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robmausser said:
The safety thing really stuck out with the Harbourfront streetcar and the redesign of the streetcar tracks along the waterfront.

Since that rebuild, streetcars are slowed down significantly, because of the ability for pedestrians to wander onto the tracks. Especially in a touristy area.
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I agree 100%

York and Queens Quay is a prime example of this. People walk in from Harbourfront or the ferry and do not realize they are wandering out onto the streetcar tracks. That intersection was poorly designed though part of the reason is the driveway to the York Quay Condos and Queens Quay Terminal.

Worse are the blipping bike paths! You know how many times I have almost got hit by a bike zooming down the path without any concern for other people. It is insane how entitled the people biking down through Harbourfront think they are sometimes.

Some cyclists are not bad but a good majority seem to think that the bike path is their private roadway to do with as they please.
 
The Queens Quay rebuild was not well thought through at all. What they should've done is expanded the sidewalk on both sides by cancelling the curbside lanes, and leaving the streetcar in the middle of the road as they had before. The traffic capacity would've been the same, but the 509 and 510 could get up to something vaguely resembling speed on the straightaways.
 
T3G said:
The Queens Quay rebuild was not well thought through at all. What they should've done is expanded the sidewalk on both sides by cancelling the curbside lanes, and leaving the streetcar in the middle of the road as they had before. The traffic capacity would've been the same, but the 509 and 510 could get up to something vaguely resembling speed on the straightaways.
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I think the issue of pedestrian migration might have been just as easily addressed by having the streetcar ROW done in grass (as was originally proposed) or ballast.

Its that issue that impairs speed.

In the alternative, we could install decorative fences to keep people off the tracks
 
I'm not sure if grass would be as effective of a deterrant as ballast. Do people have any kinds of issues walking over grassy areas in parks? Maybe if it's been raining or slushy.

Northern Light said:
In the alternative, we could install decorative fences to keep people off the tracks
Click to expand...
I would support this, though I'd favour the fences being closer to the tracks than to the bike path so we can continue to get cool shots of the cars passing by :)

51321639661_0d1e05cc00_b.jpg
 
T3G said:
I'm not sure if grass would be as effective of a deterrant as ballast. Do people have any kinds of issues walking over grassy areas in parks? Maybe if it's been raining or slushy.


I would support this, though I'd favour the fences being closer to the tracks than to the bike path so we can continue to get cool shots of the cars passing by :)

51321639661_0d1e05cc00_b.jpg
Click to expand...

Grass in the ROW can be designed to be hard-turf, at top-of-rail, in which case, its not much of an impediment to walk on; or, it can be uneven ground at bottom of rail, similar to ballast, which isn't very appealing to walk on. Design choices.
 
Richard White said:
I agree 100%

York and Queens Quay is a prime example of this. People walk in from Harbourfront or the ferry and do not realize they are wandering out onto the streetcar tracks. That intersection was poorly designed though part of the reason is the driveway to the York Quay Condos and Queens Quay Terminal.

Worse are the blipping bike paths! You know how many times I have almost got hit by a bike zooming down the path without any concern for other people. It is insane how entitled the people biking down through Harbourfront think they are sometimes.

Some cyclists are not bad but a good majority seem to think that the bike path is their private roadway to do with as they please.
Click to expand...
The cyclists were one thing down there, but rapidly becoming more irritating are the e-scooter crowd who are practically all stunt riding at all times.
 
I think we've officially lost control of the situation and our "leaders" genuinely dont know what to do.

A lot of these incidents are starting to be copycat style incidents where people, particularly the youth in these incidents, do it for their 5 seconds of fame because they know there wont be any consequences. Once they see it in the news, they get some kind of "confidence" and emboldened to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the public and TTC employees are paying the price:

toronto.ctvnews.ca

'Despicable': Two TTC employees reportedly attacked by group of youths on bus

Two TTC employees were attacked on a bus in Scarborough on Monday afternoon in what the TTC is describing as a “despicable swarming” style assault.
toronto.ctvnews.ca toronto.ctvnews.ca
 
Amare said:
I think we've officially lost control of the situation and our "leaders" genuinely dont know what to do.

A lot of these incidents are starting to be copycat style incidents where people, particularly the youth in these incidents, do it for their 5 seconds of fame because they know there wont be any consequences. Once they see it in the news, they get some kind of "confidence" and emboldened to do the same thing. Unfortunately, the public and TTC employees are paying the price:

toronto.ctvnews.ca

'Despicable': Two TTC employees reportedly attacked by group of youths on bus

Two TTC employees were attacked on a bus in Scarborough on Monday afternoon in what the TTC is describing as a “despicable swarming” style assault.
toronto.ctvnews.ca toronto.ctvnews.ca
Click to expand...

This doesn't surprise me one bit!! I've been stuck on buses when school students get off school and flow onto the TTC buses. What a ruckus! They play loud music, eat and leave trash,behind, yell at the driver, ridicule and abuse other passengers, swear, call each other derogatory slurs for gay people and other vile words. Last week i saw a group of teens push their way on the bus, not one paid a fare. The bus driver a woman in her 50s, yelled at them, but drove off anyway. I don't blame her. These kids are insane.
 
Fixing some photos today, something struck me pertaining to TTC budget.

If the Crosstown LRT is own by Metrolinx with the running of the system by Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS) and TTC is contracted to run the system, why is TTC having to pay to run the system when its Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS) responsibility to cover the COST in the first place??

Its time to change laws for Young offenders and start naming them.
 
drum118 said:
Fixing some photos today, something struck me pertaining to TTC budget.

If the Crosstown LRT is own by Metrolinx with the running of the system by Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS) and TTC is contracted to run the system, why is TTC having to pay to run the system when its Crosslinx Transit Solutions (CTS) responsibility to cover the COST in the first place??
Click to expand...
The TTC isn't paying them directly. ML is paying them over a 30 year period. Then the cheap ass Queens Park decided they will need to recoup the money from the TTC. I highly doubt TTC was part of the negotiation or contract signing between Crosslinx and ML. The TTC simply would be handed the bill from ML. We also don't know if TTC is going to pay whatever Crosslinx decided to charge or ML decides to charge. Which could be different figures. Is the province going to subsidize a small portion or TTC would pay 100%, 110% or 120%?
 
I have a bird's eye view of King/University from a nearby office tower and is it ever a huge excavation they are doing now. The watermain break must have caused absolutely huge damage.

I'd say that intersection is out of commission at least until Friday, and that's assuming they are working 24 hours per day. I'm pretty sure they are ripping up everything down to the roof of the subway and then completely replacing it all.

EDIT: Probably related and connected to the timeline is that we've just been told the office building will have an unexpected power shutdown all day Saturday. Probably related.
 
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