King St. plan ‘about the kind of city we want to be’
New coalition pushes for support on project emphasizing transit
Transit activists have banded together with local residents’ and business associations to show support for the King St. pilot project.
At a news conference at King St. and University Ave. Monday morning, a coalition that included residents’ associations from Liberty Village, CityPlace and the Garment District, as well as advocacy groups such as TTCriders, CivicAction and Social Planning Toronto, launched a campaign called We Love King.
The coalition, which has dubbed itself King for All, has set up a website asking the public to pledge support for the pilot project, which the city installed in November to improve streetcar service on the TTC’s busiest surface route.
Todd Hofley, president of the Liberty Village Residents’ Association, said that before the pilot, rapidly developing communities such as his had a “desperate desire” to improve transit service.
Even though Liberty Village is outside the pilot area, which runs between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts., Hofley said since the project began, there has been a “huge improvement” in King streetcar service to the condoheavy neighbourhood.
“Streetcars come at regular intervals, travel times have been shortened and instead of hopping in our cars to get downtown and creating more traffic, more congestion and more delays to everyone, we’re hopping on the streetcar, opening up more space for others who need to drive,” he said.
The pilot restricts car movement by compelling drivers to turn right off of King at most major intersections. The city has also removed all 180 on-street parking spaces on King in the pilot area.
Initial data released by the city shows it has reduced average streetcar travel times by as much as 13 per cent, and according to the TTC, streetcar ridership during morning rush hour has increased by almost 25 per cent.
But the pilot has faced opposition from some business owners, particularly restaurateurs in the theatre district. Some have launched their own campaign demanding the city cancel the pilot or ease its restrictions on car traffic outside of rush hours. The business owners claim the pilot has made it harder for people to access King and is driving away customers.
Hofley said the debate about the pilot shouldn’t be seen as pitting transit users against business owners, however.
“There are a ton of businesses that are really, really happy about this, because as I said, people can actually get to work on time now,” he said.
Members of the King for All coalition include the Corktown Resident and Business Association, as well as at least one business owner, who runs Spin, a ping pong bar.
The city has responded to business owners’ concerns with a public-relations campaign urging people to visit King, a promotional program for local restaurants and an offer of up to two hours of free parking in the area.
Last month, Mayor John Tory and Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina), who represents much of the stretch of King covered by the pilot, asked staff to look into lifting the pilot’s traffic restrictions outside of rush hour.
But at the news conference Monday, Cressy said while no option is off the table, for the moment “we don’t have an appetite to ease those restrictions.”
The councillor said he is still pushing ahead with plans to introduce two-hour timed transfers on King, which would allow riders to make unlimited trips on the streetcar during a two-hour period on a single fare. Timed transfers are scheduled to be implemented across the TTC network in August, but Cressy believes bringing them to King would allow transit users to hop on and off streetcars to patronize local shops and restaurants.
He wouldn’t say when the policy could be rolled out on King, but said he was “hoping there will be news soon.”
The pilot project is scheduled to last for one year, after which council will vote on whether to make it permanent.
Amanda O’Rourke, executive director of public space advocacy group and coalition member 8 80 Cities, argued the project should be kept. She said historically, Toronto has only measured its streets by how effectively they move cars, but “the King St. pilot offers us the opportunity to break free of this thinking.
“It is about what kind of city we want to be,” she said.
“A city trapped in the old ways of thinking about mobility, or a 21st century city adapting to an increasing demand for better, more reliable transit? A city for moving cars, or a city for moving people?”