King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[Juan_Lennon416]

Maybe time to put a website up "I fail to read signs/disobey the law" and post photos and videos of these fools.

Then there would be multiple websites that have videos and photos of pedestrians, transit riders and cyclists fools. Might even extend it to movie theatre, sporting events and nightclub/bar fools. Not really solving anything with that approach.

 

[steveintoronto]

As for 'cost of red light cameras' (and by extension, other infractions if caught by camera)

[...]
But Chris Conway, a former Toronto crash investigator, who now owns a ticket-fighting firm called OTT Legal Services, thinks the cameras are a good deterrent and force drivers to be more careful.

“When I see some of the pictures people bring me I tell them they were lucky not to have an accident.”

He says red-light camera tickets were once highly contestable in court. But refinements, including better cameras, two photos and speed data, make them much harder to fight.

But sometimes the court will reduce the fine if there are reasons presented or to avoid tying up court time with a trial, he said.

It cost the city about $691,000 to operate the red-light camera system in 2009. Fine revenue came in at about $912,000. But Solomon stresses that the surplus goes in reserve for other road safety initiatives.

“The camera program is intended to be revenue neutral … The intention of the program is to put ourselves out of business so that no one is running any red lights.”
[...]

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/2100197-smile-you-re-on-red-light-camera/

Many other stories alluding to the program self-financing....

 

[reaperexpress]

What is always missed when asking why there's no bike lane on King is that the biggest mode of transportation isn't the streetcar, it's pedestrians. Pedestrians outnumber streetcar riders by at least 3:1.

Fact-check time!

Here's a mode split I compiled in 2015 on King at University during the AM peak hour, combining a City of Toronto traffic count and a TTC ridership count. Streetcar ridership has increased substantially since then, due to development as well as the pilot. The King streetcar is running closer to 3000 people per hour per direction during the AM peak nowadays.

Numbers denote people per hour in the peak direction (eastbound)

Assumptions:
- 1.2 people per automobile
- eastbound pedestrian volume is half total E/W volume (pedestrian volumes are not recorded per direction)

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

King Street should be made into a full transit mall. No exceptions for any sort of vehicle.

Remove the bike lanes on Richmond and Adelaide, bring them to King.

 

[DSC]

King Street should be made into a full transit mall. No exceptions for any sort of vehicle.

Remove the bike lanes on Richmond and Adelaide, bring them to King.

This makes zero sense. Vehicles must be allowed on King as it has several garage entrances and building delivery areas. The current way to allow this without permitting through vehicles is not perfect (and is not well enforced) but it works pretty well. The figures show that closing King to through vehicles has not had much negative effect on other neighbouring streets and it has had a huge positive effect on transit. The bike tracks on Richmond & Adelaide seem to work well and the figures and surveys show that they have virtually no effect on other vehicles. If (when, I hope) the "Pilot" is made permanent (early 2019 (edited!) with the new Council?) the City plans to widen sidewalks properly and do more permanent streetscape improvements.

 

[Northern Light]

This makes zero sense. Vehicles must be allowed on King as it has several garage entrances and building delivery areas. The current way to allow this without permitting through vehicles is not perfect (and is not well enforced) but it works pretty well. The figures show that closing King to through vehicles has not had much negative effect on other neighbouring streets and it has had a huge positive effect on transit. The bike tracks on Richmond & Adelaide seem to work well and the figures and surveys show that they have virtually no effect on other vehicles. If (when, I hope) the "Pilot" is made permanent (early 2109 with the new Council) the City plans to widen sidewalks properly and do more permanent streetscape improvements.

Good post, though, while I'm typically w/you when it comes to healthy cynicism, I am hoping for the pilot to be permanent sooner than 2109.

 

[innsertnamehere]

I believe large chunks of Adelaide are due for a full street reconstruction in 2019, so the city is hoping to have a permanent infrastructure design in place by then for the Adelaide Lanes. Thus them doing the consultations lately to move the lanes to the north side of the street.

 

[syn]

This makes zero sense. Vehicles must be allowed on King as it has several garage entrances and building delivery areas. The current way to allow this without permitting through vehicles is not perfect (and is not well enforced) but it works pretty well. The figures show that closing King to through vehicles has not had much negative effect on other neighbouring streets and it has had a huge positive effect on transit. The bike tracks on Richmond & Adelaide seem to work well and the figures and surveys show that they have virtually no effect on other vehicles. If (when, I hope) the "Pilot" is made permanent (early 2109 with the new Council) the City plans to widen sidewalks properly and do more permanent streetscape improvements.

Perhaps a compromise - transit and delivery vehicles only?

 

[44 North]

For pedestrian/transit mall wonder if the City has ever considered Dundas, specifically curtailing auto movement between Victoria and Bay. Would be a great extension of Gould-Victoria-Dundas Sq pedestrian areas. And the 505 slogs pretty slow through that stretch to begin with due to all the cars. Actually seems more doable than King in this regard.

 

[Fred.S]

For pedestrian/transit mall wonder if the City has ever considered Dundas, specifically curtailing auto movement between Victoria and Bay. Would be a great extension of Gould-Victoria-Dundas Sq pedestrian areas. And the 505 slogs pretty slow through that stretch to begin with due to all the cars. Actually seems more doable than King in this regard.

It would be amazing if the Yonge and Dundas intersection and surrounding blocks were fully pedestrian (plus the 505 and bike lanes). Not sure about the feasibility. Maybe if car traffic could be strategically rerouted to Gerrard or something.

I think pushing for a pedestrian mall on Yonge would be more feasible and get more support. This would also benefit the 505, by removing cross-traffic at Dundas, where the back-ups can get the worst for the streetcar.

 

[Avenue]

What King should have had is fully dedicated streetcar lanes, cars being strictly limited to the right lane (and no sidewalk patio stuff). That combined with removal of a few stops would have been far more effective than what we have now.

 

[Avenue]

It would be amazing if the Yonge and Dundas intersection and surrounding blocks were fully pedestrian (plus the 505 and bike lanes). Not sure about the feasibility. Maybe if car traffic could be strategically rerouted to Gerrard or something.

A fully pedestrian area is the worst possible situation if you actually want to move people in the streetcar.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

This makes zero sense. Vehicles must be allowed on King as it has several garage entrances and building delivery areas. The current way to allow this without permitting through vehicles is not perfect (and is not well enforced) but it works pretty well. The figures show that closing King to through vehicles has not had much negative effect on other neighbouring streets and it has had a huge positive effect on transit. The bike tracks on Richmond & Adelaide seem to work well and the figures and surveys show that they have virtually no effect on other vehicles. If (when, I hope) the "Pilot" is made permanent (early 2019 (edited!) with the new Council?) the City plans to widen sidewalks properly and do more permanent streetscape improvements.

Sorry, I was unclear. No exemptions for ubers and taxis was what I was referring to. Transit malls in Europe allow delivery vehicles to make deliveries (of course, delivery vehicles aren't humongous trucks, but vehicles more appropriate for European road widths...). They do this with a very simple measure --> allow the delivery vehicles to park on the sidewalk in the space in-between planters. Given large enough sidewalk width, pedestrians are not impeded. Good reminder on the garages though, how inconvenient...

Yes, the King Street Pilot is performing well, but I still believe it is doing well in spite of the design not because of it.

And the suggestion to remove bike tracks in Richmond & Adelaide is not reflective of their poor performance at all. On the contrary, I think they have performed very well. The suggestion is, we can optimise traffic for all modes by bringing the bike lanes to King, and recovering a lane on Richmond&Adelaide for cars.

 

[Northern Light]

It would be amazing if the Yonge and Dundas intersection and surrounding blocks were fully pedestrian (plus the 505 and bike lanes). Not sure about the feasibility. Maybe if car traffic could be strategically rerouted to Gerrard or something.

I think pushing for a pedestrian mall on Yonge would be more feasible and get more support. This would also benefit the 505, by removing cross-traffic at Dundas, where the back-ups can get the worst for the streetcar.

The more practical choice, I think, would be to extend the Dundas sidewalks, to the streetcar tracks (while still allowing cars), at the streetcar stops at Yonge.

Those stops are very well utilized and the crowding impacts on pedestrian through traffic, while also posing a safety issue as riders go back and forth from the sidewalk to the streetcar.

Such a move would increase congestion marginally, but still allow cars, be safer for pedestrians and transit riders, and I think on a net basis the impact on congestion would be modest as it would reduce load times where streetcars
block the intersection.

Though if anyone talks the City into this, remind them to do it for the length of a Flexity and not a CLRV.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

It would be amazing if the Yonge and Dundas intersection and surrounding blocks were fully pedestrian (plus the 505 and bike lanes). Not sure about the feasibility. Maybe if car traffic could be strategically rerouted to Gerrard or something.

I think pushing for a pedestrian mall on Yonge would be more feasible and get more support. This would also benefit the 505, by removing cross-traffic at Dundas, where the back-ups can get the worst for the streetcar.

Fully pedestrianizing Yonge & Dundas would be great. The constant pedestrian traffic jam there is horrendous.