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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

deep6ing said:
I keep hearing that King was broken coming from a bunch of politicians that don't live anywhere near here... I live at King and Spadina and have for three and a half years. It wasn't broken. Could streetcar travel be sped up during rush hour... absolutely. But I think the best solution to dramatically decreasing that would have just been giving the streetcar the left lane. Keep it simple.
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What is your definition of broken? I call a street where the sidewalk is overcrowded, cars move barely faster than walking speed, and streetcars move slower than pedestrians broken.
 
jys said:
What is your definition of broken? I call a street where the sidewalk is overcrowded, cars move barely faster than walking speed, and streetcars move slower than pedestrians broken.
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I call that rush hour... 3 hours out of 24... but left lane for streetcars would solve the last one
 
I'm all in favour of tolls, lower speed limits, more bike lanes... etc... I just think this solution came from some ivory tower and is not playing out very well
 
deep6ing said:
I call that rush hour... 3 hours out of 24... but left lane for streetcars would solve the last one
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Solving the streetcar pilot by creating a massive construction project is shades of “we had to destroy the village in order to save it”
 
deep6ing said:
I think you hit it on the head though... this is like an intellectual exercise for a lot people. For anyone that lives in and around King, they will tell you it's been emptied out. You will see businesses start to close at some point in the not too distant future. That's too high a price to pay for saving 4-5 minutes going from Bathurst to Jarvis.

I would opt for left lanes for streetcars but not physically separated so that if there was an obstruction then cars could go around it. But I would put cameras in to police it. And make a special 30km/h speed limit for safety. Sensible solutions... I'm not upset at my city for taking a stab at this I'm just shocked they haven't adjusted drastically seeing the negative effects it is having.
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The pilot IS being tweaked and it is (possibly) having negative effects on some restaurants BUT it is having VERY positive effects for MANY transit riders. The restaurants moan but fail to do simple things like updating their websites with news of FASTER TRANSIT, FREE PARKING etc etc. I think you can see where I am at with all this....
 
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There was an article in the Star today about the success of this pilot, and Joe Cressy seemed to suggest that eventually all the streetcar lines will get a similar treatment downtown.
 
Towered said:
There was an article in the Star today about the success of this pilot, and Joe Cressy seemed to suggest that eventually all the streetcar lines will get a similar treatment downtown.
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I don’t believe he meant changes at quite the scale of the KSP. But rather, reevaluation of how streets should work on a case-by-case basis using pilot projects.

If so, that would be a fairly safe prediction. It was only a month or two ago that City Planning released their plan to redesign (over the coming decades), nearly all of the major downtown thoroughfares, including University, Queen and King.

Downtown Yonge Street will be the next major fight at City Hall.
 
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TheTigerMaster said:
I don’t believe he meant changes at quite the scale of the KSP. But rather, reevaluation of how streets should work on a case-by-case basis using pilot projects.

If so, that would be a fairly safe prediction. It was only a month or two ago that City Planning releases their plan to redesign (over the coming decades), nearly all of the major downtown thoroughfares, including University, Queen and King.

Downtown Yonge Street will be the next major fight at City Hall.
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no street in downtown should exceed 4 general traffic lanes. looking at u university... lets start by reducing lanes on streets that already have better transit options in the corridor (yonge and later on queen). also we should be considering removing some streetcar lines and seeing if articulated busses would serve the users of the street better (im thinking of dundas, bathurst and college mainly the mixed traffic routes). i have nothing against streetcars but we should be looking at other options for sure. king no question needs the extra capacity offered by LFLRVs but i think some routes could live without it
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Delaying 75,000 daily commuters, harming businesses around the city, is too high a price to pay to maintain a handful of businesses on King Street.
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Yeah, this is a point I’d like to see made more. Those commuters work at businesses too, which are benefiting. But they don’t get a voice.
 
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