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adHominem
Senior Member
Took the 504 last night. Between Yonge and Bathurst, saw four cars parked in passenger boarding areas and had to be nimble when alighting because an SUV tried to blow past the streetcar after the doors were open. No sign of enforcement.
steveintoronto
Superstar
I walked along most of the stretch yesterday to see if and where most of the crowds would be along there. Much of it was beyond Mickey Mouse. The yellow milk crate things didn't have even one person sitting on them, let alone spitting in their general direction. Meantime, all the Muskoka chairs were used near the Metro Hall. Gosh, I wonder why? Those milk crates and flat plywood look so incredibly inviting and comfortable. Not...It looks like someone went to Home Depot for garden supplies and just left it all on the side of the road.
And the street still looks filthy, even after all the spring rain to wash the grunge away. You gotta love the Detroit Modern look of it all.
Or this highly experienced one. An incredible number of cyclists have absolutely no sense of safe route selection, let alone the limits of their own skill and circumstance when it comes to safety. I see it time and again and think "idiot, you're going to get hit sooner or later". And cycling a tightrope a foot wide between street furniture and streetcars, or just the tracks alone, means it's a matter of time until someone loses a leg or worse.
The City really hasn't helped the situation by encouraging cyclists to use the King Pilot stretch. Tracks can be negotiated, even with skinny tires if the angle of approach is sufficient. A foot clearance is nowhere near sufficient. And then there's pedestrians complicating the issue further. But hey, many Torontonians think the Pilot is the best thing since sliced legs....
Is it any wonder that pedestrian and cyclist accidents are so high in Toronto?
How exactly does a streetcar overtake a bike?
The central section of the Bourke Street Transit Mall does exactly that, bans cyclists. Most transit malls do, and the necessity to marshall pedestrian flow to cross only at marked and signalled crossings is found necessary for most.
Cyclists can and should *walk* their bikes through crowded transit malls. King Street just doesn't have the space for cycle lanes. Anyone claiming otherwise just isn't thinking through the dynamics of traffic flow and the paltry space there to handle it. As it is, the sidewalks are not wide enough in many spots, and then loading for streetcars means even less ability for a safe loading and unloading of streetcars. It would help if cyclists would obey the law for open doors on streetcars, but alas....many cyclists haven't even the most basic understanding of others and the necessity of awareness on the roads, let alone on bike lanes/paths.
The Bourke Street Mall has bicycle parking spaces in the core section, but you must walk your bike to them. It's called "safety for pedestrians"...a concept alien to some cyclists.
For straight stretches of rail on King, if the City insists on encouraging cyclists to use it, that insert should be mandatory. But it does entail cost as you state, and digging up the tracks to do it. Even if it happened, which it won't, the wyes at intersections are still very dangerous for many cyclists. I'm a very experienced cyclist, perhaps too much so, as I avoid going through intersections with wyes unless there's sufficient space to angle across the tracks, and either use the next intersection along, or dismount and cross ensuring an almost right angle to cross. I've seen far too many people go down on tracks, It's been decades since it's happened to me. It is one of the major causes of bike spills in Toronto.
Streetcar Tracks Cause a Huge Number of Bike Crashes in Toronto
JUL 27, 2016
The rails are to blame for one-third of incidents requiring emergency-room care.
https://www.citylab.com/transportat...acks-bicycle-crashes-research-toronto/493157/
Last edited by a moderator:
TheKingEast
Senior Member
I really don't understand. King Streetcar just crawled along Eastbound last night during rush hour. Traffic again due to traffic north/south blocking the intersection. Why is this even happening? I had stated that this was the biggest reason why we had so much traffic on King.
aquateam
Active Member
Red light cameras would really help prevent blocked intersections.
JasonParis
Moderator
There's also a reasonable chance of an east-west (contra-flow) bike lane on Front/Wellington too.
DSC
Superstar
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Where did you hear that? The latest plans for Wellington (Yonge to Church) that I saw yesterday certainly do not have a bike lane.
pstogios
Senior Member
Why? Because this city is broken. Blocked intersections are a regular feature of life in this city. Get used to it.
There was a week of “traffic wardens” deployed to enforce intersection clearing but once they are gone, idiotic drivers in this city immediately went back to their old ways.
And at City hall, nobody cares.
Towered
Superstar
Yup. Toronto is not serious when it comes to progressive thinking.
steveintoronto
Superstar
And as I Google for "John Tory traffic wardens" I get:
Where are they?
canortan
New Member
Picked up a Lyft at King and Portland last night, need to go north on University. Instead of going east on Adelaide, my driver went straight along King breaking every King St pilot rule. Nearly every other car did the same. No enforcement in sight. On a positive note, King was absolutely hopping. None of the curb side patios were in use, however, which seemed odd on such a warm night.
steveintoronto
Superstar
One word: "Impunity"
TheKingEast
Senior Member
Oh I know. This city fails at the most basic things.
TransitBart
Senior Member
That comment is both dramatic and ridiculous. If one is saying that we should do better, I agree. I don’t envy the public sector. The competing views and demands are many, and the freedom to make decisions sometimes limited. Some of you hold them to high account. It is hard to have many masters and all of us should not lose sight of that.
TheKingEast
Senior Member
When it comes to transit there is fail all over the board in this city. This pilot is just another example of that. I constantly see cars breaking the rules and zero enforcement. I see cars stuck in intersections constantly. My travel time has increased a slightly. So what was the point of this whole pilot again?