King Street (Streetcar Transit Priority)

[Jonny5]

Well now TTC operators themselves are laying over inside the streetcar stops. You can see the operators down the street in the distance.

 

[FC_]

There's been a few discussions about making use of vertical white bars as a transit only signal for King, though the TTC only uses these as a transit turning stage.

Has anyone mentioned just fully installing the three light transit signals along King? With transit only signals, they could leave the traffic signals always on red, except during the evening "exception" for cabs 10pm to 5am.

As for bicycles, how about adding dedicated signals for them as well. With a solid red light all day, I doubt drives would just burn through these intersections. Also, wouldn't that qualify as "running a red", meaning red light cameras could be used as enforcement?

 

[Megaton327]

With transit only signals, they could leave the traffic signals always on red, except during the evening "exception" for cabs 10pm to 5am.

Cars aren't banned from the street. They still need greens to make their right turns. Contrary to popular belief, you are never required to make a right on a red, it is optional; greens must be provided if the street is open to cars. And a green right arrow doesn't work because that prohibits pedestrians from going at the same time - unless you want very rare, very short green right arrows followed by a streetcar-and-pedestrian-only phase. You'd also need separate bike signals if they're to be permitted to go straight.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Cars aren't banned from the street. They still need greens to make their right turns. Contrary to popular belief, you are never required to make a right on a red, it is optional; greens must be provided if the street is open to cars. And a green right arrow doesn't work because that prohibits pedestrians from going at the same time - unless you want very rare, very short green right arrows followed by a streetcar-and-pedestrian-only phase. You'd also need separate bike signals if they're to be permitted to go straight.

Outside of Ontario, a FLASHING YELLOW ARROW means

Flashing yellow arrow: Drivers are allowed to turn after yielding to all oncoming traffic and to any pedestrians in the crosswalk.​

From link.

Of course, they also allow a red arrow, which Ontario does not allow.

 

[TossYourJacket]

We really need to modernise our approach to traffic lights in this province. It seems like we picked the most overly simplistic approach and it's clearly not working.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Meanwhile, while Toronto (and Ontario) is just "talking" about cameras enforcing traffic infractions on transit vehicles...

Automated bus lane traffic enforcement begins October 7 with new camera technology on MTA buses

All vehicles on M15 select bus service routes equipped with new automated enforcement system to keep bus lanes clear.

From link.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City (NYC) Transit and New York City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) will be using automated mobile camera systems on buses starting Oct. 7 to capture real-time bus lane violations on the M15 Select Bus Service route as part of citywide efforts to increase bus speeds and keep traffic moving.

NYC Transit is using an Automated Bus Lane Enforcement (ABLE) system on 51 buses that travel on the M15 SBS route using a dedicated bus lane implemented by NYCDOT. ABLE camera systems can capture evidence such as license plate information, photos and videos, as well location and timestamp information, of vehicles obstructing bus lanes to document clear cases of bus lane violation. The system collects multiple pieces of evidence to ensure that vehicles making permitted turns from bus lanes are not ticketed. This information will be transmitted to NYCDOT for review and processing, and the program will be administered in partnership with NYCDOT and the NYC Department of Finance.

“Automated bus lane enforcement is a critical part of our plan to increase bus speeds because transit priority improvements do not work if motorists do not respect their purpose or abide by traffic laws,” said MTA NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “We need to give our buses every fighting chance to get through the city’s congested streets.”

“We hear from our customers all the time that buses get stuck in traffic because there are many vehicles on the streets blocking stops and moving lanes,” said Craig Cipriano, acting MTA Bus Company president and senior vice president for buses of NYC Transit. “This is why we are working with our city partners to find ways of prioritizing buses and keeping streets clear so that everyone can move faster.”

“Under Mayor de Blasio’s Better Buses Action Plan, we have committed to increase citywide bus speeds 25 percent by the end of 2020 – and to get there, we will need to step up automated enforcement to keep vehicles out of the more than 100 miles of dedicated bus lanes we have built around the city,” said NYCDOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “For years, we have had overhead cameras along routes like the M15, but adding enforcement cameras to the buses themselves will now help us further keep bus lanes clear – allowing tens of thousands of commuters to keep moving. And we know that improvement in bus travel times consistently lead to ridership increases. We thank NYCT President Andy Byford and all our partners at the MTA for their partnership as we strengthen this essential enforcement program, serving the New Yorkers who take more than 2 million daily bus trips.”

Motorists who block bus lanes are first issued a warning with a 60-day grace period when no fines are assessed, beginning Oct. 7. After the grace period ends, motorists who continue to block bus lanes will be subject to a fine of $50 for each violation, which also carries a $25 late fee. The automated bus lane enforcement program will expand to the B44 SBS and M14 SBS by the end of November, with the ABLE system to be deployed on a total of 123 buses across the three routes. The expansion to the M14 SBS is dependent upon the resolution of ongoing litigation.

The ABLE system was tested in a successful pilot program evaluating the efficacy of the mobile cameras. The pilot determined that an ABLE system could capture sufficient evidence to enforce traffic violations. Funding for further expansion of the program is included in the proposed 2020-2024 Capital Plan.

NYC Transit is working with NYCDOT and New York Police Department to increase bus lane enforcement in highly congested areas as part of NYC Transit’s Fast Forward plan to improve bus service, increase bus speeds and attract new ridership. Results so far have yielded faster bus speeds by as much as 19 percent on a portion of Fifth Avenue and as much as 30 percent near the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel’s Manhattan approach. Other strategies include redesigning every borough’s bus network to better meet customer needs, installing traffic signal priority technology, implementing more transit priority street designs, and deploying new modern buses with better reliability and customer amenities.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Meanwhile, while Toronto (and Ontario) is just "talking" about cameras enforcing traffic infractions on transit vehicles...

Automated bus lane traffic enforcement begins October 7 with new camera technology on MTA buses

All vehicles on M15 select bus service routes equipped with new automated enforcement system to keep bus lanes clear.

From link.

Let’s have this for bike lane blockers.

I remember in Manhattan walking from Central Park and watching two NYPD parking enforcement guys cycling behind UPS trucks and issuing a ticket each time they stopped to make a delivery. I think I saw six tickets go to the same driver. The courier and shredder companies just see these fines as a cost of business. How will bus lane violations be any different?

True enforcement would be vehicle seizure and a fine equal to the economic value of the violation. Multiple violations should result in permanent vehicle confiscation and auction.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Let’s have this for bike lane blockers.

I remember in Manhattan walking from Central Park and watching two NYPD parking enforcement guys cycling behind UPS trucks and issuing a ticket each time they stopped to make a delivery. I think I saw six tickets go to the same driver. The courier and shredder companies just see these fines as a cost of business. How will bus lane violations be any different?

True enforcement would be vehicle seizure and a fine equal to the economic value of the violation. Multiple violations should result in permanent vehicle confiscation and auction.

The problem is that the fines are low. For companies and the rich, its petty cash or pocket change. The fines should increase for each infraction and be based on income. Unfortunately, that will not happen because of the lobbyists.

 

[Towered]

The problem is that the fines are low. For companies and the rich, its petty cash or pocket change. The fines should increase for each infraction and be based on income. Unfortunately, that will not happen because of the lobbyists.

The fines should be adjusted according to the driver's income or net worth. I think in some countries like Finland it's done that way. Just last week I saw a parking cop hand a ticket to a guy driving a Lamborghini. The driver got out, crumpled up the ticket and tossed it on the ground laughing, telling the cop "Hey, maybe you should give me a few more tickets buddy - I can afford it!" The cop just walked away.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

Well now TTC operators themselves are laying over inside the streetcar stops. You can see the operators down the street in the distance.


View attachment 205829

That's standard operating procedure for buses replacing streetcars to pick up at the curb.

 

[Jonny5]

That's standard operating procedure for buses replacing streetcars to pick up at the curb.

The bus stop isn't there. That spot is for the 504 only. The 503 picks up passengers at a separate stop at the corner of York. And the bus was not picking anyone up. The driver is not even inside it. You can see him outside chit-chatting with another 503 driver who is also idling there. Sometimes there are five 503 buses sitting and waiting to actually go out and drive. The running time for the route has clearly been made ridiculously higher than what is needed as they can't even find places to stack the extra buses now.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

The bus stop isn't there. That spot is for the 504 only. The 503 picks up passengers at a separate stop at the corner of York. And the bus was not picking anyone up. The driver is not even inside it. You can see him outside chit-chatting with another 503 driver who is also idling there. Sometimes there are five 503 buses sitting and waiting to actually go out and drive. The running time for the route has clearly been made ridiculously higher than what is needed as they can't even find places to stack the extra buses now.

Ther are several projects that have caused the 503 bus to make some detours from its normal routing

 

[W. K. Lis]

Cars All but Banned on One of Manhattan’s Busiest Streets
Starting on Thursday, cars are no longer welcome on 14th Street, a major crosstown route for 21,000 vehicles a day.

From link.

New York City has been steadily taking space away from cars since the first pedestrian plazas were carved out of the asphalt streetscape more than a decade ago.

Roads that were once the exclusive domain of cars have been squeezed to make way for bike and bus-only lanes. Prime parking spots have been turned into urban green spaces. Traffic lights give pedestrians a head start crossing intersections.

Now, city officials are taking their most ambitious stand yet against cars: Beginning Thursday, passenger cars, including taxis and Ubers, will be all but banned from one of Manhattan’s busiest streets, 14th Street, a major crosstown route for 21,000 vehicles a day that links the East and West Sides.

The traffic experiment got off to an orderly but soggy start at 6 a.m. with traffic officers in neon yellow slickers stationed at intersections along 14th Street. They waved buses through while turning cars away. Patrol cars with blinking lights crawled up and down the street.

Drivers seemed to follow the new rules, at least for now. One car braked abruptly while trying to turn off Third Avenue onto 14th Street. Traffic officers stepped back to let the car through, but signaled that it had to make the next right off the street.

Some bus riders were already enjoying quicker commutes with cars largely cleared out of the way, which is a main goal of the new restrictions.

“It’s pretty fast now. Buses are moving a lot faster,” said Steven Colon, 25, a customer assistant at a grocery store, who commutes to work by bus along 14th Street. “This is a good idea because a lot of people double park and it causes a lot of congestion.”

From now on, drivers are allowed onto 14th Street only to make deliveries and pick up and drop off passengers from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. They can travel just a block or two before they have to turn right off the street. No left turns are allowed. The police will give out warnings at first and surveillance cameras will be watching.

“It’s not that cars are losing ground, it’s that New Yorkers are gaining ground, literally,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the Riders Alliance, an advocacy group for transit riders. “We make the city what it is. Cars get in the way."

The city’s campaign to make its streets less welcoming to cars has drawn an increasingly intense backlash from drivers, businesses and residents who have gone to court to stop some of the efforts, including the new rules along 14th Street.

“It’s a big inconvenience,” said Richard Small, a New Jersey commuter who will now have to drive five blocks out of his way to get to work on 14th Street. “I think it’s extreme and there should be a compromise. Everybody pays taxes — not just the people in the buses.”

New York’s traffic experiment comes as cities across the world are taking a harder line against cars. Cars are no longer being allowed to roam freely as traffic chokes the streets, contributes to climate change and threatens the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists.

Paris has banned cars from the city center one Sunday a month. Barcelona has reorganized some streets into superblocks where intersections now serve as playgrounds and cars are pushed to the edges. London charges drivers a hefty congestion fee for entering the busiest neighborhoods — a move that New York will follow when it becomes the first American city to introduce congestion pricing in Manhattan in 2021.

Toronto was the model for New York’s 14th Street experiment. In 2017, it restricted cars from driving across a 1.6-mile stretch of King Street to clear the way for streetcars. Since then, streetcar speeds have increased and service has become more reliable, though some restaurants and stores have lost business.

New York, which has 6,000 miles of streets, once catered to cars by building a network of roadways that still cuts through the city. But that car-centric view later shifted as the city struggled with worsening gridlock that has crippled its public bus system, whose ridership is in decline.

Today, pedestrians and cyclists elbow for more space alongside cars. Ride-hailing apps have ushered in Ubers and Lyfts, and Amazon has helped fuel a 24/7 armada of delivery trucks.

The 14th Street busway is the centerpiece of the city’s efforts to turn a one-mile stretch of the street, between Third and Ninth Avenues, into a transit corridor that will improve bus reliability and perhaps attract more riders.

Bus speeds along 14th Street are among the slowest in the nation, crawling at an average of 4.5 miles per hour. Daily bus ridership along the street has fallen to 28,000 from 38,000 in the past decade.

“New York City is failing bus riders on a daily basis and we are hemorrhaging riders as a result,” said Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker whose district includes 14th Street. “People are getting off buses and into cars, which is unacceptable as we try to fight climate change by encouraging green modes of transportation.”

Juliana Santos, 42, a medical assistant, said she would have more time — and less stress — if the buses moved faster and did not get stuck behind cars. A seven- to eight-minute crosstown bus ride can easily stretch to twice that, or longer. “If you don’t get those delays, you’d be on time anywhere you go,” she said.
The 14th Street busway had been twice delayed by lawsuits brought by local residents and block associations, but was allowed to go forward last week after a panel of judges lifted a previous order blocking it.

The busway grew out of the contingency planning for the shutdown of the L train, which travels between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Although transit officials called off the shutdown in January, the plans for the busway remained.

Now, the restrictions are part of an 18-month pilot program that could be made permanent. Curbside parking spots have been eliminated and replaced by loading zones. After the initial warnings, drivers who ignore the restrictions will receive tickets carrying fines starting at $50.

Polly Trottenberg, the city’s transportation commissioner, said the “new busway will be a big boost” for bus riders, “creating more reliable commutes with shorter travel times.”

Along 14th Street, lanes have been painted red and designated for buses and trucks only. Trucks and emergency vehicles will still be allowed across.

At a parking garage on 14th Street, Thomas McDarby, 74, a hair dresser, was not happy as he got into his sedan to drive to work in New Jersey. He pays $550 a month to park there, and was already worried about how to get back home.

“I’m so confused now with these regulations,” he said. “I don’t really know what the regulations are now. It just happened very quickly. It’s just a hassle. There was no way to plan ahead. Plan ahead and do what, sell the car?”

Some local businesses and workers have opposed the traffic experiment, saying that they could lose customers who drive. “It’s not good for business,” said Francisco Lopez, an attendant at a garage on 14th Street. “Everybody’s complaining about it.”

Ray Raddy, the manager of Crossroads Wine & Spirits, said he worried that some customers would find it easier to buy their wine at a store where they can drive right up and park outside. “If I’m a customer and I’m not comfortable coming here,” he said, “I’ll go somewhere else.”

But others were elated the busway had finally arrived.

Ben Rubenstein, 37, an assistant high school principal, said his morning commute usually stretched out because he had to allow extra time in case his bus hit traffic. “I usually wake up earlier so that I can avoid traffic on the cross town bus,” he said.

Not anymore. On Thursday, Mr. Rubenstein reached his school early.

“Ten minutes faster than I expected,” he said.

 

[mdrejhon]

I was informed (smallspy I believe) that the couplers are only basic push types.

However, it may not preclude:
(1) TTC fleet expansions with new fleet including true couplers. We need more streetcars anyway (now essentially defacto LRT vehicles).
(2) Upgrade of existing couplers on existing fleet.

It is true TTC has had no plans previously to do this but it’s now just a relatively short stone throw of an upgrade — and will be very apparently clear to Toronto’s populace after a few more LRTs starts opening (Crosstown etc). As it so comes, this may suddenly get funded within ten years to upconvert King into an LRT.

That is — a cheap path to true King LRT with >100K/day passengers (raised platforms + add crossovers + level boarding + transit priority + couplered-2-LRV operation, like a mini Calgary C-Train) as a cheap stealth way to add an additional new metro to Toronto in addition to current transit expansions.

 

[DSC]

Does anyone REALLY think we will see double length streetcars on the existing surface routes here? I personally doubt it as there would be far too much chance of them blocking intersections. Better to sort out the route management to make best use of the cars we have and buy more of them.