King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[APTA-2048]

I have to say I would like to see more transit riders on King standing out in that space to "claim it." I get that shouldn't be necessary, but I make a point to stand right out in the corner of the box to let drivers know that, yes, this space is for me, not you. It's weird how coming up on two years into the pilot I still see 50 people waiting for the streetcar at rush hour, and 47 of them are standing back on the sidewalk.

I tend to do this too. Though sometimes I remember Ontario drivers DGAF, and move back to the sidewalk.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I have to say I would like to see more transit riders on King standing out in that space to "claim it." I get that shouldn't be necessary, but I make a point to stand right out in the corner of the box to let drivers know that, yes, this space is for me, not you. It's weird how coming up on two years into the pilot I still see 50 people waiting for the streetcar at rush hour, and 47 of them are standing back on the sidewalk.

The city needs to make that space feel safer, if we want that to happen. Put up bollards so cars can't access the area.

 

[Divas S.]

The problem might be at the provincial level rather than at the city level. If the Highway Traffic Act (Ontario) has no such transit signals defined, Toronto cannot use them.

it's a Toronto problem, Mississauga, Ottawa and K/W uses them without a problem. In Mississauga, they work too well with car drivers honking at buses going when they get the vertical bar and they don't even notice that it's there.

 

[MisterF]

it's a Toronto problem, Mississauga, Ottawa and K/W uses them without a problem. In Mississauga, they work too well with car drivers honking at buses going when they get the vertical bar and they don't even notice that it's there.

Markham too, in at least one location.

 

[drum118]

Would be great at Non Through Traffic Intersections and elsewhere. Being done in a number of cities already including 7/24 BRT lines
Minneapolis Metro Transit celebrates launch of Hennepin bus lanes

 

[mdrejhon]

I still think red paint would make a big difference.

Yes, some will ignore it, but it raises stigma. People who drive on red lanes are more frowned on by others (including visiting drivers and pedestrians formerly mostly unaware about the lane restrictions because they just drive by and didn't need to see the signage). Red is a BIG advertisement for everybody, including nearby ignorant pedestrians, office workers, everyone up those towers, etc. Anyone who is remotely near see it, even blithely naive pedestrians who walk past that may later drive the lane in a few months. Nobody forgets a honkingly blaringly red colored lane. It's a bleepingly embarassingly big advertisement. It even shows up in satellite maps too.

(From MassTransitMag link in drum118 post above)

Even Minneapolis drivers started avoiding the car lane once it was painted red. Some have violated, but psychological impact of red is very huge.

Hello stigma factor!

The stigma factor of driving on a red colored lane is a lot higher than just token slapped-on signage for a lane historically designed to allow cars.

The problem is our salt and weather eroding the red paint, but even Minneapolis also has a bit of a weather swing too.

 

[MisterF]

I still think red paint would make a big difference.

Yes, some will ignore it, but it raises stigma. People who drive on red lanes are more frowned on by others (including visiting drivers and pedestrians formerly mostly unaware about the lane restrictions because they just drive by and didn't need to see the signage). Red is a BIG advertisement for everybody, including nearby ignorant pedestrians, office workers, everyone up those towers, etc. Anyone who is remotely near see it, even blithely naive pedestrians who walk past that may later drive the lane in a few months. Nobody forgets a honkingly blaringly red colored lane. It's a bleepingly embarassingly big advertisement. It even shows up in satellite maps too.

View attachment 203010
(From MassTransitMag link in drum118 post above)

Even Minneapolis drivers started avoiding the car lane once it was painted red. Some have violated, but psychological impact of red is very huge.

Hello stigma factor!

The stigma factor of driving on a red colored lane is a lot higher than just token slapped-on signage for a lane historically designed to allow cars.

The problem is our salt and weather eroding the red paint, but even Minneapolis also has a bit of a weather swing too.

lol that last part it definitely an understatement. It's America's Winnipeg!

 

[drum118]

Here is the Indianapolis Red Line BRT that went into service on Sept 3 using red paint for the route that sees a bus every 10 minutes. Two more routes are plan. It has BYD K11M (Battery) 60' Buses with doors on both side, but TTC will only see the BYD 40' standard battery bus. The buses were been used on route 8 when I shot the first one that goes from one side to the other side of the city, as well to the airport. Shot the photo on Aug 8 when I was there for an event. I thought they where NFI buses and never got a real look at them close until I started to tag my photos of them and other buses.

This bus is doing testing on the Red Line Downtown at a station stop. From the looks of things, they enlarge the windows compare to the test one up here a few years ago.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Hey, King Street restaurters...

Car-Free Zones Eyed in SF, Elsewhere
After a spate of pedestrian deaths, San Francisco leaders are considering restricting cars from some residential neighborhoods.

From link.

Won't happen in Toronto because of the suburban anti-pedestrian councillors.

A string of pedestrian injuries and deaths in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district has spurred city leaders to demand a ban on cars in some densely populated neighborhoods — the latest in a nascent and long-overdue move by activists nationwide to get reckless drivers off at least a tiny handful of city streets.

San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents the neighborhood, proposed banning vehicles from some streets and adding more pedestrian plazas to give residents spaces to walk without the fear of being run over — a strategy that has helped bring road fatality rates down dramatically in Europe.

“We have a dense population of kids and seniors. The streets should be for people where there are public plazas where you don’t have to dodge cars,” Haney told ABC7.

There have been 15 people killed in traffic crashes in San Francisco since August, four in the Tenderloin alone, prompting Haney call for a state of emergency for traffic safety and meet with transportation officials to discuss strategies.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency sends its Rapid Response team to evaluate intersections after crashes and plan safety improvements, such as paint and temporary posts, protected bike lanes, pedestrian scrambles, and updating traffic signals. And city officials are finalizing their $600-million Better Market Street plan that would restrict private cars from accessing the thoroughfare with construction set to begin next year.

But when a drunk driver made an illegal right turn on Golden Gate and Leavenworth and seriously injured a 12-year-old boy last Tuesday afternoon in the same intersection a speeding car killed Janice Higashi while she was crossing the street in March, advocates shamed the city for not going far enough to change traffic patterns.

“The SFMTA has been proposing improvements, promising us more quick builds, promising more capital projects that will take time,” Tenderloin Community Benefit District Director Simon Bertrang told Streetsblog SF. “They’re doing things faster than in the past, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough.”

Transit activists barred traffic from several local streets in protest on Saturday and called for car-free zones throughout the city, turning one-way avenues into two-way streets, and adding more red light cameras.

Breed told ABC7 she is “open-minded” when it comes to traffic calming measures, but didn’t exactly give it a ringing endorsement, adding she is “in favor of anything to make our streets safer, but I want to make sure it’s the right thing.”

Pedestrian fatalities had been declining nationwide after 1990, but began ticking upward in 2009 and were estimated to reach 6,227 last year, according to Governors Highway Safety Association figures — up 50 percent in 10 years to roughly one pedestrian dying every 90 minutes according to an LA Times analysis. The popularity of SUVs and distracted driving, is a contributing factor in the rise of pedestrian deaths, GHSA reports. The smartphone became ubiquitous in the period just before the pedestrian death spike.

But outside the United States fatality rates are dropping. The European Union mandated that automakers pass pedestrian safety tests in order to sell vehicles to the public and pedestrian fatalities declined 36 percent between 2006 and 2017.

European leaders have also led the way creating car-free zones in London, Oslo, Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. In perhaps the most dramatic measure, Barcelona in 2016 launched its superblock initiative, which were tic-tac-toe-shaped groups of streets that bar traffic and given back to residents for play areas. Six currently exist Barcelona officials want to create 503 superblocks throughout the city, reclaiming 60 percent of its roads for pedestrians and cyclists and potentially saving 667 premature deaths a year.

That’s prompted civic leaders in the U.S. to look at ways to slow down vehicles and remove them when possible in dense urban areas.

Earlier this year, a Lower Manhattan group called for barring cars from several roadways between City Hall Park and Bowling Green and lowering speed limits to 5 miles per hour on others.

And in September, Seattle Council Member Teresa Mosqueda proposed routing traffic around a six-block area of Capitol Hill from Pine and Union between 12th and Broadway into a Barcelona-style superblock. She hopes to continue advocating for her plan after the election.

 

[DSC]

The City (or Astral) have FINALLY started to remove the old transit shelters from the non-stops. The one @ Jarvis went today and I think they are doing Church too - they were looking at it. As shelters have ads I suspect it may not be too long before Astral erect replacements in the correct (new) locations.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The city should mandate that new condos or office buildings going up along streetcar, subway, and other rapid transit lines, should provide public parking equal to or exceeding the number of street parking, that will be removed along the streets. Objective would be no more street parking, with off-street parking available within a block or less.

 

[mdrejhon]

The City (or Astral) have FINALLY started to remove the old transit shelters from the non-stops. The one @ Jarvis went today and I think they are doing Church too - they were looking at it. As shelters have ads I suspect it may not be too long before Astral erect replacements in the correct (new) locations.

Better yet, real covered raised platforms on the street -- advertisements can be built in if they need help funding. LRT-like boarding.

Maybe even rampless wheel-on for these specific raised platforms -- a small gap like Ottawa LRT -- so that the ramp doesn't need to be deployed as often.

 

[DSC]

Better yet, real raised platforms on the street where there formerely were parking spaces.

Maybe even rampless wheel-on for these specific raised platforms -- a small gap like Ottawa LRT -- so that the ramp doesn't need to be deployed as often?

I suspect that may need to wait for the future 'rebuild' of King. Something like Ronceys.

 

[mdrejhon]

A possible progression to turn King into an LRT.

...5-10 years: add covered level boarding platforms, ION LRT style, 60 meter long for future consist operations.
...5-10 years: urbanize the King corridor a bit and strengthen the vehicle ban gradually.
...15-20 years: add true transit priority for the entire 504 route.
...15-20 years: order more vehicles to double-up them into trains
...15-20 years: add crossovers to execute loopless bidirectional operations (no double-ended cabs needed) for easier short-turns at TIFF or blockages

Increase platform length to 60 meters & double-up them into 2-vehicle trains with 8 sets of doors simultaneously opening.

Really double the capacity of the corridor. The new streetcars already support transition to LRT operations, being extremely similar to the LRT version of the same vehicle. We've already got LRT-like streetcars, pantographs, coupler capability, and farside boarding. Theoretically, a 2-consist new streetcar becomes bidirectional (no loop needed) if you couple two new streetcars with cabs pointing outwards. The elements of a true LRT introduced incrementally.

Much nicer for TIFF & accidents & blockages. You just short-turn on the spot rather than clog the line or detour the line. With new crossovers installed at strategic locations to switch tracks. You can run two 504 routes independently on both sides of TIFF or both sides of an accident/blockage.

Hello King LRT.

 

[asher__jo]

The city should mandate that new condos or office buildings going up along streetcar, subway, and other rapid transit lines, should provide public parking equal to or exceeding the number of street parking, that will be removed along the streets. Objective would be no more street parking, with off-street parking available within a block or less.

Let's not continue validating the war on car victimizers. Buildings already have minimum parking requirements which should be removed in areas with access to transit.