Sean Marshall

Tag: King Street

  • One more signal will do it…

    A mess of signs and signals on King Street West at Portland Avenue

    On a lovely weekday afternoon in early June, I went for a ride through Downtown Toronto to check out the changes to Portland Street between Richmond Avenue and Front Street. This side street, just west of the downtown core, connects the busy Richmond-Adelaide cycle tracks with the Puente De Luz walking/cycling bridge across the Union Station Rail Corridor to CityPlace and via Dan Leckie Way to the Waterfront.

    While the City of Toronto is currently restricted in adding new cycling lanes on major corridors, it continues to piece together alternative routes where possible; Portland Street, which parallels congested Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street, is one of those opportunities. A new two-way cycle track was opened while most of Portland Street itself is now one-way for motorists.

    Looking south at the end of Portland Street towards CityPlace and the ramp to the Puente De Luz Bridge (bridge at far left)

    At Portland and Wellington Streets, an interesting new traffic alignment diverts motor traffic around the complex intersection while permitting through cyclist and pedestrian movement on all sides, improving safety for all road users. On Portland Street northbound and southbound, drivers are required to turn right onto Wellington maintaining local access while discouraging through drivers. This new layout, complete with Muskoka chairs laid out in the middle of the intersection is unusual for Toronto and is more common in cycling-friendly cities such as Montreal. Emergency vehicles can still pass through, following the cycling paths.

    Slide from 2024 City of Toronto presentation depicting the new diverter at Portland and Wellington

    Wellington Street is a designated east-west cycling route connecting the Downtown Core and west end neighbourhoods like Parkdale and Liberty Village and will eventually hookup with an extension of the West Toronto Railpath. Together with increased density in the downtown area, this intersection will only get busier with cyclists and pedestrians in the future.

    Portland looking north at Wellington. Motorists must turn in one direction from Wellington or Portland, opening up the middle of the crossing to a four-way cycling intersection, with planters and colourful Muskoka chairs
    Comfortable places to sit in the middle of an intersection

    Despite the very unToronto urban intervention at Portland and Wellington, a very Toronto intervention continues one block north at King Street. Though the King Street Pilot was launched in November 2017, over eight years ago, little has been done since to improve the street for pedestrians or transit users. To discourage motorists from illegally proceeding through intersections (intended to eliminate congestion for streetcars and buses), the curb lanes are blocked with painted Jersey barriers. More recently, additional traffic lights were installed, so there are now signals for transit, cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians.

    At Portland, and every other intersection that drivers are not permitted to go straight (taxi drivers are excepted after 10 pm), the traffic signals remain red at all times. A right green arrow appears for 5-10 seconds at the beginning of the cycle, allowing motorists to turn unimpeded. At Portland, however, eastbound motorists on King may not make a right on red because of the two-way cycle track on the west side of the street. Because of all these restrictions, there are seven signs facing eastbound drivers affixed to the traffic pole, along with two transit signals, one traffic signal, two bicycle signals, and one pedestrian signal.

    This could have been clearer

    The amount of clutter here can be confusing and is also unsightly. First off, there is no need for the “bicycle signal” sign below the two bicycle signal heads and next to the pedestrian signal. The signal aspects are already clearly for bicycles without the sign. Revising the Ontario Traffic Manual (OTM) to allow red arrows on traffic signals could both simplify the yellow traffic signal here and eliminate the need for the “no right turn on red” sign. It would also be clear then that right is the only permitted sign. Speaking of the OTM, dedicated transit signal aspects such as those used in Europe or even several American cities would eliminate the need for the “transit signal” sign and further reduce confusion. If the late night taxi exception was removed, the “no left turn” and “no straight movement” signs could be consolidated as well.

    But most of all, the sign clutter makes it even more clear that the King Street Pilot configuration needs to become permanent, with raised curb extensions at the far sides of each intersection, with a level platform for streetcar boarding. Permanent planters and benches would be a visual cue to drivers that King Street is not a throughfare, but a pedestrian and transit-first corridor.

    There is a lot less sign clutter along Seventh Avenue in Calgary, which is exclusively a transit and pedestrian corridor

  • Make streetcars king once more

    Streetcars backed up eastbound at King and University, November 28, 2023

    On Tuesday, November 28, the University of Toronto’s School of Cities released their report that looked at vehicle movement and traffic violations on the King Street Transit Priority Corridor. They found that there are, on average, 6,800 illegal turns and through movements at intersections on the corridor, and less than 0.3% of offenders are stopped by Toronto Police and ticketed. Traffic enforcement was heaviest between November 2017 (when the pilot began) and March 2020 (when the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began). Enforcement has not caught up since then.

    The U of T School of Cities has provided invaluable quantification of what many Torontonians have suspected for years: the King Street Transit Priority Corridor is broken, and that there is little being done to fix it.

    The transit priority corridor, which runs between Bathurst Street in the west and Jarvis Street in the east, has restrictions on through vehicle movements, where motorists must turn right at most intersections. Until 10 PM daily, only TTC buses and streetcars, emergency vehicles, and bicyclists are exempt. After 10 PM, taxis may also continue through the corridor.

    The pilot program launched on November 12, 2017. The initial pilot, in which signs were erected, Jersey barriers placed to restrict the curb lane, and TTC stops moved to the far side of most intersections, was intended to optimize permanent streetscaping improvements, streetcar stop placement and transit optimization, get motorists acquainted with the new rules (at first, only warnings were issued by police) and allow time for Toronto City Council to decide on whether the pilot should be made permanent. Council approved making the transit priority corridor permanent on April 16, 2019.

    Excerpt of King Street turn restrictions map from the City of Toronto website

    Though Toronto City Council voted to transform King Street permanently, no work has started on the streetscape or public realm to do so. Just like Union Station, temporary Jersey barriers remain in place. The relocated TTC streetcar stops are left at road level, without transit shelters or accessible curbs. Drivers routinely ignore restrictions, with only a 0.3% chance of getting a $85 or $110 ticket. Meanwhile streetcars get stuck and transit riders get nowhere. On Wednesday, November 8, a Toronto police officer decided to enforce congestion on King Street… by ticketing a streetcar operator stuck in the intersection at University Avenue.

    A motorist, ignoring several signs, proceeds straight through on King Street eastbound at Spadina Avenue

    The problem is not just limited to through movements on King Street, though. On Tuesday, November 28, I stood at the corner of King and Spadina between 4:00 PM and 4:20 PM. The backup of cars and trucks headed southbound towards the Gardiner Expressway extended into the south side crosswalk and into the eastbound lanes at times. Motorists are not permitted to enter an intersection on a green light if they cannot clear it before the light turns red; this causes gridlock. But on more than one occasion, streetcars and pedestrians were impeded by illegal intersection blocks.

    At Spadina and King, a truck and three passenger vehicles block the south side crosswalk and prevent a streetcar from proceeding straight on a green light

    After standing at King and Spadina, I walked over to King and University, where the Toronto Police charged a streetcar operator earlier this month. At 5 PM, eastbound streetcars were lining up between University and John Street, unable to proceed.

    Traffic jammed at King Street eastbound at University Avenue

    However, motorists were able to turn right and left from University Avenue to eastbound King, blocking the east side crosswalk to pedestrians and ensuring that no streetcar could continue across. I spoke to one operator, who told me that the day before, he was stuck there for a half hour before he could move across.

    The University and King intersection, at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, November 28. Note the blocked crosswalk and the line of streetcars, all with their hazard lights blinking. Eventually, one streetcar operator decides they had enough, and occupies the intersection.

    While there, I counted several motorists who passed to the right of the stopped streetcar, and instead of turning right as permitted, they went straight, only contributing to the blockage ahead.

    Two eastbound cars pass a stopped streetcar on the right to join the congestion ahead

    The problem downtown is exasperated by several road closures. Queen Street is closed between Bay and Victoria Streets for Ontario Line construction; this will last for at least five years. Adelaide Street, which is one-way eastbound is closed at York Street due to the delayed Adelaide Street diversion track installation that is supposed to allow Queen Streetcars to divert around the Ontario Line closure. York Street is also closed at Adelaide. There are several other lane closures on Bay, Yonge, and Richmond Streets and University Avenue for utility work.

    Adelaide Street is likely to remain closed at York until early 2024

    Yet, one would hope that something was done to allow transit riders to get through the downtown core, especially as the city has been aware of the severe congestion for weeks at this point. The city needs to move ahead on permanent streetscape changes to further discourage through traffic on King Street by closing the curb lanes at the far side of each intersection.

    It is also clear that the Toronto Police are not too interested in ticketing motorists on King Street. Even if they were, it wouldn’t be enough, as it takes 10-15 minutes to stop and ticket a driver; automatic ticketing, similar to red light cameras, would be more effective, though traffic officers can still be strategically deployed at congestion hotspots.

    It’s beyond time for this city to take transit seriously again. King Street would be a great place to start.

  • How TIFF lost the plot

    IMG_4193-001.JPG504 King Streetcar diverting onto Spadina on Thursday, September 5

    For the sixth year in a row, King Street between University and Spadina Avenues was closed for four straight days. This closure was for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) “Festival Street,” which took place between Thursday September 5 and Sunday September 8. In addition, King Street was closed during the afternoon rush hours the following Monday and Tuesday for “Red Carpet Events.”

    TIFF has been recognized among the world’s most important film festivals, and one where the public has the opportunity to take part (albeit at increasingly inaccessible prices for many screenings). It offers tremendous economic and cultural value to Toronto. It compliments and helps to support many other annual film festivals, such as Hot Docs and Inside Out.

    But TIFF’s clout and influence has also led to entitlement, with “Festival Street” being the most disruptive result. While King Street is closed off to traffic during the film festival, it has severe effects for the 84,000 daily riders of the 504 King Street, as well as riders on the busy 501 Queen and 510 Spadina cars.

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    501 Queen and 504 King Streetcars stuck in traffic westbound at Queen and Spadina

    Several major TIFF screening locations are located on or near King Street West, including Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales Theatre, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and two blocks north, the Scotiabank Cinemas. Industry parties and galas are held at nearby hotels and restaurants. It’s natural that King Street would be a hub of activity for the film festival. But it is also the third busiest transit route in Toronto, after the Yonge-University and Bloor-Danforth subways.

    The King Street Pilot, which began in late 2017, prohibits through motor vehicle traffic on King Street between Jarvis and Bathurst Streets through the downtown core, though all vehicles are permitted to use King Street for short segments. Despite spotty enforcement, the pilot project allowed the TTC to operate much more reliably through the busy corridor, with an increase of capacity and ridership. In early 2017, daily ridership on the 504 King was 72,000. By March 2018, it grew to 84,000. In April, council voted to make the pilot permanent. This will allow for streetscape improvements along the corridor and wider sidewalks, with improved physical measures to further restrict through traffic.

    A lot of political capital went into making King Street work better, so it is disappointing to see all that advocacy for a proper transit corridor go to waste while TIFF is in town. Torontonians are promised each year would be the last year streetcar service would be wrecked for TIFF, but every mid-August, we find out otherwise.  (more…)

  • King Street complainers need to remember why they’re on King Street

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    On Friday, CBC Toronto ran a story on several King Street West businesses that have claimed that the new King Street Pilot have caused them to lose customers in December.  The three business owners mentioned in the article were Laleh Larijani of Forno Cultura, a bakery on King east of Bathurst, and two Restaurant Row restaurateurs: Jesse Warfield, whose family owns the Gabby’s chain of restaurants, and Fred Luk, owner of Fred’s Not Here and The Red Tomato.

    The King Street Pilot was launched by the City of Toronto on November 12, 2017. At many intersections between Bathurst and Jarvis Streets, cars and trucks are required to turn right off of King Street, prioritizing streetcar traffic. Most on-street parking spots were removed from King Street through this section, but designated areas allow for deliveries, passenger pick-ups and drop-offs, and access to local properties, including parking garages. Despite some [predictable] hyperbole from suburban politicians and reactionary journalists, cars are not in fact banned from any section of King Street. And there are many public and privately-owned garages adjacent to the pilot corridor for motorists to park at.

    For transit riders, the King Street Pilot is working. In December, the TTC reported travel time reductions for the busy 504 King and 514 Cherry Streetcars of up to 24 percent. However, it still struggles to keep up with demand. The continuing delays in the new streetcar deliveries from Bombardier have not helped matters; and streetcars still often run overcrowded, leaving some passengers behind at streetcar stops. There are some necessary tweaks to be made: TTC schedules should take advantage of improved travel times, and transit signal priority is also necessary with the new far-side stop locations at intersections. Signal priority will help to ensure streetcars don’t have to stop at a red light at the near side of the intersection and again to load passengers at the far side.

    But since it’s a year-long pilot project, these tweaks can be made.

    Unfortunately the CBC article was weak in that it presented only the business owners’ complaints about the King Street Pilot, without hard data to back up the claims of lost business. Only one Toronto city councillor was quoted, John Campbell, who represents Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre. Ward 4 is an affluent, suburban part of the city that does not have any streetcar lines. Councillor Campbell, who also sits on the Toronto Transit Commission, would like to see street parking permitted during evenings and weekends:

    “I would like to see people able to park here in the evening, park here on the weekends, because listen, when it’s –15 C people don’t want to walk a block-and-a-half to get to a restaurant. They want to park within 100 metres. I think that would bring more vibrancy back,” [Campbell] explained.

    It’s worth pointing out that motorists will walk much further than 100 metres when parking at busy suburban malls like Sherway Gardens or Yorkdale; it’s also the distance from many GO Transit parking spots to the train platform. The walk between the front doors of the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Princess of Wales Theatre on King Street is nearly 200 metres.

    Watering down the King Street Pilot would doom it to failure: as any King Street transit rider knows, traffic congestion didn’t suddenly disappear at 6:30 PM. It’s an unreasonable expectation to find ample parking 100 metres from many downtown businesses and institutions.

    It’s worth noting that a suburban councillor has taken so much interest in watering down a downtown initiative championed by downtown councillors, and that as a member of the TTC board, Campbell wishes to reduce the benefit to many of the transit agency’s customers.

    Fred Luk, profiled in the CBC article, has a long history of complaining to Toronto media, as pointed out by urbanist and writer Shawn Micallef on Twitter. In the last few years, Luk has complained about the increase in the minimum wage, higher energy costs, the effects of the 2003 SARS outbreak and the 2010 G20 Summit, even the 1999 municipal indoor smoking ban. Yet Luk’s King Street restaurants persisted.

    There are many factors that can influence the success of restaurant businesses. Obviously, the quality of food and service should be examined. It’s worth noting that Toronto is bearing with unseasonably cold temperatures, it’s the low season for tourism, and there aren’t any blockbuster musicals currently playing at the Royal Alex or Princess of Wales. Motorists still have to get used to the new arrangements and change their habits; it’s only been seven weeks so far. Once the weather improves, the curb lane in front of Restaurant Row can be used for wider sidewalks, even enlarged front patios.

    The smart thing for a business owner concerned about a decline in patronage would be to use the free publicity to promote the restaurants, rather than complain about a loss of business. Businesses in the Entertainment District are largely driven by walk-up traffic; there’s a reason why menus are posted by the doors and in the summertime, you can’t walk past Restaurant Row without having a representative out front trying to get you to look at their menu.

    Locating a restaurant on King Street West has lots of advantages: the proximity to thousands of residents, many nearby offices, hotels, entertainment and sports venues, and excellent transit access and ever increasing pedestrian activity. It is not realistic to expect ample street parking to be one those advantages.

    If access to parking were the chief concern, it would be wise to set up in a suburban plaza somewhere else, like in John Campbell’s Etobicoke. Complaining about a major improvement to the travel times of thousands of commuters, without offering any incentives for potential customers to visit your restaurants isn’t productive. Instead, doom and gloom messaging may only damage business further, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  • A vision for King Street

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    In today’s Toronto Star, city columnist Ed Keenan reports on the “King Street Visioning Study,” a city planning project that will soon be available for public feedback. The study proposes improving streetcar operations along the King Street Corridor between Dufferin and Parliament Streets as well improving the public realm, making it a more pleasant place to walk. The 504 King Streetcar is the busiest surface route in the TTC’s system, and as I, and many others, have said before, the streetcar needs to be able to move more people more efficiently. But now City Planning is leading the study, not the TTC, making this a more holistic vision for King Street.

    Chief City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat says that it’s “reasonable” that the initial pilot projects could be started in early 2017. Work has already been contracted to some of the same firms that were responsible for transforming Queen’s Quay (which despite some construction delays, and conflicts in a few places between pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, is a fantastic project).

    Keesmaat echoes previous attempts at creating a King Street Transit Mall, suggesting a similar system of alternating one-way sections that would provide for taxis, deliveries and passenger drop-offs and pick-ups, but forcing through traffic onto parallel streets. Extending transit priority all the way from Dufferin to Parliament could do a lot to streetcar improve operations, especially as the TTC is planning a new 514 route on King between Dufferin and Cherry Streets to supplement the overburdened 504 line and better serve the West Donlands, Distillery District, and Liberty Village.

    Yes, King Street improvements would start off as pilot projects, much like the bicycle lanes on nearby Richmond and Adelaide Streets, or the decade-old 2-hour transfer on St. Clair Avenue, or the Toronto Hydro ALAMP street lighting trials that should have concluded years ago. (Toronto seems to like permanent pilot projects.) That said, previous plans for a King Street transit mall never even got to the “pilot project” phase.

    But hearing that pedestrians and transit will be getting priority is music to my ears. Knowing that City Planning, and not just the TTC, is looking at this gives me optimism that this could finally go ahead. There will be opposition from businesses along the corridor, taxi drivers, suburban politicians concerned about a non-existent “war on the car.” And it’s not clear if Mayor John Tory is in favour, or a majority of city councillors.

    An improved public realm is especially appropriate on King Street, especially through historic Old York on the east and the cultural and tourist draws of the Entertainment District on the west. Sidewalks are often crowded, especially as the theatres get out in the evening, but with such diverse uses along the corridor, from bank towers to night clubs, King is one of Toronto’s most vibrant streets. Toronto often has trouble with attractive streetscaping (thanks to ugly wooden poles and overhead wires, cheap, grey street furniture, and ugly traffic signals), but it has recently managed to get Queen’s Quay (mostly) right.

    As for design, I’m hoping for something interesting and something different. I’d do away with the Muskoka chairs mentioned in Keenan’s article. They’re wonderful on Toronto’s waterfront, but I’d like to see some imagination on King Street. What about seating shaped like director’s chairs in front of the TIFF Lightbox? (Oh, and on the subject of TIFF, could we tell film festival organizers to stuff it when they want to wreck the King Streetcar again in 2016?)

    After years of talk about fixing King Street, there’s a very serious proposal to do something about it. Maybe the third time’s the charm.

  • King Street: a mess of Uber proportions

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    One of the most frustrating things about living and working in central Toronto is having to rely on streetcars for east-west travel. This isn’t the fault of the streetcars; when free of traffic, they’re a smooth, fast and comfortable way to get around. But trapped in the quagmire that is downtown traffic, streetcars are painfully slow. They’re stuck behind left-turning cars and trucks. Cars plugging the curb lane, legally or not, force all traffic into the streetcars’ path. Replacing streetcars with buses isn’t a solution either; not only would more buses (and drivers) be required to match the each streetcar’s superior capacity, but buses would be forced to weave in and out of the curb lane around taxis, parked cars, delivery vans and other obstructions.

    Rapid residential growth, both east and west of the downtown core, have overloaded the 504 King Streetcar. With 64,600 daily riders, it’s the busiest surface route in the system. The city has done little to facilitate this highrise boom in neighbbourhoods such as Corktown and the Distillery District in the east, and CityPlace, Liberty Village, Niagara, and Queen/Gladstone in the west. Further west, the highrise condos built at Humber Bay Shores must either rely on a painfully slow and unreliable ride on the 501 Queen Streetcar, take an infrequent double-fare express bus, or ride a bus up to the Bloor Subway.

    No wonder then, Uber, the controversial firm that has delighted passengers with cheap transportation, but put the livelihoods of taxi drivers in jeopardy, launched UberHop, a variation of its “ride sharing” service that offers flat $5 rides between neighbourhoods along the King Streetcar and the downtown core. From a purely capitalist viewpoint, Uber is filling a need that’s been left unfulfilled.

    (more…)