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The Urban Jungle
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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

The King Street pilot has caused a 25% increase in King Street ridership, according to the TTC CEO. Don't yet have a link, but should see it in the news soon.

I wonder if there's been a drop in Queen ridership?
 
In November, I predicted that the King Street Pilot would have increased ridership to over 80K riders a day. Looks like that number is just about spot on.

Once demand is met, Toronto is going to have its provisional downtown subway.
 
MetroMan said:
In November, I predicted that the King Street Pilot would have increased ridership to over 80K riders a day. Looks like that number is just about spot on.

Once demand is met, Toronto is going to have its provisional downtown subway.
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What portion of the 504 is currently served by Flexities? Once the Flexities are providing 100% of service, I wouldn't be surprised to see that increase to 90k or even higher.
 
MetroMan said:
Fred’s Not Here specifically has been forcefully opposing any progress on King Street for decades. Not just the King Street Pilot. This isn’t about having a different opinion; he’s been openly hostile to the community for many years. Most recently, he illegally interfered with the pilot by moving pedestrian segments of the pilot’s planters away from in front of his restaurant to create parking spots.
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Not defending him, just want to know — how has he “cost the city dearly” as you said yesterday?
 
From CEO Report, January 2018

November also saw the start of the King Street Transit Pilot project. Almost immediately, riders saw improvements to travel times and reliability. We are a bit of a victim of our own success, too, as we have also seen a ridership increase of some 25 per cent on King St., meaning some customers are unable to board their first or even second streetcar in the peak of the peak. Travel time, reliability and ridership will be used by the TTC to gauge pilot success. We will continue to work with the City to monitor the pilot and do all we can to assist business in the corridor, but as of writing, the TTC is extremely pleased with the positive impact the pilot is having for customers.
 
DSC said:
From CEO Report, January 2018

November also saw the start of the King Street Transit Pilot project. Almost immediately, riders saw improvements to travel times and reliability. We are a bit of a victim of our own success, too, as we have also seen a ridership increase of some 25 per cent on King St., meaning some customers are unable to board their first or even second streetcar in the peak of the peak. Travel time, reliability and ridership will be used by the TTC to gauge pilot success. We will continue to work with the City to monitor the pilot and do all we can to assist business in the corridor, but as of writing, the TTC is extremely pleased with the positive impact the pilot is having for customers.
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Wow, that's immense. Imagine the kind of ridership we would see if the suburban bus routes got some semblance of transit priority and separation from traffic. I am going to day dream now.
 
MetroMan said:
Nope. And you’d think they would since they’re one of the few businesses who can actually claim to depend on customers arriving by car given that they’re a destination people drive to from all over the city and sell large goods that require transportation by car.
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Right. So if their business model isn't predicated on out-front parking, why is a restaurant's?

So I've read some of the complaints from restaurateurs in the area and I can say with 100% certainty that Mr Luk needs to quiet himself. He's the only one I've read about who complained about the street parking. Some others thought it was driving people away because it was "confusing" or because people were ignorant of the nature of the project.
Sigh. We really can't be accommodating drivers who find it confusing because they shouldn't even be drivers in the first place. As for those who are ignorant, I can see why. The media coverage has been a bit lacking in its simplified and misleading characterisations of the project.

In any case, I still don't think any business in that area should be relying on car traffic for its custom. You're not in Woodbridge. This isn't a SmartCentres Pickering.

Even if the project were to be cancelled tomorrow, any businesses that find they're substantially reliant on car traffic for cash flow need to seriously examine the way they operate. For example: how many people do you need living in a 500m radius of your business before it becomes viable?
 
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TheTigerMaster said:
I wonder if there's been a drop in Queen ridership?
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There surely has been some, on the west side. Probably less so on the east side, which wasn't ever as bad. But for 501, I think the east side has more riders - and more service with 502 running as well.

So even though 501 ridership may be down in the west, the peak point ridership might be relatively unchanged.

Probably best thing to do is to do the same on Queen Street. Then things will be more balanced.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
The King Street pilot has caused a 25% increase in King Street ridership, according to the TTC CEO. Don't yet have a link, but should see it in the news soon.

I wonder if there's been a drop in Queen ridership?
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Queen is lighter. I take it sometimes. Yes it's slower but I get a seat most times and am not pushing and shoving just to get off. I agree, Queen St. should be the same.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
While seeing these spectacular ridership numbers, the thought occurred to me that maybe we need another subway like running through the core of the city :cool:
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A subway for carrying large numbers of people? What is that crazy idea? No, subways are for political brownie points in the suburbs, there's no need for them downtown where voting patterns are quite consistent.
 
BMO said:
Sorry, but maybe I am just blind this morning, but I can't see where it says there was no drop on Queen?
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Literally in the article:

Mr. Colle called the rise "spectacular" and said that streetcar ridership has not dropped on nearby Queen Street, which suggests that these additional passengers are people new to transit.
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I can't help but notice the irony of how billions are spent to justify those "new riders" out in the burbs at the most expensive modes when a policy change basically got us greater numbers of new riders - for pittance. We never pick the lowest hanging fruit even when it is dead obvious how the context (dense urban setting, large and increasing resident/workers population, highly used existing transit route) points to high likelihood of success.

AoD
 
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