TTC: Streetcar Network

[daptive]

White bar in Toronto means "turn left or right but do not go straight". For example, at King & Sumach, the eastbound and northbound white bar signals come on simultaneously, allowing eastbound right and northbound left/right turning streetcars to proceed simultaneously.
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The HTA also technically allows streetcars to proceed straight during a vertical white bar but the TTC chose not to adopt that definition so they could use more efficient signal operations like the one above. If they used the HTA definition, the northbound and eastbound streetcars couldn't get white bars at the same time.

Your photo is basically just a left turn phase for a streetcar. The red/yellow/green signals represent the straight movement (i.e. permissive left/right turn), and the white bar represents the protected left turn.This exact same signal layout is used in lots of other locations as well, such as King & Sumach as mentioned above. It's no more of a Frankenstein signal than the signals for cars that also have red/yellow/green for going straight, but then also a separate left turn arrow that's controlled by a different signal phase.
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Oh nice I had no idea that the white bar had other meanings! I had only associated it with transit/train signals like what ION uses, and my previous understanding was it just meant transit vehicles can proceed. I also believed KW had to get special permission to use them in KW, but I might've misunderstood how they got to use them for their LRTs while we still can't for our streetcars/LRTs.

 

[reaperexpress]

Oh nice I had no idea that the white bar had other meanings! I had only associated it with transit/train signals like what ION uses, and my previous understanding was it just meant transit vehicles can proceed. I also believed KW had to get special permission to use them in KW, but I might've misunderstood how they got to use them for their LRTs while we still can't for our streetcars/LRTs.

The white bar is in the HTA, the issue is that everything else about the Waterloo signals is forbidden. I explain at 2:50 in this video:

 

[CapitalSeven]

There are a number of white bar signals in Ottawa, used for transit priority/queue jump situations. There's one at Albert and Lyon to allow buses on a one-way street to pull away from the curb beside the LRT station and make it into the left-turn lane to another one-way street. Using the bar helps avoid cars from advancing too early and blocking the bus or colliding with it.

The MTO driver's handbook has an explanation.

 

[Frankietls]

Apologies if this has been answered before. When bunching happens why is the behind-schedule streetcar not allowed to skip stops and let the one right behind pick up passengers in order to rebalance the pacing between them. Instead on many occasions when I was taking the streetcar the latter would be short-turned ?

 

[DSCToronto]

Apologies if this has been answered before. When bunching happens why is the behind-schedule streetcar not allowed to skip stops and let the one right behind pick up passengers in order to rebalance the pacing between them. Instead on many occasions when I was taking the streetcar the latter would be short-turned ?

Hard to skip stops as streetcars are much larger than buses and have FAR more passengers and some passengers may want to get off and once the doors are open......

 

[nfitz]

Hard to skip stops as streetcars are much larger than buses and have FAR more passengers and some passengers may want to get off and once the doors are open......

Especially when the first one is packed full! There's little to gain, and massive complaints. Though you do see it done when vehicles were crush-loaded - though less so now that the new LRVs are quicker in such circumstances, as you don't get stuck there, with the person who doesn't fit on, standing on the steps, with the door not closing.

It works better on buses, because the empty one behind can overtake the full one, jump ahead a couple of stops, and then load quickly.

 

[Mind_the_gap]

^ Thought it would be worthwhile noting that trains in Chicago occasionally do run express when there are significant delays.

Passengers on the delayed train will be told to disembark and wait for the following train to access intermediate stops.

Not ideal, but it does happen.