the sidewalk. Reflective signs were also being added to planters to alert drivers of an obstacle ahead.

I haven't seen the signage improvements Joe Cressy was talking about last week but apparently, bigger No Through and No Left Turn signs will be replacing the small versions at "problematic intersections". Shouldn't that be all of them?

Regardless, I don't think that it's the size of the sign that's the issue. It's that most drivers in Toronto don't read signs at all. They just follow the guy in front of them or look at the traffic light.

 

[DSC]

Regardless, I don't think that it's the size of the sign that's the issue. It's that most drivers in Toronto don't read signs at all. They just follow the guy in front of them or look at the traffic light.

Certainly after dark the main problem is that many of the signs are invisible as they are quite high up and are not lit by the streetlights and all that drivers see is a the green traffic light.

 

[W. K. Lis]

To those complaining about overcrowding vehicles (ignoring the single-occupant automobiles)...

 

[Leo_Chan]

Doesn't the rapidway currently end at Town Centre Blvd such that no buses go straight eastbound? I think they're doing two branches of Viva Purple in the future, where half of the buses will continue east moving to the curb lane, and the other half will keep turning off on Town Centre.

With buses needing to cross some 4 or so lanes to get from the rapidway to the curb lane, they will need a signal phase all to their own just as they would when turning. Presumably the signal phases will remain as present, with a white vertical bar the bus can either go straight and cut across to the curb lane, or turn right.