The King Street streetcar is broken. Here’s how we can fix it

TTC riders have long complained of crumbling infrastructure and shoddy enforcement on King, where since 2017 cars have been banned from driving straight or turning left. But in recent months, as construction of the Ontario Line and other city projects has ramped up, any true advantage that streetcars once held on this busy route has been lost.

Transit is now often the slowest way to travel on the transit priority corridor.

City politicians and the TTC have cited rule-flouting drivers as a reason for the transit corridor’s demise, but transportation experts say poor planning and road design are partly to blame, and that it’ll take the city truly prioritizing transit to get streetcars moving again.

The King Street transit priority corridor was “easily one of the most important transportation changes in Canada in the past 10 years,” said Brian Doucet, Canada research chair in urban change and social inclusion in the school of planning at the University of Waterloo.

“It’s so sad to see what’s happened to it now. But it doesn’t mean we can’t reimagine or reinvigorate that kind of transit priority.”

The Star reporter’s experience was not a one-off. In November, 504 King streetcar travel times between Bathurst and Jarvis during evening rush hour frequently topped one hour, according to TTC data crunched by transit blogger Steve Munro. By comparison, during the Star’s “amazing race,” it took a reporter walking the length of the corridor 27 minutes from end to end, and a cyclist 13 minutes. A driver on an alternate route spent an hour getting from Bathurst and King to Jarvis and King.

Spokesperson Stuart Green told the Star that the TTC believes slower streetcar travel times are due to “increased encroachment (legal and illegal) on the priority corridor by cars diverting around construction congestion,” making it tricky for the TTC to provide reliable service.

TTC drivers have long blamed the route’s inefficiency on drivers who break the corridor’s rules, and police that largely fail to penalize them.

According to one recent University of Toronto study, there are roughly 6,800 illegal turns and through movements made on the transit priority corridor per day — but less than 0.3 per cent of the infractions are ticketed by Toronto police.

A spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service said police must prioritize urgent calls and more serious traffic offences like speeding. Enforcement of the King Street transit corridor, while important, varies based on resources, police said.

But the main problem with King is not poor enforcement, Doucet said — it’s poor planning.

As heavy construction and unprecedented road closures — including the five-year closure of Queen and Yonge and road work on Adelaide — choke downtown, King has become a “dumping ground” for drivers caught in gridlock, Doucet said. Because of closures, Queen streetcar replacement buses also partly divert along King, further adding to traffic jams.

“There hasn’t been a plan to say, ‘OK we’ve got construction for years but we need to make sure these routes are still quick.’”

Much of the chaos on King Street comes from drivers attempting to turn (legally) onto the street off north-south routes, and getting caught in a bottleneck at the intersection. This is particularly visible at the intersections with University Avenue and York Street, where a single car inevitably ends up blocking streetcars filled with dozens of people, Doucet said.

“There’s no way to solve traffic with cars,” said Shoshanna Saxe, a University of Toronto professor and Canada research chair in sustainable infrastructure. “It’s very frustrating to watch people refuse to engage in the things that work, like investing and prioritizing public transit.”

By not doing so, the city has made congestion worse for everyone, she said.

Last month, city council passed a motion asking that city staff look into the feasibility of implementing automated traffic enforcement on King Street, and report back in the second quarter of 2024. Since traffic laws are governed by the province, the city would need permission to use cameras to police the pilot.

“It’s not running the way it’s meant to,” said Coun. Chris Moise, whose downtown ward covers part of the transit corridor. “I know a lot of people are frustrated. I share their frustration.”

Along with looking into added enforcement, Moise said the city is also dispersing more traffic agents at busy downtown intersections to help move traffic along — something Doucet said could help, assuming the agents are told to give TTC vehicles the right of way.

The completion of the road work on Adelaide in January should also help ease congestion in the area, Moise said, offering another east-west thoroughfare.

Beyond enforcement, Saxe and Doucet said there are things the city can do to bolster the transit corridor and streamline streetcars along King.

The city could redesign the road, adding clearer signage or physical barriers (such as bollards) to make it harder for drivers to break the rules on King, Saxe said.

Down the line, Doucet said, the city could also give the streetcar its own lane, and limit cars to the lanes on either side, where stopping and/or parking would be prohibited.

“The problems start when you mix the streetcar with other vehicles on the same lane,” he said.

The city could also further restrict car access to King, both suggested, by making it illegal to turn onto King at certain intersections or blocking entire stretches to drivers. Doucet said past experience shows restricting streets to cars doesn’t necessarily create traffic chaos elsewhere. Regardless, he said, the city must decide whether its priority is to move cars or to move streetcars.

Ultimately, Saxe agreed, the city needs to make a plan for how it will prioritize transit throughout the downtown core, especially with major construction projects extending through the next decade.

“It’s not a quick fix. it would require doing things differently than is our current norm.”