King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[TOareaFan]

That makes a lot more sense ... though Honest Ed's must have been a different type of department store before I moved to Toronto!

I am a total idiot today.....let’s try this one last time Ed’s Warehouse was the resto......I think I am on more solid ground now

 

[W. K. Lis]

Of course, this from the Toronto Sun...

WARMINGTON: Compromise needed to solve King Street Pilot controversy

From link.

Re-opening King St. to regular traffic and allowing parking in the evenings or weekends?

Mayor John Tory has not ruled it out, signalling he is listening to restaurateurs and others upset about the King Street Transit Pilot Project, which has effectively eliminated vehicular traffic along the downtown portion of King.

“We will have a report from city staff in the coming months where all the data will be laid out and, I expect, all the options for the future of the street along with their pros and cons,” said Tory Saturday. “I’ll be looking for a permanent plan that works best for the more than 80,000 people who ride the King St. streetcar, residents and businesses along the street, and everyone who enjoys this part of our city.”

Restaurant owners looking for an even playing field were thrilled.

This all stems from popular political organizer Justin “Shaker” Van Dette’s birthday party Friday night — an annual affair for media, politicians and staff at Penelope Restaurant on King St. W.

Tory was there. So were several restaurant owners, including a thorn in the mayor’s side, Al Carbone, owner of the Kit Kat Italian Bar and Grill. His ice sculpture offering the mayor and council the middle finger has created frosty relations.

There were potential fireworks, but what ensued was a cordial, productive discussion — partially perhaps because of Penelope owner George Koras’s news.

“This is our last time hosting Justin’s party,” Koras said sadly. “We close Aug. 24.”

It was sad news since Penelope has served high-end Greek cuisine and hospitality for 25 years.

“We just can’t do it anymore,” explained Koras, complaining of an empty restaurant and similar scene on King St.

The mayor took note.

“On Friday night, I did hear from several restaurant business owners who had continuing concerns about the King Street Pilot. I listened to some of their ideas and indicated I would sit down with a representative group as we examine the data and head toward a decision,” said the mayor.

But he also heard from the other side.

“As I walked down the sidewalk right after the Friday evening event, I also met two couples who stopped me to sing the praises of the King Street Pilot and urge me not to change it,” said Tory.

Keeping King Street as a no-car zone from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. but opening it up after rush hour is one option to try to appease competing concerns. Opening things up on weekends is another.

Something should be done because — as my colleague Sue-Ann Levy has repeatedly noted — King St. has turned into a ghost town at night.

“You can’t create an atmosphere if you don’t have people around,” said Carbone. “People who quote studies saying we are not impacted are not here everyday.”

This is why Carbone was pleased to see the mayor at Van Dette’s. Councillors Paula Fletcher, Brad Bradford, Michael Ford and former councillor Jon Burnside were all in attendance.

“The mayor was very cordial and listened,” said Carbone. “We appreciate that because with so many restaurants closing, we are in need of a compromise.”

Calling for compromise, he said other than the “two-hour rush” on theatre nights, his once-always-packed restaurant is half full “strictly because less people come into the area now and those here, fly by on the streetcar.”

Tory has not closed his door or his ears.

“The impact on business has been less clear. Although our own data received from respected outside organizations indicates the impact has been modest and is improving, I understand there are concerns and ideas local businesses want me to hear and I will take the opportunity soon to listen to them in person,” said Tory.

What is needed on King Street is a win-win.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Meanwhile, in other world class cities...

What happened when Oslo decided to make its downtown basically car-free?
It was a huge success: Parking spots are now bike lanes, transit is fast and easy, and the streets (and local businesses) are full of people.

From link.

If you decide to drive in downtown Oslo, be forewarned: You won’t be able to park on the street. By the beginning of this year, the city finished removing more than 700 parking spots–replacing them with bike lanes, plants, tiny parks, and benches–as a major step toward a vision of a car-free city center.

Without those parking spots, and with cars banned completely on some streets, few people are driving in the area. “There are basically no cars,” says Axel Bentsen, CEO of Urban Sharing, the company that runs Oslo City Bike, the local bike-share system. The city’s changes are designed, in part, to help improve air quality and fight climate change, but the difference in the quality of life is more immediate. “The city feels different faster than you can feel the difference in [cleaner air],” he says. “You can see that you’re actually reclaiming the space and can use it for other purposes than parking cars.”

Oslo first pedestrianized some streets in the city center in the 1970s, and invested heavily in public transportation in the 1980s. In 2015, when a progressive political coalition came to power in the city council, they started planning a more significant transformation. At first, they called for a full ban on cars because the majority of residents in the city center didn’t drive. But when business owners objected, worried that they’d lose customers and have problems with deliveries, the government changed focus to remove parking spots–a slightly more gradual approach. For now, there are still parking garages on the periphery of the center.

A few spots are left, converted into parking for disabled drivers or EV charging, and some streets are open for delivery trucks for a couple of hours in the morning. Emergency vehicles still have access. But other drivers have to park in garages, and traffic restrictions help nudge drivers who don’t need to go through the city center to take a ring road around it instead. In a new zoning plan, the city is taking its intentions further, giving pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation greater priority than private cars, and planning a network of pedestrian zones that are fully car-free.

“Cities, like Oslo, have been built for cars for several decades, and it’s about time we change it,” Hanne Marcussen, Oslo’s vice mayor of urban development, said in an email. “I think it is important that we all think about what kind of cities we want to live in. I am certain that when people imagine their ideal city, it would not be a dream of polluted air, cars jammed in endless traffic, or streets filled up with parked cars.”

To help support the shift, the city made “massive improvements in public transport and making cycling safe and comfortable,” says Rune Gjøs, Oslo’s head of cycling. The city is adding new trams and metro lines and more frequent departures, and lowering the cost of tickets. For the last few years, the city has also been quickly building out a better-connected bike network, converting parking to bright-red bike lanes. It handed out grants to help citizens buy electric bikes. The city bike-share system has quickly grown, tripling to nearly 3 million trips a year between 2015 and 2018. The system usually closes in the winter, but it ran a pilot this winter using bikes with spiked tires. It also tested offering cargo bikes.

As more people bike, that opens up room on overcrowded public transit. “Usually when you have these discussions you say, ‘Oh, we need bikes to replace cars,’ but there’s a missing link there, and that’s public transit,” says Bentsen. “What we see is that actually we take people out of the bus and onto the bike and walking, which leaves room for people to leave their car and take the bus.”
The changes, unsurprisingly, have been met with some resistance, both from car owners and businesses. But while business owners initially worried about the city creating a ghost town that no one would visit, the opposite seems to be true; as in other cities that have converted some streets to pedestrian-only areas, the areas in Oslo that have been pedestrianized are some of the most popular parts of the city, Marcussen says. Last fall, after hundreds of parking spots had been removed, the city found that it had 10% more pedestrians in the center than the year before. “So that is telling me that we are doing something right,” she says.

“Changing habits will always be challenging,” she says. “Cities have been built for cars for many decades, and the car has been seen as a status symbol, and I guess it still is for some people. We need to plan our cities better for the future so that the private car is not setting the premise for how we build our cities anymore. So in new developments, we are trying to make sure it’s easy for those who move into their new home to live without their own private car.”

Several other cities are also working to reduce car use, such as Madrid, which limits access to the city center for anyone other than the people who live there. Other cities will follow. “I am absolutely certain that in the future, the private car will take up much less space in the cities,” says Marcussen. “I hope that other cities will be inspired by us to create their own car-free city center. I think this will become an increasingly important issue as we see more and more clearly that letting private cars take up so much of a very limited space within city centers is just not very efficient. At the same time, we are learning more about how pollution affects those of us who live in the cities, especially children. A couple of decades ago, it was perfectly normal to smoke cigarettes inside. Today, very few would do that. I think it’s the same with cars in the city center: One day we will look back and ask ourselves why we ever thought that was a good idea.”

 

[Jonny5]

They have done a shit job of clearing out the stops on the King Street pilot.A small plow vehicle appears to have been used to clear the stops. You can tell because several stops had their yellow rumble strips torn right out of the asphalt. They were casually discarded nearby. In many places they pushed up the snow on the curb, and pedestrians were left to climb over mountains of snow at stops. Yes, they all had at least one area cleared out to access the streetcar, sufficient for two or three people to make their way on or off, but this isn't Upper Gerrard. The streetcars on King have four doors and 100 people getting on and off at busy stops with no where to go. This of course means they also make their own paths through the snow mountains which causes much more snow right back in to the waiting area which has since turned into icy slush. It appears they will not clear this.

 

[narduch]

Driving in to work today one restaurant owner was on 1010 complaining about the Pilot again. I don't think it was the Kit Kat goof.

Apparently some still aren't happy and are blaming the program for loss of business.

The ice sculpture protest is going to come back.

I haven't been able to find any news articles on this story.

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

Their Twitter account says this

"NEW: The Ontario Hotel and Motel Association tells NEWSTALK 1010 that 17 restaurants closed last year in the months that followed the start of the King Street pilot project "

 

[PinkLucy]

Wow, that stretch of King St. must be a restaurant wasteland now /sarcasm

 

[narduch]

We went to go see Come From Away a few months back and ate at an area restaurant.

We drove down and parked near the Theatre.

I never once considered the Pilot a deterrent. If anything its all the construction that is more of a pain in the ass.

 

[ADRM]

We went to go see Come From Away a few months back and ate at an area restaurant.

We drove down and parked near the Theatre.

I never once considered the Pilot a deterrent. If anything its all the construction that is more of a pain in the ass.

So much this. I regularly drive, walk, bike, and take transit to and around King, and what I've experienced is that trips via *every one* of those modes is now easier and more pleasant because of the pilot.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Their Twitter account says this

"NEW: The Ontario Hotel and Motel Association tells NEWSTALK 1010 that 17 restaurants closed last year in the months that followed the start of the King Street pilot project "

Wow, that stretch of King St. must be a restaurant wasteland now /sarcasm

Restaurants going out of business could be because of their own fault? Not possible. Always because it was someone's else fault.

 

[narduch]

Restaurants going out of business could be because of their own fault? Not possible. Always because it was someone's else fault.

I'd actually be curious to see the full list of restaurants.

Perhaps some of them sucked?

 

[thettctransitfanatic]

Restaurants going out of business could be because of their own fault? Not possible. Always because it was someone's else fault.

No, it's not their fault that their owners, Ford supporters who live in the suburbs who drive everywhere, hate a pilot project that is for streetcars and people, not cars! Remember what Bill Davis said in the Legislature in 1972! "Cities were built for people, not for automobiles".

 

[grey]

Let’s see if these help:

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Let’s see if these help:

Of course not - reading signage is an optional driving skill.

AoD

 

[JamesKoole]

Nothing short of enforcement cameras, a cop literally standing there with a ticket pad in hand or a strong physical barrier would stop people who see all the signs and just don't care. Even with those measures, you'll still get some entitled drivers who would just go around them, claim ignorance or fight the ticket.