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King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

True as I couldn't spot any real Christmas decoration along King St. - besides the new planters. Yorkville and the Distillery District are showing a real effort to make their businesses and places look appealing to potential customers!
 
Juan_Lennon416 said:
Could have at least acknowledged that the photo was taken on a Saturday afternoon. Make your argument by posting a picture from the weekday :p
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Video taken on Monday:


The sidewalks have had about the same volume and probably more as I’ve noticed streetcars dropping off and loading a lot more passengers at each stop than before. The roads themselves are empty but that’s the point.
 
What the city should have done is brought this out in September. Close off the area with barriers, and make it a construction zone while they put in proper signage, proper painting, and proper barriers. Also, duing that time, have the police enforcing the new traffic situation.
 
amnesiajune said:
I guess this needs to be said again: some businesses will be hurt significantly by this change. I don't know why there's an incessant need to pretend that everyone is a winner (just like there was with the Bloor bike lanes). Some people will be hurt, and some people will probably lose their livelihood, but these projects need to be judged by whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
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I don't want to say too much because I know many of these business owners complaining in the media but what I can say is that the role of the King Street Pilot in their business difficulties is completely and totally overblown. I sympathize with their struggle but they're blaming the pilot way too quickly and missing the benefits that will result from a pedestrian focused street. I hope that they can hang on long enough to reap those benefits in the Spring/Summer and beyond.
 
micheal_can said:
What the city should have done is brought this out in September. Close off the area with barriers, and make it a construction zone while they put in proper signage, proper painting, and proper barriers. Also, duing that time, have the police enforcing the new traffic situation.
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How would September improve the situation? Cops aren't patrolling the street because they want an additional budget to do their jobs. That wouldn't have changed in September. The barriers are supposed to be temporary. The signage and temporary barriers were all applied without issue. I don't see that as a problem needing solved.

Nonetheless, the issue isn't one of enforcement. Good design rarely needs to be enforced. You don't have cops driving behind cars on the highway making sure they drive inside the lines and in the correct direction. Highways are designed in a way that it's intuitive where one can drive. The same should be with King Street. It shouldn't be so easy to drive on to a striped streetcar zone at intersections. There shouldn't be a green light giving drivers the impression that they can proceed ahead. Signs should be for information purposes only, not something that is hopelessly trying to tell drivers that they're not allowed to go straight even though the design of the road makes it appear that they can.

Anyway, this is a pilot and adjustments are being made along the way as they should. The goal is to refine it through the year until they've come up with an ideal design that can then be built with permanent infrastructure.
 
Sandpit said:
How about we turn it into an official bike lane instead?
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Why? There are cycle tracks on Richmond and Adelaide, and cyclists are permitted in the traffic lane on King. Can pedestrians not get a single thing in this city? I'm all for bike lanes and cycle tracks but I'm starting to see why lots of people go on and on about how entitled and greedy cyclists are. It always seemed like an absurd thing to say but this pilot is making me rethink that...tons of cyclists on twitter, reddit, and elsewhere are somehow enraged that there's pedestrian space on King rather than bike lanes. I used to bike a lot downtown and I still grab a bikeshare bike when visiting occasionally and I have zero interest in having pedestrian space taken away and given to cyclists on King.
 
Megaton327 said:
Why? There are cycle tracks on Richmond and Adelaide, and cyclists are permitted in the traffic lane on King. Can pedestrians not get a single thing in this city? I'm all for bike lanes and cycle tracks but I'm starting to see why lots of people go on and on about how entitled and greedy cyclists are. It always seemed like an absurd thing to say but this pilot is making me rethink that...tons of cyclists on twitter, reddit, and elsewhere are somehow enraged that there's pedestrian space on King rather than bike lanes. I used to bike a lot downtown and I still grab a bikeshare bike when visiting occasionally and I have zero interest in having pedestrian space taken away and given to cyclists on King.
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The road-turned-pedestrian space seems to be underutilized. pedestrians seem to prefer sticking to the actual sidewalk. I'm also open to putting table and chairs/patio seating into that space, but I'm not sure how popular that'll be in winter.
 
This is what happens when there is no enforcement and everyone breaks the law.

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how do you guys think they should prevent cars from going through after the pilot period is over. i think they should find a way to force cars into the right turn lane maybe by putting grass or another barrier in the left lane. possibly paving in between the streetcar tracks to allow for the narrower bikes to use the lane???. also they should raise the streetcar platform on the far side of each intersection to make sure cars arent able to go through once they remove the colorful barriers, it will make boarding streetcar easier too. the most important thing is to find a way to prevent cars from going through intersections that dont require a shit ton of enforcment, so anything to force them into the right lane would help.
 
adrianaliu said:
how do you guys think they should prevent cars from going through after the pilot period is over. i think they should find a way to force cars into the right turn lane maybe by putting grass or another barrier in the left lane. possibly paving in between the streetcar tracks to allow for the narrower bikes to use the lane???. also they should raise the streetcar platform on the far side of each intersection to make sure cars arent able to go through once they remove the colorful barriers, it will make boarding streetcar easier too. the most important thing is to find a way to prevent cars from going through intersections that dont require a shit ton of enforcment, so anything to force them into the right lane would help.
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Curbs for the streetcar stops that are part of the widened sidewalks. Barriers in between the streetcar tracks that can be raised/lowered for a bus/streetcar and delivery/local vehicles can buy/rent a device that allows access.
 
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