[voilan]

Is there some detailed analysis of the problems on King which have arisen since 2018 (I've seen Steve Munro's overall analysis, but looking for something more granular)? While I'm sure enforcement is relatively lax and there are clearly enough violators for people to snap pictures and post them on social media, anecdotally King is still not very busy/congested (as I mentioned in this thread a few months ago). Seems near impossible that traffic on King today is worse than pre-2018, and yet the CityNews story posted a couple pages back claims worse travel times than back then.

Could cars backed up on N-S streets be part of the cause? Construction on King? Or TTC policy/norms changes on speed? I'd be ecstatic with robust enforcement as well, but just am doubtful that congestion on King itself is the main driver of increased travel times. Happy to be corrected.

 

[JasonParis]

I'd wager box blockers are as much of the cause as the illegal through traffickers are. At least to my eyes during rush hours, particularly evening.

 

[Jonny5]

I'd wager box blockers are as much of the cause as the illegal through traffickers are. At least to my eyes during rush hours, particularly evening.

I know going eastbound in the afternoon the massive number of delivery vehicles between Yonge and York is another issue*. This stretch is totally filled with them end-to-end in both curb lanes on those blocks, with taxis and rideshare drivers taking up any empty space as they leave, effectively making King a one lane street. This means the right turning cars have to drive in the centre lane, and given congestion on Bay and Yonge sometimes queues of ten cars can form waiting to turn, and only two or three get through each light cycle.

*From several personal experiences, I'm betting many of these are personal deliveries, not corporate, as those from Amazon and other retailers tend to arrive in the late afternoon. The receptionist at my small office of ~80 staff says she gets about 15 personal package deliveries for staff per week, about two or three per day, all of which come from a separate delivery driver that parks outside and drops it off. Now multiply that by 16,000 people working in the King/ Bay area and you have 3,000 personal deliveries to the King/Bay area per week, or 600 per day, most dispatched separately, and they each take around seven or eight minutes to get each one dorpped off. The volume of delivery trucks coming and going in the afternoon is astounding. And this is just the King/Bay area. Multiply that over and over for the other parts of downtown.

 

[JasonParis]

That makes sense, a lot of people prefer sending products to their office to avoid porch pirates and shoddy condo concierges.

 

[Mount Dennis Resident]

King Street​

Analyzing traffic violations on the King Street Transit Priority Corridor in Toronto​

From https://schoolofcities.github.io/king-street-toronto/traffic-violations

In November 2017 the City of Toronto altered traffic restrictions on King Street to give priority to public transit over private vehicles. Since the initiation of the project, cars have not been allowed to travel straight or make left turns at many intersections.

While the project has been successful in evaporating traffic, reducing travel times by transit, and improving transit reliability on King Street (e.g. see City of Toronto reports and dashboards), many have raised concerns over the extent of traffic violations at intersections -specifically drivers illegally travelling straight through intersections or making illegal left-turns, as well as the lack of enforcement of these rules (e.g. Global News, CBC News, Toronto Star).

We requested data on intersection-level vehicle movement from the City of Toronto as well as traffic tickets from Toronto Police from 2016 to mid-2023, to analyze how often drivers make illegal movements on King Street and how often they were receiving traffic tickets.

At a range of $85 to $110 per ticket, this is a missed opportunity for potential revenue for the City that could be achieved with increased enforcement, particularly via automatic enforcement cameras. At the time of writing, Councillor Chris Moise had pushed forward an item in council for city staff to assess the feasibility of implementing automated traffic enforcement (to report back in the second quarter of 2024). Time will tell if this will be implemented in the (near) future.

The King Street Transit Priority Corridor started as a pilot project in fall of 2017 to improve transit reliability, travel times, and capacity by giving priority to transit vehicles (primarily the 504 Streetcar route) over private vehicles.

There are several traffic rules that were put into place for private vehicles travelling in the Corridor, most of which are described here. A more detailed description of the restrictions can be found here. These traffic restrictions are what allows the Corridor to prioritize transit.

The King Street Pilot Project was approved by City Council on July 4, 2017, and was launched on November 12, 2017. The original plan was to operate the pilot for one year, but it was granted an extension to July 31, 2019. On April 16, 2019, 3 months before the end of the (extended) pilot, City Council made the King Street Pilot Project permanent as the King Street Transit Priority Corridor.

The TTC added increased service to the 504 Streetcar route as a response to the project's success (City of Toronto; The Star). There was also increased cycling and pedestrian volumes on King Street, as the street became safer due to a drop in the volume of cars. Car volumes on King Street decreased in some locations by more than 80%, and while there was some increase to traffic volume on nearby parallel streets, there was minimal impact to travel times on those streets (see City of Toronto report for details). Overall, the King Street Transit Priority Corridor was considered a success, and was used as a model for transit prioritization elsewhere (e.g. 14th Street in New York City).

 

[Jonny5]

The

King Street​

Analyzing traffic violations on the King Street Transit Priority Corridor in Toronto​

From https://schoolofcities.github.io/king-street-toronto/traffic-violations

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Interesting, but with the "average number of violations per day" being from way back in 2019 it's a bit behind the times.
I would like to see something current with all the additional road closures. I suspect the number has risen significantly, particularly from University to Yonge as I see a great many vehicles dodging the Adelaide construction going with that route.
Also there is the increasing occurrence of cars passing streetcars on the left (driving in the opposite direction lane) when they are at stops. I see it almost every day now when I take a trip on King.

 

[DSC]

The


Interesting, but with the "average number of violations per day" being from way back in 2019 it's a bit behind the times.
I would like to see something current with all the additional road closures. I suspect the number has risen significantly, particularly from University to Yonge as I see a great many vehicles dodging the Adelaide construction going with that route.
Also there is the increasing occurrence of cars passing streetcars on the left (driving in the opposite direction lane) when they are at stops. I see it almost every day now when I take a trip on King.

I am not sure the problem east of Yonge is worse than in 2019 but the problem of 'box blockers' - especially at Jarvis and King is FAR worse.

 

[JasonParis]

I'd say last week was a bit better on the corridor as there was finally some serious enforcement. All that ended this week though as a thousand drivers circling the east end looking for parking near the Christmas Market has scuttled those gains.

 

[robmausser]

Just put 407 style cameras on each intersection and don't ban cars but toll them to use the Transit mall. If you want to go through straight its $5 per intersection, or whatever. Then use the funds for TTC maintenance costs.

Give Taxicabs transponders.

 

[Obsidian]

Just put 407 style cameras on each intersection and don't ban cars but toll them to use the Transit mall. If you want to go through straight its $5 per intersection, or whatever. Then use the funds for TTC maintenance costs.

Give Taxicabs transponders.

I like this idea a lot but bump it up to $50 an intersection and expand it to any street where any streetcar gets slowed down.

 

[Mount Dennis Resident]

I like this idea a lot but bump it up to $50 an intersection and expand it to any street where any streetcar gets slowed down.

Better if there were cameras (actually already there) on the streetcars (and buses) that will actually issue tickets. Already doing so in other jurisdictions, so they will not do it in Toronto (or Ontario).

https://x.com/NYCTBus/status/1653083838321508367?s=20

 

[chrisw]

Better if there were cameras (actually already there) on the streetcars (and buses) that will actually issue tickets. Already doing so in other jurisdictions, so they will not do it in Toronto (or Ontario).

https://x.com/NYCTBus/status/1653083838321508367?s=20

In this case, we're not talking just about cars in bus lanes. It's cars going left and straight at intersections. I think fixed cameras at intersections will be much more effective at issuing tickets on the King Street Priority Corridor.

 

[DSC]

Just walked King from Sherbourne to University.

Lots of Traffic Agents on duty today at both Church and Jarvis. Stopping box blockers and illegal drive-thru drivers.

 

[jordanmkasla2009]

Just walked King from Sherbourne to University.

Lots of Traffic Agents on duty today at both Church and Jarvis. Stopping box blockers and illegal drive-thru drive

Yeah iirc the city recently hired a bunch of Traffic Agents for the King St. Corridor to help improve traffic flow since this section gets jammed up most of the day. I do hope though that once construction on Adelaide clears up that the traffic will too.

 

[nstuch]

Is there some detailed analysis of the problems on King which have arisen since 2018 (I've seen Steve Munro's overall analysis, but looking for something more granular)? While I'm sure enforcement is relatively lax and there are clearly enough violators for people to snap pictures and post them on social media, anecdotally King is still not very busy/congested (as I mentioned in this thread a few months ago). Seems near impossible that traffic on King today is worse than pre-2018, and yet the CityNews story posted a couple pages back claims worse travel times than back then.

Could cars backed up on N-S streets be part of the cause? Construction on King? Or TTC policy/norms changes on speed? I'd be ecstatic with robust enforcement as well, but just am doubtful that congestion on King itself is the main driver of increased travel times. Happy to be corrected.

I think a major factor which is rarely mentioned is how absurdly slow the typical streetcar seems to go, even with no traffic they never seem to go over 20km/h. Then there's the stop and crawl through intersections and a really long dwell time at each stop even to let 1 person on. I remember the ALRVs being way faster on average.