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TTC: Streetcar Network

From link.
gerrardstation_comp.jpg



What about the 505 Dundas streetcar? Couldn't the TTC extend the 505 east from Broadview Avenue over to Carlaw Avenue, then north on Carlaw to loop at Gerrard Street East and Old Gerrard Street?

goads-atlas-1923-a.jpg

From link. Gerrard Street used to be a jog at Carlaw Avenue to get around the railway. The TTC could reuse the old street as a right-of-way to loop the 505 streetcar to serve Gerrard Station.
Have you every walk, bike or driven on that section to see what the issues stopping the line to be extended?? Its a very narrow road with parking on it. Any transit line will have to be in mix traffic with on street parking remove.

As for Roncesvalles stops, there was a huge fight doing what there and one reason some stops are there that shouldn't be there. Seen very little confit between riders waiting for a streetcar and cycles. Seen a few cycles not willing to stop to allow riders on or of the cars.

There was a plan floating around and not sure who it was for that cars would be able to drive over a similar style platform like a cycles. I would oppose it as it open the door to a lot of issues with riders seeing the same thing like today were cars bomb pass flashing open doors with worse results.

Transit priority traffic signals is a no no in Toronto and how does a streetcar use one when there is a car in front of it??
 
On the surface of it, yeah, but in practice: not really - all vehicles (motorised or otherwise) are required to come to a stop either behind the tram vehicle or where it is marked on road to allow for pedestrians to move to/from side of the road to the tram when the tram is stopped.

Rule of thumb: pedestrian always has priority, all other road users are subordinate.

edit: straight from the Victorian road rule book


That's the law here, too.

But despite that it still happens often enough that measures such as these bump-outs are felt as required to enforce the safety of the users.

Dan
 
I used to commute that stretch by car for many years and kicked around the idea in my head. The narrowness of Dundas east of Broadview plus the sharpness of the dip under the bridge always seemed too much to contemplate.

Think Dundas Street East is too narrow? Not as narrow as in Lisbon, Portugal.

 
In Melbourne, they use raised dividers to create tram right-of-ways. Possible because of Melbourne's warmer climate.

14192031318_5ca660b09e_3k.jpg

From link.

"Vehicles must not turn across tram tracks bounded by double yellow lines or raised dividers"​

In Toronto, we would have to first get rid of street parking on the bus and streetcar routes. Will not happen with our current crop of councillors.

 
The streetcars will require retrofitted new cameras to do this, so yes, probably a few years until this is actually implemented.
They will need the software to timestamp and GPS locate the "evidence" to be processed by the appropriate personnel to send out the nicely worded correspondence to the owner of the vehicle (give them a couple of months to receive it).
 
Forgot to post this here when I uploaded. This weeks video is about the Winchester Streetcar. Easily one of Toronto's most obscure yet important lines.
 
In Melbourne, they use raised dividers to create tram right-of-ways. Possible because of Melbourne's warmer climate.

14192031318_5ca660b09e_3k.jpg

From link.

"Vehicles must not turn across tram tracks bounded by double yellow lines or raised dividers"​

In Toronto, we would have to first get rid of street parking on the bus and streetcar routes. Will not happen with our current crop of councillors.


I should point out, the (large!) image you've used as example is the exception, not the rule - only a few routes run on roads which are wide enough for 2 traffic lanes in each direction (1 of them generally used for parking) and 2 separated tram tracks.

here's another large image which is indicative of the width of roads for the majority of the network - which I'm guessing is pretty much the same in Toronto. enough space for 1 (wide-ish) traffic lane and 1 tram track.

nmDLO9m.png


And on far right, the rules are on that sign post: clearway 7am-9:30am (morning peak no parking, allowing traffic to use the lane with the parked cars giving trams a clearer run - the same thing happens on the other side of the street for the afternoon peak (4pm-6:30pm). Clearways generally are very well enforced here.
 
Now for cameras to ticket people for delaying streetcars.

One good thing from the Ford government...

Moving Ontarians More Safely Act, 2021

From link.

...
Protect Vulnerable Road Users

  • Introduce an automated camera enforcement framework to allow photo evidence of vehicles that illegally pass streetcars on the left or streetcars with the doors open to pick up or drop off passengers.
  • Change how Ontario collects collision data to better track collisions involving car doors hitting bicycles or e-scooters.
  • Redefine “power-assisted bicycles” (e-bikes) under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) to set out new standards for three dif
...
 

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