At its meeting on Tuesday, December 16, 1997, the Commission considered the report from the Chief General Manager, Toronto Transit Commission, entitled AFollow-up to Commission Enquiry: Evaluation of King Street Reserved Streetcar Lane@.

The Commission received the above report and requested that it be forwarded to the Urban Environment and Development Committee of the new City of Toronto with a recommendation that the King Street Reserved Lanes be removed.

The foregoing is forwarded for the consideration of the Urban Environment and Development Committee of the new City of Toronto.

(Toronto Transit Commission, Report No. 26k,

entitled "Follow-up to Commission Enquiry:

Evaluation of King Street Reserved Streetcar Lanes".)

In 1993, the City of Toronto undertook the transit-supportive initiative of designating the median lanes on King Street, between Dufferin Street and Parliament Street, as being reserved for streetcars and taxicabs on weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The objective of this designation was to allow TTC streetcars to operate through the heavily-congested downtown commercial area more quickly and, thereby, to make it more attractive for downtown-destined employees to take transit to their workplace.

Because of changes in staffing at the City of Toronto City Works Services area, the City of Toronto has been unable to undertake its intended formal post-implementation of these reserved streetcar lanes. Therefore, TTC staff are reporting independently on these lanes, based on operating experience to date.

The King Street reserved streetcar lanes have been a failure; we have not achieved the improvements in travel times and service efficiencies that we had expected. The lanes were established on a four-lane roadway and, by designating two of these lanes exclusively for streetcars and taxicabs, there remained very limited capacity to accommodate other users of the road. These reserved lanes also pass by the major office towers in the downtown, in front of which large numbers of taxis queue in the curb lanes to serve the many business travellers who come and go from these buildings. The only way that the centre streetcar lanes would not be used by other vehicles would be if the curb lanes were kept completely and consistently free-flowing, and not obstructed by taxicabs, couriers, and delivery vans.

The police indicated that their presence would be required at all times to keep the curb lane clear of such obstructions and that they do not have enough resources for this level of enforcement. However, even if the curb lane were cleared of parked or stopped vehicles, a motorist in the curb lane intending to make a right turn, but stopped to wait for crossing pedestrians, would block the curb lane. This would require other motorists to move into the reserved streetcar lane to travel around the waiting vehicle, thus negating the effectiveness of the exclusive right-of-way. The police indicated that they were sympathetic to this form of violation and would not ticket motorists for such moves.

Whether it was due to difficulty, or simply reluctance, on the part of the police in enforcing this facility, the reserved streetcar lanes have been, for all intents and purposes, fully open for use by all vehicles on the roadway, and the lanes have been virtually indistinguishable from any other mixed-traffic lane. There have been no significant savings in travel time achieved, minimal operating efficiencies, and generally no improved attractiveness of our service in this area.

Staff had, over time, attempted to implement improvements to this facility. For example, large, curb-side signage was added to supplement the smaller overhead signs advising motorists of the exclusive right-of-way operation. Also, the associated by-law was modified to make enforcement easier. City staff attempted, unsuccessfully, to find a suitable taxistand, off of King Street, to keep the curb lanes clear in the vicinity of First Canadian Place.

There may have been other, less significant contributory factors to the failure of these lanes, such as the limitation in the size of the signage that we were able to suspend from the streetcar span wires to advise motorists that the centre lanes are reserved for streetcars. However, even setting aside such limitations, there would still be a need for constant, ongoing police presence if the lanes were to function as they were originally intended.

The concept of reserving road lanes for high-frequency, high-capacity transit services, to make transit relatively more attractive and competitive with the automobile, remains sound. For these to be effective, however, there must be a full understanding of the implications of such reserved lanes on the overall flow of traffic, and an accompanying full commitment to the enforcement of the legislation.

TTC staff are discussing with City of Toronto Works Services staff the logic of removing the current reserved streetcar lane signage, so as not to devalue this type of designation elsewhere in Metro or at other locations where they might be installed in the future.