NOW Toronto: Cure for King: Time for tough choices on car-congested streets

Cure for King
Time for tough choices on car-congested streets

By Adam Giambrone




Those new streetcars that will start showing up on downtown streets in the next few years won’t be worth the $5 million price tag if they end up stranded in a sea of car traffic.

And the place this is most likely to occur is King Street – unless the city begins to make some tough choices. Will it?

On Monday, June 24, the TTC Commission approved a study to look for options to improve service on King, TTC CEO Andy Byford suggesting a look at left-turn and parking restrictions, and TTC chair Karen Stintz appearing to push a consideration of transit-only lanes and a ban on cars. The idea was even floated of a pilot project restricting cars during the 2015 Pan Am Games, although after the meeting the timing of such a plan seemed less clear.

It’s good that the musing has begun, but to put things in perspective, this is the fourth or fifth effort in the last two decades to deal with increasing congestion on King and other downtown thoroughfares. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=193286