King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[Streety McCarface]

I have often wondered how to reliably and visibly denote no-parking/transit stop zones especially in winter. Maybe we should try bunting?

Put some street spikes, maybe people will think twice.

 

[Leo_Chan]

Put some street spikes, maybe people will think twice.

It just raise the road to be level with the sidewalk. Wood should do it.

 

[DSC]

It just raise the road to be level with the sidewalk. Wood should do it.

If (or, I hope, when!) the Project becomes 'permanent', the plan is to widen the sidewalks properly. This is clearly an expensive thing to do and not something that could occur during a one-year pilot.

 

[nfitz]

I still take my chances with Line 1. Maybe I would consider changing at Broadview if the pilot conditions were extended to Sumach to squeeze out a few more minutes.

You don't really see much between Sumach and Jarvis. Heck, the ghost town starts at Parliament. The long-distance drivers are already moved by their online maps to a different route.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Check out the animation in this Tweet, at this link.

 

[steveintoronto]

After timid rollout, Toronto's King Street project enters pivotal phase
City planners dreamed of transforming the crucial roadway in the core, but some ideas were later shelved for being too radical
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...gger-scope-than-transitalone/article37929140/

 

[W. K. Lis]

After timid rollout, Toronto's King Street project enters pivotal phase
City planners dreamed of transforming the crucial roadway in the core, but some ideas were later shelved for being too radical
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...gger-scope-than-transitalone/article37929140/

"When New York prepared to turn Times Square over to pedestrians, the city put out chairs for passers-by. In Australia, a multibillion-dollar light-rail project in Sydney includes prioritizing pedestrians and transit on a key downtown road, with broader sidewalks and places for people to linger.

Cities have created mini-parks in road space, or installed patios, workout areas or art.

Good amenities can attract people even to unlikely spaces, as Toronto showed when it opened a skating venue under the Gardiner Expressway. On King Street, though, high-quality public-realm improvements were absent when the pilot project started."
​

Whoever kept chairs away, refused to widen sidewalks, and vetoed mini-parks must want the pilot to fail.

 

[steveintoronto]

Whoever kept chairs away, refused to widen sidewalks, and vetoed mini-parks must want the pilot to fail.

The project was badly bungled, in many ways as the article points out. The overhype on 'what a brilliant success it's been' doesn't help. Aspects look very promising, but there's a hell of a lot more to do yet to nail this.

Anyone considering this a template for other streetcar corridors had better hold their jets until the City gets this right.

Still no sign of transit priority at intersections.

Good article here, even some from the Right are expounding this concept, and doing what it takes to get it right:
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-give-torontos-king-street-pilot-a-fair-shot

 

[MetroMan]

That's absolutely not going to happen within at least the next 20 years.

I wouldn’t be so sure. The King Street Pilot has been wildly successful for transit and has proven to be a strategy that can save Toronto from absolute gridlock while we try to catch up on our backlog of subway construction.

Once the new layout is in place and King attracts pedestrians and hop on/hop off transit to businesses on King, the opposition to replicating it on other streets will soften.

They’ve learned lessons how to roll something like this out. I’ve heard from the top of the food chain that this is going to be reproduced throughout the city.

The 501 Queen is probably next. It’s a heavily used transit corridor like the 504/514 and crosstown car traffic can shift to the Richmond/Adelaide corridor like on the King Street Pilot. It’s low having fruit.

 

[steveintoronto]

There's a hell of a lot of work to be done on King before this can be a template to copy. I took it from the core today to what I thought would be Dundas West. It was insufferably slow, and then the 504 short-turned at Queen/Roncy. Get on the next one (all the time wondering if Presto are going to charge me again) get two stops north on Roncy, idiot parked car got hit and dragged. Streetcar out of service. I walked all the way up to Bloor, although a shuttle bus did pass me at Dundas.

This is half-baked. The concept is excellent, the implementation is a disaster. And fugging Council and Mayor throw $1.5M at it, and wonder why it doesn't dance?

Jeezuz...

 

[44 North]

501 Queen is the logical next step. But feel like it'd be wise to start phasing out Queen service between now and 2031 in preparation for RL construction. Bolster service on 505 Dundas and 506 Carlton, also go harder with 504 King improvements by expanding the "Pilot" east on King and up Broadview. Broadview station is vital for 504 and 505, as is the Broadview Ave as a corridor. With Queen down to buses or no service at all for key stretches, we need to have a plan in place today.

 

[MetroMan]

Update on the King Street Pilot:

Myself and the #KingStreetEats team met with Joe Cressy at City Hall last week and were assured concessions to improve the King Street Pilot and help King Street businesses:

1. What has hurt businesses the most is the perception that cars are banned from King — they’re not. To counter this misinformation, the city is making a significant ad buy on commuter radio stations popular with drivers (i.e. Newstalk 1010, 680 News), promoting businesses and emphasizing how cars can still drive on King.

2. Electronic signs are replacing the complicated and sometimes difficult to see standard signs. This will simplify the rules as drivers reach an intersection. An RFP for the signs has been sent out.

They're considering easing restrictions at Portland, Peter and other mid block streets. They're reworking the Bathurst intersection to get cars moving more efficiently up to Adelaide and Richmond.

They're going to make it easier to find parking in the area. Cressy took my suggestion of signs along King St pointing drivers to nearby parking spots on side streets. They're making an interactive map of parking in the area to help drivers find a spot.

4. The 2 hour transfer is coming early to King Street. They’re working out the logistics. It’s more complex than on St. Clair where they could use paper transfers. An announcement will be coming soon.

This will be pitched as a business friendly measure allowing riders to shop at businesses on their way home and get back on without having to pay again. You can grab bread and pastries at a bakery on your way home or have dinner at a restaurant or grab a drink at a bar with a friend and then hop back on the streetcar again without paying another fare.

The TTC will be running a big ad campaign inside their vehicles and on streetcar stop shelters promoting this and encouraging passengers to shop in King Street businesses. 65,000 to 80,000 transit riders pass by King Street businesses every day. Now they’ll be able to get off for free and get back on after spending money on King.

5. The street festival will kick off on April 15th and last through the Spring, Summer and Fall. Patios will line King Street from Bathurst to Jarvis with wider sidewalks and entertainment along the way. This is expected to drive significant traffic to restaurants and other businesses on King.

6. At KingStreetEats itself, we’re continuing to work with individual restaurants to directly help drive spending at their businesses. We’re also working to scale up our influence so that this is much bigger than just our group of people eating on King. Our site is now live @ KingStreetEats.ca — stay tuned.

In the meantime, after driving business to Z-Teca, Calii Love, Forno Cultura, and Hey Lucy in recent weeks, we’re having lunch at La Feniche tomorrow and Kit Kat on Friday. Join us and support King Street restaurants.

 

[JGHali]

1. What has hurt businesses the most is the perception that cars are banned from King — they’re not. To counter this misinformation, the city is making a significant ad buy on commuter radio stations popular with drivers (i.e. Newstalk 1010, 680 News), promoting businesses and emphasizing how cars can still drive on King.

This would be a perception fuelled by some of those same business and their politician-enablers/opportunists. What King needs is some retail and more coffee shops the Lightbox/theatre vicinity and fewer tourist trap restaurants. The contrast with Queen - which has neither the condos nor the hotels - could not be more marked.

 

[steveintoronto]

go harder with 504 King improvements by expanding the "Pilot" east on King and up Broadview.

It's got to be both ends up to the subway. Walking up Roncy after the streetcar accident/blockage just north of Galley, I watched the streetcars headed south from Dundas West. Absolutely jam packed. With such incredibly clogged north-south connectors up to Bloor from the east-west streetcar lines, and the lines themselves clogged at either end, I don't see the advantage in attempting to make all of them corridors. Get one right to start, then consider it a template.

4. The 2 hour transfer is coming early to King Street. They’re working out the logistics. It’s more complex than on St. Clair where they could use paper transfers. An announcement will be coming soon.

YES! My God, throw enough darts at the board, and one might hit the target.

 

[micheal_can]

Could we expect that all streetcar lines that are not grade separated become transit malls?