Xmas transit observations #2 - The St. Clair debacle

OK, for Christmas I broke down and drove to have family Christmas. I wasn't going to haul all my loot back home on the TTC. (Good thing, one of my gifts was a heavy cast-iron, enamled lined dutch-oven. It's actually more of a man's cooking tool - but that won't stop me from using it.)

Out of curiousity, I drove back along St. Clair W - from about Christie all the way to Mt. Pleasant. The roadway between Vaughan and Yonge now has the streetcar ROW built. Some observations:

1. The lanes are on the narrow end.
2. The lanes are constantly curving left and right to accomodate turning lanes and streetcar platforms.
3. The turning lanes are quite modest in length - between one and four passenger car lengths

This is at odds with what I've read in other places. There was a rather strident letter in The Star a few weeks back accusing the city of building a monster roadway on that stretch. The assertion is blatantly false. Due to the narrow lanes and the curving back and forth, there is really about 1 1/2 usebale traffic lanes when no vehicles are parked.

The roadway on the Bathhurst to Yonge stretch is likely to cause a significant congestion problem - but not a catastrophic one. The primary reason is that there is little in the way of commercial activity.

The same can't be said for the remainder. If the same design is followed West of Vaughan, the street will be at a standstill. Any type of commercial loading or construction requiring trucks to get in and out of sidestreets, loading areas etc, will cause traffic backups. In some cases trucks will need to mount the ROW to be able to back into loading areas.

Xmas transit observations #1 - Mobility impairment

I hope some judge doesn't object to the overtly Christian title to this post - and make me move it to the footnote.

Anyway, I have a few weeks off over these holidays. This is allowing an escape from my the commute to my current assignment - and the one hour commute each way. I've become an expert on the QEW and Gardiner expressways.

Over the break, I'm trying to do as little driving as possible - walking and using transit instead. I thought I'd blog on a couple of things I found.

The first is that an large (and I'm guessing increasing) proportion of TTC riders have some level of mobility "impairment". These impairments fall into two categories - of those who can actually use most of the system:

1. Those who require a cane or other support to walk
2. Those who have noticeable difficulty walking - and more in ascending and descending
3. Those who have a baby stroller (these people are not physcally impaired - but their mobility is.)

Why am I mentioning this? Well these people have an especially difficult time reaching, boarding and alighting from the TTCs streetcars. Streetcars make life difficult for these people. In addition, streetcar average speed is noticeably slowed by the high proportion of riders who fall into these categories. In comparison, most of Montreal's surface routes (which use buses) are already low floor.

No one really knows when the TTC will get low-floor streetcars (or LRV or whatever). Just another example of transit narcissism winning out over people.

The damage they've done

In a rather rantish guest column in yesterday's National Post, Howard Levine - a former city councillor criticizes the streetcar project on St. Clair West.

SOme of Mr. Levine's points are valid. The effort does indeed suffer from:

myopia, Toronto-centrism and a refusal to learn from experience in other cities

But he's got to be joking if he thinks the project is about making St. Clair more of a artery for automobikle traffic. Other that during rush hour, the street will have only one lane each way for cars and trucks. There are modest-length turning lanes at signalized intersections. With the ROW barrier, these are needed to allow residents and delivery vehicles to make left turns and U-turns.

This citizen has examined the lanes and the whole setup. The most servere sidewalks cuts are to accomodate the wider platforms. The traffic lanes are - if anything - slightly narrower than standard in Toronto. The lanes must accomodate commercial traffic. There must be enough space for delivery vans and trucks to maveuvre in and out of loading areas without bringing traffic to a halt while they do 8-point turns.

Let's be clear. The sidewalk cuts and the general assault on the liveability and attractiveness of the street ARE BECAUSE OF THE STREETCARS.

The true myopia is the refusal to look at the success of cities - notably Montreal - in running successful and popular transit operations without streetcars. Mr. Levine can blame himself for helping foist the idea of keeping these in service.

Spadina - The good, the bad and the ugly

OK! - I've successfully managed to switch to Beta Blogger - not to be confused with Beta Blocker.

To continue with more observations from yesterday's long walk. After I reached St. Clair & Bathurst, I headed down to Spadina - to check out the 'LRT' and the general scene.

Well - first the good news. The adult media store pictured above is closing. Sorry guys - this has to count as good news in my books.

Now the not so good news. The Spadina 'LRT' - which means 'Ligh Rail Transit' - was running with heavy bunching. No - this doesn't mean that the merchants were bringing in bananas on the streetcars. It means that the streetcars were running in bunches. On my walk from Bloor to Queen, I saw:

2 occurences of a single streetcar
3 occurrences of two streetcars running together
1 occurence of three streetcars running together
1 occurence of four streetcars running together

Now the theory of dedicated ROWs is that that they're supposed to stop bunching. I guess that's just like the theory that streetcar service can carry more riders than buses - one that doesn't hold water.

The ugly? The street still has a big graffitti problem. A little less trash on the ground - but still quite an unappealing vista. 

More on St. Clair - the sidewalk recedes

Another picture from my walking tour yesterday.
This shows a section where the sidewalk has been pushed back by the streetcar requirements. Other than relatively short queueing lanes at Yonge and at Bathurst, all the sidewalk cuts I saw were to accomodate the new wider platforms.

If we're going to be stuck with this beast, the wider platforms are a requirement. Even the new platforms aren't that wide.

Streetcar fanatic Steve Munro blames the sidewalk cuts in the ever-evil road engineers. However, this isn't what this gal found.

On the section East of Bathurst, the sidewalk gets relatively little use. As I explained yesterday, the stretch is largely devoid of retail. Now if any section of the sidewalk West of Bathurst gets treatment similar to what you see in the picture, it may well be the death sentence for that retail strip.

Observations during a St. Clair W walkabout

Here's a picture of the work in process (let's not say progress!) on St. Clair W.



I took this and a few others on a long walkabout today. I guess I should have been home writing about all those topics I promised to write about in my previous post. However, don't you think that a blog with a few pictures is better.

This picture is from St. Clair W - maybe 5 blocks from Yonge. What struck me here was that the streetcar ROW being constructed doesn't seem to be raised above the street that far. I didn't have a ruler with me - but it seems to be only 4 or 5 inches.

Now on this stretch of the street, this observation is largely moot. I don't think traffic patterns will be affected that much. There is very little in the waty of a retail presence - and hence few delivery vehicle.

However, west of Bathurst, I don't see much that will stop motorists and commecial vehicles from popping up onto the 'dedicated ROW'. Between Bathurst and the end of the line, St. Clair is almost continuously retai/commercial - which means very high frequency of delivery and pickup - which will block the single lane of traffic. Other than certain low-to-the ground sporty cars, most vehicles can make over a 4-5 inch curb.

Assuming this actually gets built West of Bathurst, I won't be surprised if the dedicated ROW is not so dedicated a few months into operation. I wonder what Joe Mihevc will think then.

The State of the TTC

In the next few posts, I'll be writing about the performance of the TTC. I'm going to attempt to be as factual and data-based as possible.

Before we get started, I'll note that there are no perfect statistics on anything in our quantum-mechanics based universe. Nevertheless, some statistics are good enough - and are in line with other datasets - to be the basis for drawing inferences. (I was recently posting on another website - whose owner has decided not to publish some of my calculations. I endeavour not to treat anyone in the same fashion. This individual continually downplayed statistics he didn't like.)

I'll be looking at the following:

1. Ridership,
2. Costs,
3. Service quality,
4. Employee morale,
5. Leadership,
6. and lastly Governance

A new venture

Welcome to this newly created space on the World Wide Web.

My intent is to devote this modest portion of the electronic ether to ideas on improving transit and general mobility in this metropolis. There are a number of sites which purport to fufill the same purpose. However, in my experience, these are more poorly-camouflaged, politcally-aligned blogs than true rider/citizen-oriented spaces.

I became interested in this subject over the last few years. Toronto is my adopted home. I've lived in many cities in Canada, the US and Britain. Only in Toronto have I encountered the severe politicization of transit and transportation - and only here have I seen a city with such a crisis.

Over the last few months, I've done some independent research and analysis. What I've found has left me:

1. Deeply worried about the direction of transit - the TTC in particular.
2. Firmly convinced that the causes and solutions lie mainly with us - and less with higher levels of government.

I hope you enjoy the posts that follow. I'll welcome and address all well-intended comments.