They do? So then why is it impossible to get two green lights in a row anywhere downtown? Some roads seem intentionally timed to go Red, Red, Red, even if you're the first off the light at the last red. The only road that's noticeably calibrated for cars is Richmond.
As someone who worked on various light synchronization projects around the city, synchronizing two-way streets will likely never give you a continuous green. Sometimes you can have an overall better level of service at an intersection or street by having shorter greens in all directions, or a combination of things. Most of the streets run at a pretty high volume, though, so all you need is one overly cautious driver, or accident or TTC driver taking a coffee break in the middle of a route and that can throw the whole flow way down the street.
Apparently signal timing changes are happening tonight to hopefully improve this route:
https://twitter.com/WaterfrontTO/status/522733502396379137
Apparently not. Still taking 30+ minutes from Dan Leckie to Union according to people on the CityPlace Facebook page.
It does not take 30+ minutes, or at least no where close to that last night. Things were quicker, although still not at speed that it should be.
There were also several crews at a number of intersections last night playing with the control boxes.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.
I've seen many people say 30 minutes. You have to include the wait for a streetcar, which according to a friend was a whole 18 minutes.
from Dan Leckie to Union how long does it take to walk?
Less than 30 minutes
So 12 minutes.I've seen many people say 30 minutes. You have to include the wait for a streetcar, which according to a friend was a whole 18 minutes.
So 12 minutes.
If it's an 18-minute wait for a streetcar, why would you even leave your house? And if you did, why would you wait for a streetcar? It's only a 20-minute walk to Union from there.
Exactly, it's mostly pointless to even try co-ordination downtown, outside of the handful of streets where it is widely implemented (Richmond, Adelaide, Lakeshore, and to some extent University). Given the amount of unpredictability in downtown streets with parked cars, bicycles, pedestrians, lane closures, streetcar stops and most importantly transit priority, the co-ordination would backfire a good proportion of the time anyway. And it would almost certainly screw up surface transit even more, which is a big deal considering that the new streetcars will be the limiting factor in a street's travel speed.
It's better to look at the intersections individually or in small groups and optimize them in terms of capacity and progression. The fundamental basis of co-ordination is that the intersections' cycle lengths need to be the same or harmonic. But larger/busier intersections tend to operate more efficiently with longer cycle lengths, and smaller intersections tend to operate more efficiently with shorter ones. Forcing all the intersections to share a cycle length inherently results in less efficient intersections.
What I meant was that when the city does co-ordinate traffic lights, it is always for cars.
Looking right now, streetcars east at Dan Leckie in 30 seconds, 4 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes.I think the issue is that people are not expecting the long delays. The bus was always there and pretty quick.
Full streetcars heading WEST at Bathurst? Was something going on at the Ex?People were told the 509 would be an improvement, and instead, are being surprised by ridiculous commute times to Union, as well as streetcars that arrive already full at Bathurst Street heading West.