King St. pilot saves millions a year, Ryerson study says
Ryerson’s City Building Institute is recommending the King St. pilot project be made permanent.
The King St. pilot project is saving downtown Toronto commuters approximately $11.5 million a year in terms of time, a new study has concluded, with the authors recommending Toronto city council make the project permanent.
Ryerson University’s City Building Institute (CBI) released a report Thursday saying that according to their calculations, the project saves $10.9 million in time for existing streetcar users and $0.6 million for new users.
“That works out to about 50 cents per trip,” said Graham Haines, CBI research manager.
He said the study used data from the City of Toronto and analyzed time savings using Metrolinx’s standard measurement of $17.36 for each hour of in-vehicle travel time, noting they used the Metrolinx number as the agency “developed a standard methodology for how they evaluate the cost and benefits of transit projects.”
The pilot project, launched in November 2017, prioritizes streetcars on King St. between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts. It is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year and a report from city staff is expected in February 2019.
In Ryerson’s analysis, the institute took data from official city reports that found all-day weekday ridership increased from 72,000 pre-pilot to 80,000 in June and that the pilot generally reduced travel and wait times for streetcar riders.
Using city data, the CBI assumed that commuters saved 0.68 minutes per trip on average during peak periods, a minute for other periods, a wait time reduction of 0.25 minutes and that 40 per cent of daily traffic took place during rush hours.
“When we took assumptions, we want it to be conservative to make sure we weren’t trying to overestimate the benefits of the project and rather give a conservative take on what they might look like,” Haines said.
However, the report said there is a lack of data in some areas, such as where specifically passengers get on and off, how ridership varies throughout the day, or the number of boardings and exits at each stop.
According to city data collect- ed between May and June this year, drivers in the downtown area have been able to find alternative routes to King St., and the traffic network has “largely been able to absorb and respond to the changes in routing that drivers have made.” The study tried to look at drivers, but the authors said there was insufficient data.
In the report, CBI said the project is a success, and researchers are recommending city council expand it.
“We all know that congestion is having a big impact on the city of Toronto, on how fast we’re able to get around,” Haines said. “The fact of the matter is streets in downtown Toronto are not going to get bigger, they’re not going to get wider, so we need creative ways of moving people better and faster to our city.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Brad Ross said he hadn’t seen the CBI report, but praised the project.
“We know, through the city’s reporting of the pilot, that it has so far been very successful from atransit perspective,” Ross said. “If there’s added benefits ... then we’re happy to see those.”