[denfromoakvillemilton]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...c_transit_suffers_while_car_is_king_hume.html

Toronto’s problem isn’t transit, it’s the car. Until the city decides to make the former a priority, the latter will prevail.

Though we’ve been told we can have both, that’s not true. There is only so much space, money and time. For decades, most of those increasingly precious resources have gone to the automobile. Toronto’s transit failure is directly proportionate to its auto dependency.

In this, Toronto is not alone. The same story is playing out in cities around the globe. Indeed, in the decades ahead, the cities that succeed will be those best able to deal with the basic human need to get around, but with means other than cars.

Global warming has brought a new urgency to the matter — yet even in the face of such an unprecedented threat, we remain unconvinced.

At the same time, two-thirds of Torontonians now say they are willing to pay an extra tax of some sort, providing it goes to transit.

In this regard, the people are well ahead of their political masters, many of whom are a generation or two out of date.

And so Toronto finds itself in a familiar bind: damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t.

This is a future city that adds density with every additional condo tower yet remains mired in the past and refuses to admit that there are other uses for streets than cars and the parking of those cars.

This deep-seated reluctance to let go of comforting but discredited ideas is exemplified by the recently completed bicycle path on Sherbourne St. Here is the least gesture the city could get away with and not be laughed out of town. It is most definitely not a separated bike lane, but a strip that accommodates parking space and TTC bus stops.

 

[Admiral Beez]

The car isn't going anywhere. So, let's sort out how to make the streetcar and private car run better.

The easy fix is to not permit on-street parking at any time on steetcar routes unless there is a third free lane for vehicles, plus prohibit left turns without a dedicated off-rail turn lane on streetcar routes. Yes, retailers will whine that their customers can't park out front, but if streetcars are moving better, they may consider more the TTC as an option.

There's no reason we can't have both streetcars and regular traffic moving smoothly along. Both face a common problem, that of other cars getting in the way by either stopping and turning left in front of the streetcar or parking in the only available lane beside the streetcar rail. Eliminate the left turners and parkers and both modes of transit will move nicely.

I think if we get transit and cars moving better, more people will consider the streetcar. As long as they share the same space (rather than dedicated TTC ROWs), you can't improve streetcar movement without improving same for cars, since it's cars that block the streetcars, and vice versa.

 

[diminutive]

As a result, the long-delayed Eglinton line will have LRTs running in buried tunnels, providing neither the numbers of a subway nor the finer-grained surface coverage of the streetcar. In other words, Toronto will end up with the worst of both transit worlds.

For the thousands of Torontonians who rely on transit along the Finch corridor the outlook is even worse. A planned LRT was killed several years ago, and they’re left with nothing but an antiquated bus service that comes nowhere near to meeting their needs.

Hume way overessentialized transit and its connection to the urban realm. He's repeatedly made statements linking the Crosstown's underground central portion to Rob Ford when that's been the line's character since the begining. Frankly, I think he thinks the entire line will be underground. That's the only way his 'worst of both worlds' comment makes sense.

The idea that surface LRT will lead to some urban renaissance is just bizarre. Lots of North American cities have LRT (or BRT) transit malls. They do a good job of facilitating public transit without tunnel costs but they hardly seem to have huge impacts on built form. I'm not sure what the Finch LRT could do that a bus route with dedicated lanes, alldoor boarding and wider stop spacing couldn't.

He's way overemphasizing vehicle/technology choice over more important decisions like stop spacing, boarding, ROW reservations, signal priority and the like.

 

[diminutive]

The easy fix is to not permit on-street parking at any time on steetcar routes unless there is a third free lane for vehicles, plus prohibit left turns without a dedicated off-rail turn lane on streetcar routes. Yes, retailers will whine that their customers can't park out front, but if streetcars are moving better, they may consider more the TTC as an option.

I don't understand how on-street parking is still around. There are only 17,500 metered on street parking spaces in the City. Compared to the millions of daily commuters it's always puzzled me that so much valuable road space gets taken up to warehouse a relatively small quantity of cars. And this shouldn't even be a 'war on car' type thing. I hate having to switch lanes to dodge a parked car.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I don't understand how on-street parking is still around. There are only 17,500 metered on street parking spaces in the City. Compared to the millions of daily commuters it's always puzzled me that so much valuable road space gets taken up to warehouse a relatively small quantity of cars. And this shouldn't even be a 'war on car' type thing. I hate having to switch lanes to dodge a parked car.

Definitely not a war on car thing. I drive through much of the city and regularly see the flow of traffic blocked either by parked cars or cars turning left without a dedicated turn lane. Stop these two things from occurring and all the cars and transit will flow nicely. Also, by banning on street parking, life will be MUCH safer for cyclists.

Hume's an odd fellow, me thinks. He doesn't recognize that his career at the Toronto Star is largely funded by the Wheels section of the Saturday paper. Judging by its size relative to the rest of the issue, I have to assume Wheels brings in the lion's share of both readership and advertising revenue. Without cars and the public's interest in them, Hume would likely be relegated to writing for the Metro, at 1/4 of the pay.

 

[junctionist]

Getting doored is a serious risk that arises for cyclists with on-street parking on main streets with streetcar lines. However, I find that the combination of parked cars and streetcars also results in a traffic calming effect that I like as a cyclist. I prefer cars passing beside me at 30-40 kph on Queen Street than 60 kph on a street like Dupont at rush hour when there are no parked cars (in the part that doesn't have bike lanes--most of it).What I really like is when there are just a few random parked cars in the right lane as you find on Dupont throughout the day. The risk of getting doored virtually doesn't exist, and you get the whole lane to yourself for a lot of the time.

However, I'm all for considering every measure that will help keep car traffic flowing smoothly, so long as substantial efforts are made to improve things for cyclists, pedestrians and transit users on those same streets where drivers see improvements and elsewhere, prioritizing cycling, walking and transit. In the long run, it probably doesn't matter in terms of what is actually achieved for drivers, but if you make drivers feel like you're trying to do something for them, the "war on car" BS doesn't gain traction and you can achieve the same goals of getting people into alternative forms of urban transportation.

 

[mrjun18]

I don't understand how on-street parking is still around. There are only 17,500 metered on street parking spaces in the City. Compared to the millions of daily commuters it's always puzzled me that so much valuable road space gets taken up to warehouse a relatively small quantity of cars. And this shouldn't even be a 'war on car' type thing. I hate having to switch lanes to dodge a parked car.

Agreed. I'd rather have a few parking garages here and there that are large and can accommodate lots of vehicles than having cars parked on the right lanes of busy street. Espeically since many of Toronto's downtown streets are narrow and have like 2 lanes (a few exceptions like University ave, Spadina etc)

They are a nuisance when driving especially downtown. Toronto should know better and this will def help traffic.

 

[doady]

I don't understand how on-street parking is still around. There are only 17,500 metered on street parking spaces in the City. Compared to the millions of daily commuters it's always puzzled me that so much valuable road space gets taken up to warehouse a relatively small quantity of cars. And this shouldn't even be a 'war on car' type thing. I hate having to switch lanes to dodge a parked car.

Parking lanes are for parking, not traffic.

 

[Electrify]

Personally, I feel safest when cycling alongside parked cars. The space between the car and the lane marker essentially creates a makeshift bike lane. Not to mention that as cars merge into a single lane due to the parked cars, I can continue at speed thus making cycling more competitive. Yes you have to watch for being doored, but it really isn't that hard to do and the odds of it happening are very low (most people get out of their cars as soon as they park it).

Simply dedicate the right lane to parking, and dedicate the left lane to through traffic. Problem solved.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Simply dedicate the right lane to parking, and dedicate the left lane to through traffic. Problem solved.

Only if we ban left hand turns outside of dedicated turn lanes. Otherwise you can have hundreds of people in streetcars, buses and cars held up by one guy turning left against busy traffic.

 

[diminutive]

Simply dedicate the right lane to parking, and dedicate the left lane to through traffic. Problem solved.

Really? Doesn't this seem wasteful to you? Road space is (practically) finite yet parking can easily be accommodated off-street. Why would we dedicate a lane of roadspace to something which can easily be accommodated elsewhere?

Out of all possible street uses, from transit to cars to bikes to sidewalks to greenery, parking simply seems like the easiest to accomodate elsewhere.

 

[ssiguy2]

Despite all the transit-first talk, Toronto is very car-centric.

Toronto has thousands of km or roads but not one is for pedestrians. Supposedly car-friendly Calgary has the largest pedestrian only street in Canada and it is very successful. This is made even more impressive by how a parrell street has been shut down since the 80s for transit only vehicels..........heresy in Toronto.

Before you blame this on Ford, Miller never put forward the idea of pedestrian only streets. He also made sure that when TC goes thru that the roads would be widened so there would be no reduction in street lanes. Vancouver has the Granville Street transit-only blocks and when elevating thru Richmond they elevated the structure down busy #3 Road but didn't add any additional lanes or parking to compensate.

Montreal has several pedestrian only streets and Ottawa has one downtown as well. City Hall has made it quite clear thru the years that transit, cyclists, and pedestrians are to have no refuge in the city from the all mighty car.

 

[nfitz]

Toronto has thousands of km or roads but not one is for pedestrians.

That's rather an odd claim. What about Market Street between Front and King?

 

[rbt]

That's rather an odd claim. What about Market Street between Front and King?

Also, Toronto has thousands of kms of sidewalks and trails, and tens of km's of underground/indoor walkway; but not one of those is for cars.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Many of the subdivisions (residential and industrial) that were built after WWII until only recently, were built without sidewalks.

In fact, try to put in sidewalks and the NIMBYs in the neighbourhood would come out to protest. Yet to get to a bus stop, it would be safer, at the minimum, to use the sidewalks to get there.