{"id":53837,"date":"2015-12-21T14:00:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T19:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=53837"},"modified":"2015-12-23T14:10:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T19:10:25","slug":"the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/","title":{"rendered":"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

On Friday, John Lornic made an interesting case<\/a>\u00a0that UberHop, the controversial new service launched by the San Francisco-based “ridesharing” business, is the kick in the behind that the\u00a0TTC needs to take seriously the problem of getting across the downtown core.<\/p>\n

Lornic makes an important point:\u00a0UberHop will be susceptible to the same congestion that plagues the 504 King Streetcar,\u00a0the TTC’s busiest surface route. The King car carries nearly 65,000 passengers a day, but congestion and\u00a0overcrowded streetcars and shuttle buses along the line have made it difficult for commuters along the line. This is\u00a0why private-sector alternatives, like the short-lived Line 6 shuttle bus, seem so appealing. Now\u00a0Uber is giving the private jitney service a try, looking\u00a0to fill a need in the marketplace for $5 a ride.<\/p>\n

But there is a solution that the TTC has looked at and proposed\u00a0\u2014 a King Street Transit Mall\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but sunk by local opposition and City Council’s indifference. I wrote more about the idea on my blog.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"uberhop-toronto-map\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rapid residential growth, both east and west of the downtown core, have overloaded the 504 King Streetcar.\u00a0With 64,600 daily riders<\/a>, it\u2019s the\u00a0busiest surface route in the system.\u00a0The city has done little to facilitate this highrise\u00a0boom in neighbbourhoods such as Corktown and the Distillery District in the east, and CityPlace, Liberty Village, Niagara, and Queen\/Gladstone in the west. Further west, the highrise condos built at Humber Bay Shores must either rely on a painfully slow and unreliable ride on the 501 Queen Streetcar,\u00a0take an infrequent double-fare express bus<\/a>, or ride a bus up to the Bloor Subway.<\/p>\n

No wonder then, Uber, the controversial firm that has delighted passengers with cheap transportation, but\u00a0put the livelihoods of taxi drivers in jeopardy<\/a>,\u00a0launched UberHop, a variation of its \u201cride sharing\u201d service that offers flat $5 rides between neighbourhoods along the King Streetcar and the downtown core. From a purely capitalist viewpoint, Uber is filling a need that\u2019s been left unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

Of course,\u00a0with UberHop, Uber is\u00a0probably in violation<\/a> of the TTC\u2019s monopoly on public transportation within the City of Toronto. This is\u00a0a law that\u2019s been on the books since 1921, meant to protect the TTC from illegal jitneys and competition from private bus operators. It allows the system to cross-subsidize unprofitable routes that are necessary to form a complete network; private companies, without subsidies, would just cherry-pick profitable routes.<\/p>\n

A subway, like the oft-proposed and oft-ignored Relief Line<\/a>\u00a0would be a fine solution to east-west transit congestion in Downtown Toronto, especially if the route extended west of Downtown\u00a0to\u00a0serve neighbourhoods such as Fort York\u00a0and\u00a0Liberty Village. GO Regional Express Rail (RER), and\/or John Tory\u2019s SmartTrack, could provide some<\/em> relief to streetcars on King and Queen Streets, especially if the service levels, fares, and stations are convenient.<\/p>\n

But the King Street Transit Mall is the low-hanging fruit that could not only provide some reliability to the King Car, but also make things a little harder for UberHop.<\/p>\n

The transit mall was first proposed in 2001. Reserved lanes, painted in 1993, didn\u2019t work. Police weren\u2019t interested in enforcing the transit lanes, or ticketing cars and trucks illegally stopping or parking during rush hours, so the TTC wanted to try something more effective and permanent: it would ban all through traffic on King Street between Dufferin and Parliament Streets, while allowing deliveries, passenger drop-offs and other services in alternating curb lanes. Pedestrians would benefit from wider sidewalks, there would even be room for patios, greenery and programmed spaces. The result would be a reliable, efficient King Street for the majority of the street\u2019s users \u2013 streetcar riders, and pedestrians. You can read more about it at Transit-Toronto, here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"streetcar-4103-11\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

TTC image\u00a0illustrating the 2001 King Street streetcar right-of-way proposal. Image via\u00a0Transit-Toronto.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The TTC\u2019s ambitious, yet affordable, plan to improve King Street service was deep-sixed by city council. Merchants complained about the loss of parking, and the difficulties of deliveries and garbage collection. They feared a loss of customers. (Never mind many, if not most of the restaurants\u2019 clientele arrived by foot or transit.) It never had a chance.<\/p>\n

Again, in 2007, \u00a0the TTC proposed a pilot project <\/a>to improve operations on the King Streetcar during the summer months of 2008. It was a less ambitious proposal than the one pitched in 2001, which\u00a0would only last during July and August, between Simcoe Street and Spadina Avenue. Again, local business owners and a car-friendly city council successfully opposed it.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, last September,\u00a0the city closed King Street between Simcoe and Peter Streets entirely for the benefit of the Toronto International Film Festival, forcing\u00a0the TTC to split its busiest surface route into two<\/a>. Even though\u00a0TTC staff recommended against the\u00a0closure, was Scarborough\u00a0Councillor\u00a0Glenn De Baeremaeker\u00a0moved the TIFF-friendly motion<\/a>. While De Baeremaeker has been championing a Scarborough Subway,\u00a0he and his fellow councillors decided that King streetcar riders weren\u2019t deserving enough.<\/p>\n

The City of Toronto\u00a0planned and approved residential development along the King and Queen Street corridors and new office space downtown, but it has done almost nothing to help move these new residents and employees. UberHop is only the symptom; an ineffective municipal government\u00a0is the problem.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Closing King Street to through traffic would not only disrupt the disruptor, it’d move a lot more people quickly and efficiently. It’s time for the city to\u00a0strike back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  On Friday, John Lornic made an interesting case\u00a0that UberHop, the controversial new service launched by the San Francisco-based “ridesharing” business, is the kick in the behind that the\u00a0TTC needs to take seriously the problem of getting across the downtown core. Lornic makes an important point:\u00a0UberHop will be susceptible to the same congestion that plaguesContinue reading “King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":53838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traffic","category-transit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKing Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  On Friday, John Lornic made an interesting case\u00a0that UberHop, the controversial new service launched by the San Francisco-based “ridesharing” business, is the kick in the behind that the\u00a0TTC needs to take seriously the problem of getting across the downtown core. Lornic makes an important point:\u00a0UberHop will be susceptible to the same congestion that plaguesContinue reading "King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-21T19:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-23T19:10:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/\",\"name\":\"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-21T19:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-23T19:10:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png\",\"width\":960,\"height\":540},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\",\"name\":\"Sean Marshall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sean Marshall\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"  On Friday, John Lornic made an interesting case\u00a0that UberHop, the controversial new service launched by the San Francisco-based “ridesharing” business, is the kick in the behind that the\u00a0TTC needs to take seriously the problem of getting across the downtown core. Lornic makes an important point:\u00a0UberHop will be susceptible to the same congestion that plaguesContinue reading \"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2015-12-21T19:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-23T19:10:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sean Marshall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sean Marshall","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/","name":"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png","datePublished":"2015-12-21T19:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-23T19:10:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/uberhop-toronto-map.png","width":960,"height":540},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/12\/21\/the\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e","name":"Sean Marshall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Sean Marshall"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53837"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53866,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53837\/revisions\/53866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}