One Year Later: Transit Priorities Still Working on King Street in Toronto

By restricting car traffic and eliminating parking along a portion of King Street in Toronto, streetcar ridership and service performance have been greatly improved.

1 minute read

November 14, 2018, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


King Street Streetcar

Vadim Rodnev / Shutterstock

"A $1.5-million pilot project that gives priority to streetcar traffic on King St. between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts. marks its one-year anniversary Monday with [Toronto's] latest data showing a spike in transit ridership, cyclist and pedestrian travel and a slight improvement in customer spending in the busy downtown corridor," reports Michael Lewis.

"City of Toronto data for July and August shows double-digit increases in streetcar ridership during the morning and evening commutes on King St. during the period compared to ridership before the project began last Nov. 12, with average all-day ridership jumping by 11 per cent to roughly 80,000 boardings per day," adds Lewis.

Based on those data, and "key metrics" for September and October expected to be made public soon, the city will decide whether to make the pilot project permanent. The news about the King Street project has been positive for ridership and system performance since shortly after the project launched, as past coverage by Planetizen shows.

For more coverage of the anniversary of the pilot project, see also an article by Angie Schmitt.

Sunday, November 11, 2018 in The Star

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