TTC to keep tabs on streetcar speed, ridership during King Street pilot

The TTC will release monthly updates on commute times, streetcar reliability and ridership once the King Street pilot project launches next month.

The transit agency will produce a dashboard-like chart tracking travel times and streetcar speeds each week.

Thestreetcars running along King will get a dedicated lane between BathurstStreet and Jarvis Street, while motorists will only be allowed to access the street one block at a time before being forced to turn right a discouragement, rather than an outright ban.

"This is the biggest change to King Street in a generation," TTC CEO Andy Byfordtold reporters, adding the street isn't working in its current configuration.

"Doing nothing is not an option."

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Byfordsays he's confident the changes will improve the TTC's busiest surface route, and may actuallyincrease the number of people taking transit on the line.

The city's transportation department, meanwhile, will analyze the effects the pilot is having on motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. It will also be monitoring nearby streetsto see how they're changing as a result of transit being prioritized on King.

The city's Jacquelyn Hayward Gulatitold the TTC board that data from Moneris, a major operator ofpoint-of-sale machines, will be used to evaluate the effect on business, as the city did during the Bloorbike lane pilot project. That information is set to be released quarterly.

Transit advocate Steve Munro frequently rides the route, and sayswhile routinely providing updated data will help identify problems, the city mightwind up dealing with streetcar slowdowns caused by what's happening outsidethe pilot project zone.

"Some of the worst congestion and delays come because of 'unusual events,'" he told CBC Toronto, giving the example of a delivery truck blocking a lane of rush hour traffic and causing disruptions down the line.

"This is the kind of stuff you have to prevent as much as possible," he said.