The Great Canadian Transit Thread

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by d_jeffrey

How many km of bus lanes there are in TO? I never read any numbers on the subject.

I don’t know either, but from my impression, that aren’t many.

[Innsertnamehere]

There is a lot of HOV lanes in the city with 3 person private vehicle requirements, but few actually dedicated bus lanes. The only dedicated bus lanes are a few queue jump lanes here and there and the Finch Hydro Corridor busway. HOVvs exist on Don Mills, Yonge, Eglinton, and a few other streets I think.

[Nouvellecosse]

Are the HOV lanes actually successfully at keeping vehicles from getting mired in congestion?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Are the HOV lanes actually successfully at keeping vehicles from getting mired in congestion?

It depends on which road.

If it’s Don Mills, usually no car has that many people in it so the HOV is effectively a bus lane. Buses don’t get stuck so that’s good.

If it’s Yonge though...
Yonge & Steeles is a joke. The right-turning vehicles can jam the HOV because pedestrian movement’s too heavy at that intersection. I’m already wondering if we need to implement something as drastic as Portage/Main in Winnipeg.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Are the HOV lanes actually successfully at keeping vehicles from getting mired in congestion?

Well the ones in Vancouver seem well used. I don`t think they have a major impact on traffic flow but they do offer more reliability for buses and quicker commutes for car sharing and vanpools. In many ways gas taxes are the stick while HOV offers a carrot.

People will bite the financial bullet for the freedom of driving their cars over slower transit or the bother of car pooling but when they see those car pools and buses flying by them while they are mired in traffic is a very big inducement to changing their commuting choices. All of a sudden the bus and car pooling are not only cheaper but probably more important, faster. For most people, it`s not so much the expense of commuting by car but rather the time savings over transit and HOV offers them the faster commutes that they want.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Well the ones in Vancouver seem well used. I don`t think they have a major impact on traffic flow but they do offer more reliability for buses and quicker commutes for car sharing and vanpools. In many ways gas taxes are the stick while HOV offers a carrot.

People will bite the financial bullet for the freedom of driving their cars over slower transit or the bother of car pooling but when they see those car pools and buses flying by them while they are mired in traffic is a very big inducement to changing their commuting choices. All of a sudden the bus and car pooling are not only cheaper but probably more important, faster. For most people, it`s not so much the expense of commuting by car but rather the time savings over transit and HOV offers them the faster commutes that they want.

A lot of people are incorporating other stops and activities into their “commute”. So what this plan could lead to is getting people to switch to the bus to go straight home and then going out in their cars to do their errands (which they would previously have done on their way home) in separate trips.

[Innsertnamehere]

my experience is that 2 person HOVs are generally pretty busy, only marginally less than a general purpose lane. The HOVs on the QEW through Halton I always find are only marginally, if any faster, than the general purpose lanes. York Region's HOVs are all 2 person HOVs and are a lot busier than Toronto's.

The 3 person HOVs really limit the amount of cars that can use them - this means they are a lot lower volume and better for buses.

[JHikka]

Love HOV lanes in theory but the issue is that it only takes one person driving 90 in one to make them completely redundant when all other lanes are doing 100 or so. I've seen this too many times on the QEW to count.

[Nouvellecosse]

An HOV is only even needed to allow vehicles carrying more people to bypass congestion. They're not needed when regular lanes are moving freely, so they're redundant at those times regardless.

[333609543]

The HOV lanes in Toronto do little help for buses, there's always a backlog of cars turning at major intersections. I've also increasinly seeing more people use the HOV lanes when they shouldn't be.

[Innsertnamehere]

King Street actually technically had a streetcar lane during rush hour prior to the pilot project, but it was universally ignored. I believe it still exists outside of the pilot area - but again, it's poorly signed and absolutely everybody ignores it.

Bay Street also has HOVs, which I notice tend to at least generally be followed outside of rush hour, but when rush hour comes, it's back to a free for all.

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by 333609543

The HOV lanes in Toronto do little help for buses, there's always a backlog of cars turning at major intersections. I've also increasinly seeing more people use the HOV lanes when they shouldn't be.

HOV lanes is not even a thing for Montréal, and there should be about 400km of dedicated bus lanes next year in that city. Hence my initial question. Plus there's bus priority signal being implemented accross the city.

[Dengler Avenue]

See http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=8387405#post8387405 #6295 for suggestions.

[TorontoDrew]

I would have a brand new respect for DoFo if I could only believe him. He still can't buy my vote with subway promises like his sheep in Ford Nation.

Source: cbc.ca


Downtown relief line 'top priority' of Ford government, transportation minister says

The downtown relief line is "a top priority" of the Ford government, Ontario's transportation minister said Thursday, adding it's a guarantee the long-planned project won't get sidelined when subway construction and maintenance are uploaded to the province sometime next year.

Jeff Yurek, who was appointed to the post in a cabinet shuffle earlier this month, said a relief line on the TTC is "a definite need" given the congestion during rush hour, particularly on Line 1, the Yonge-University-Spadina line.


Full story here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/p...-line-jeff-yurek-metro-morning-1.4916141

[MalcolmTucker]

They want to build the York Region Extension, and I guess listened to the experts.

[p_xavier]

Interesting interview with the CDPQi which is responsible for Montréal's REM construction and they will present the governement plans ASAP for such extensions. The QC government has asked about 40km extensions as a new line for Laval and a new line for Chambly to Brossard. As the guest says in the interview, they will do the studies in an highly optimized manner and will offer the best scenarios. The government has asked for these studies to be completed in less than two years. Last time it took one year for the CDPQi to propose REM phase 1.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emi...u-express-metropolitain-harout-chitilian

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I would have a brand new respect for DoFo if I could only believe him. He still can't buy my vote with subway promises like his sheep in Ford Nation.

Source: cbc.ca


Downtown relief line 'top priority' of Ford government, transportation minister says

The downtown relief line is "a top priority" of the Ford government, Ontario's transportation minister said Thursday, adding it's a guarantee the long-planned project won't get sidelined when subway construction and maintenance are uploaded to the province sometime next year.

Jeff Yurek, who was appointed to the post in a cabinet shuffle earlier this month, said a relief line on the TTC is "a definite need" given the congestion during rush hour, particularly on Line 1, the Yonge-University-Spadina line.


Full story here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/p...-line-jeff-yurek-metro-morning-1.4916141

Funny, the STM president said the same thing today, that a relief line is needed for Montreal. https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand...u-de-metro-est-indeniable-dit-la-stm.php

For those who would say the REM is a relief line, it is not as the blue line extension will counteract the relief that the REM would bring.

[ClaytonA]

Regarding REM extensions, here's the CAQ Montreal transit video;

https://youtu.be/Rrv8YX2xPqI

https://youtu.be/Rrv8YX2xPqI

Extending to Chambly wouldn't be nearly as useful as extending the Yellow Line subway on the south shore.

Laval could be transformative along Hwys 440 and 15. What will it do to service frequency along Deux-Montagnes and in Pointe-Claire having another branch?

Quebec City's plan too...

[zahav]

Vancouver system-wide transit hit its highest level ever, beating the 2010 Olympics month:

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-ridership-october-2018

During the month of October 2018, TransLink ridership saw more people using transit than ever before.

The company recorded a whopping 39.65 million boardings, including rides on the bus, SkyTrain, HandyDART, SeaBus, and West Coast Express.

It was also the first time that TransLink has seen more than 10 million boardings on the Expo and Millenium Line in a single month.


October’s numbers surpass the longstanding record of 39.2 million boardings in a month – a record that was set during the month of February in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

TransLink has been seeing an increase in the number of riders for the past two years.

In 2017, ridership saw more than 407 million boardings and the largest growth for any major city in Canada and the United States.

[TorontoDrew]

Great, I can't wait to fly in next month with my suitcase sit on the crammed skytrain, then wait for half an hour to squeeze into a joke of a Horseshoe Bay Shuttle bus that really is there to drive teens from downtown to Park Royal. And now you are telling me it will be worse.