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I lived along there (king & bathurst) for a couple of months last winter and thought it was great. Combined with the new street cars along king st it's really
by jgh 8y ago
I lived along there (king & bathurst) for a couple of months last winter and thought it was great. Combined with the new street cars along king st it's really pleasant.
At the time r/toronto would have people complaining about a lack of pedestrians or whatever (it was -20 every day for like a month) but that didn't really jive with my experience. Even in the really cold nights I found that there were a good number of people walking around.
that said I can't really speak to the experience of someone trying to drive in that area, but driving in toronto is horrible to begin with so I don't know what people expect.
- dmix 8y agoReally? King St looks perpetually dead to me these days between Spadina and Bathurst, when it used to seem way more active. I've been walking to work and back home nearly every day for most of the year through there, so I saw the difference. I'm cool with experimenting with reducing cars but this seemed a bit extreme. And King St seemed like a bad choice... it doesn't have a hundred small retail stores like Queen St or Kensington Market.
- ska 8y agoFWIW That doesn't seem to match the experience of several others I've discussed this with who have the same pattern (i.e. walking/biking to work along King st for the last few years, including before and after the pilot).
- 52-6F-62 8y agoI live right off of King St. west— catch a streetcar along there anywhere bordering rush hour in the past was basically a no-go. You could almost guarantee you didn't arrive on time, and you'd have to plow your way on and off after waiting between 3-5 streetcars in any season. (I thankfully had to catch the 63 north to the subway instead) Even off peak hours catching a streetcar on King was a nightmare. King St is no wider than any other street in the area so I don't understand the absolute necessity for some drivers to have unbridled access at all hours. This project made a dramatic difference. It's no longer a major trial to catch a streetcar, and they're no longer late or packed like a sardine tin.
- mabbo 8y agoMy commute used to take me from the subway over to Spadina. For three years, I just walked 15 minutes rather than ever bother trying to get a street car. It took far less time to walk.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoI've definitely done the same many times over. I worked down in the Portlands and was dating a girl who lived at King & Dufferin. I'd get off the bus near St Andrew station to head to her place and I'd have to wait at least 4 double-long cars in rush hour to get on a crammed one.
- xster 8y agoSame. I was on King and Bathurst too was lucky to have had the options of walking, driving + looking for parking, biking (having lived in a couple of places in North America, Toronto drivers are mean to cyclists) or taking the streetcar and streetcar during commute time was easily the least reliable (and close to being the slowest). It was precisely because streetcar was treated like such a second class citizen on the road which this hopefully fixes.
- 52-6F-62 8y agoDefinitely. I've only experienced that "second class citizen" treatment of streetcars on King, too. They run well on Roncesvalles, Queen, Dundas, College, Bathurst, Spadina, etc... It's definitely improved monumentally. Also in part due to increasing service and the new cars have helped open up space as well. Of course, they couldn't have increased service as such without running the project or it would just bottleneck.