King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[innsertnamehere]

Tory has a plan to deploy traffic wardens to major intersections this summer - I suspect King/Spadina will be a prime target.

The King Streetcar is about as efficient as it can get in it's current operating environment. To make it truly efficient you need to put a subway under King Street.

 

[steveintoronto]

Everybody wants to be positive about the pilot for the sake of transit advocacy. But even in its improved form transit on King is still horribly slow for how high ridership that is and for how it's carrying some of the country's most productive work force to their jobs. Nobody wants to admit it as declaring it a failure now won't help anything and I get that.



I've never said the original plan was good.

The time improvement disappears when taken over the entire length of the route. It's only between certain stops, in one direction, at a certain time of day that the "improvement" is achieved.

It boggles the senses. As per a "transitwy" it's a pending disaster. If not yet, it's a matter of time. Meantime, all the cheerleaders in the world can't make that time any better, and the more pedestrianized it becomes, the slower the transit times unless the tracks are limited access for pedestrians, and streetcar only.

 

[steveintoronto]

The King Streetcar is about as efficient as it can get in it's current operating environment. To make it truly efficient you need to put a subway under King Street.

Many cities have enacted *clearways* for LRT/trams/streetcars. Toronto could never get there. It's too alien to them.

The irony is that a number of US cities are way ahead on this, have been for decades.

 

[Leo_Chan]

The time improvement disappears when taken over the entire length of the route. It's only between certain stops, in one direction, at a certain time of day that the "improvement" is achieved.

It boggles the senses. As per a "transitwy" it's a pending disaster. If not yet, it's a matter of time. Meantime, all the cheerleaders in the world can't make that time any better, and the more pedestrianized it becomes, the slower the transit times unless the tracks are limited access for pedestrians, and streetcar only.

Should have named the project the “King Street Transitway” instead of the “King Street Pilot”. Pilot for what?

 

[steveintoronto]

Should have named the project the “King Street Transitway” instead of the “King Street Pilot”. Pilot for what?

It's actually in the heading for this string:
"king-street-pilot-streetcar-transit-priority". The "transit priority" aspect has been neutered.

 

[Leo_Chan]

It's actually in the heading for this string:
"king-street-pilot-streetcar-transit-priority". The "transit priority" aspect has been neutered.

King Street Streetcar Transitway and Pedestrian Realm Improvement Pilot Project.

 

[steveintoronto]

King Street Streetcar Transitway and Pedestrian Realm Improvement Pilot Project.

To keep things simple, since most of Council is, the Highway Traffic Act specifically defines "Pilot Project":

PART XVI
PILOT PROJECTS
Pilot projects
228 (1) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may by regulation authorize or establish a project for research into or the testing or evaluation of any matter governed by this Act or relevant to highway traffic. 2005, c. 26, Sched. A, s. 33 (1).

Project may conflict with Acts
(2) Under a project authorized or established under subsection (1),

(a) persons or classes of persons may be authorized to do or use a thing that is prohibited or regulated under this Act, the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act, the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act, the Off-Road Vehicles Act or the Public Vehicles Act or to not do or use a thing that is required or authorizedby any of those Acts;

(b) the Minister or Ministry or any person authorized or required to do anything under this Act, the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act, the Motorized Snow Vehicles Act, the Off-Road Vehicles Act or the Public Vehicles Act may be authorized or required to do anything that is not authorized or required under any of those Acts or to do anything that is authorized or required under any of those Acts in a way that is different from the way it is authorized or required. 2005, c. 26, Sched. A, s. 33.

Limited to classes
(3) An authorization or requirement described in subsection (2) may be limited to any class of persons, class or type of vehicles, class of equipment, devices or highways, parts of Ontario, time of year or day, activities, matters or any other things. 2005, c. 26, Sched. A, s. 33 (1).

Regulation to create own scheme of rules
(4) A regulation made under this section may regulate the doing of anything or the use of any thing or prohibit the doing of anything or the using of any thing. 2005, c. 26, Sched. A, s. 33 (1).
[...]

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h08

This is an extremely powerful section of the Act.

This clause alone is dynamite:

Regulation to create own scheme of rules
(4) A regulation made under this section may regulate the doing of anything or the use of any thing or prohibit the doing of anything or the using of any thing. 2005, c. 26, Sched. A, s. 33 (1).

And the Transport Minister has the power to enact that, for ten years before it has to be put before the Legislature.
"anything or the use of any thing or prohibit the doing of anything or the using of any thing. "

Think about that. So why in Hell wasn't Queen's Park asked...let me be more specific, the Transport Minister (being enacted via the Lieutenant Governor) asked for at least the powers granted to K/W and ION, let alone all manner of other *accepted practices* elsewhere in Canada and North America who share the same template for Highway Acts?

Toronto...the little city that couldn't...

 

[DSC]

Should have named the project the “King Street Transitway” instead of the “King Street Pilot”. Pilot for what?

The word PILOT was vital in getting Council buy-in to do this at all. The suburban councillors are generally terrified of doing anything that will slow down traffic and IF the traffic on adjacent streets had got much worse (which did not happen) they wanted an out. It really is a pilot in that it has been tweaked and seem a few (minor) changes and I understand there may be more in next month or so.

 

[dowlingm]

Currently, patrons are using the 504/514 instead of the 501/502/503 in the downtown because of the King Street Pilot. With the Relief Line, patrons from the east end would use it.

503 is a King (and thus KStP) route.

 

[nfitz]

Currently, patrons are using the 504/514 instead of the 501/502/503 in the downtown because of the King Street Pilot.

502 has been all but shut down because of the pilot. But I don't see how 503 ridership wouldn't have significantly increased because of the pilot.

 

[TransitBart]

https://twitter.com/joe_cressy/status/991357015665577984

King Street Pilot continues do everything but transit priority.

A few posts back, I asked what the hell is that about some street furniture. I agree 100% with @Avenue. King Street Pilot was a bit misleading. It has little to do with transit priority and a good deal more to do with taking cars off the street and just narrowing it down to a foot path. There may be no cars in front of the streetcars, but the trams are not racing along. How could they in such a narrow ROW?

 

[Edward Skira]

Appeared today I think. Looks cool.

 

[DSC]

A few posts back, I asked what the hell is that about some street furniture. I agree 100% with @Avenue. King Street Pilot was a bit misleading. It has little to do with transit priority and a good deal more to do with taking cars off the street and just narrowing it down to a foot path. There may be no cars in front of the streetcars, but the trams are not racing along. How could they in such a narrow ROW?

Nobody was planning a speedway. Streetcars do not need to race to give good servuce, they need to move and they now do. I have taken 20 minutes to get from Spadina to Yonge, not these days. Take a look at the statistics - transit is now MUCH more predictable, fast and popular.

 

[BMO]

Nobody was planning a speedway. Streetcars do not need to race to give good servuce, they need to move and they now do. I have taken 20 minutes to get from Spadina to Yonge, not these days. Take a look at the statistics - transit is now MUCH more predictable, fast and popular.

I think to refer to the improvements with "MUCH" is a bit . . . much. The data points to minor improvements at best and it's unclear if the increase in ridership is associated with the increase in transit frequencies or because of all of the hype revolving around the pilot. As someone who uses the king streetcar daily I see more people being left behind on the side of the road than before. While my experience is one data point I think a lot needs to be done before we can justify calling it a success for transit.

 

[steveintoronto]

I think to refer to the improvements with "MUCH" is a bit . . . much. The data points to minor improvements at best and it's unclear if the increase in ridership is associated with the increase in transit frequencies or because of all of the hype revolving around the pilot. As someone who uses the king streetcar daily I see more people being left behind on the side of the road than before. While my experience is one data point I think a lot needs to be done before we can justify calling it a success for transit.

As Munro has made very clear, doing analyses unrivalled by anyone on staff at TTC and City, there's incredible potential for improvement not being realized.

It appears that Tory is starting to realize things aren't as claimed, thus his yet again re-announcement of "Traffic Wardens". I was just digging on that, recent history is rife with the claim.

Again, why wasn't Queen's Park asked, via the Transport Minister, for special powers under the Pilot Section of the HTA?

Here's what's looming: Published:November 20, 2017

[...]
Former city councillor Doug Ford, who has announced he will run for mayor in next fall’s municipal election, called the pilot project a disaster, dubbing the penalties “Mayor John Tory tickets.”

“The poor driver gets two demerit points — their insurance is going to go up,” he said Monday. “They’re trying to run the car right out of the city … there’s a full-out war.”

Although many people have praised the project on Twitter, Ford said businesses along King St. have been thrown under the streetcar at their busiest time of the year.

“They’re absolutely livid … everywhere from the financial district to the restaurants,” Ford insisted.[...]

http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...ford-calls-pilot-project-full-out-war-on-cars

My hunch is that Ford's own faulty transmission and processing unit will fail before he gets to his destination, but why risk his getting there? Tory should ask for Pope Wynne's grace on this before the Devil manifests in the Details.

And how's that traffic light priority coming along? Have they even instituted the extended green in effect elsewhere in the City yet?