CONSIDERING KING
City offers free parking to help buoy businesses
The city is offering drivers two hours of free parking near the King St. streetcar pilot project, in the latest effort to help local businesses who say the transit-first reconfiguration of the street has driven away customers.
Mayor John Tory and local Councillor Joe Cressy have also asked city staff to examine additional modifications to the project, including granting drivers an exemption to its turning restrictions on weeknights and weekends, and implementing a two-hour transfer for TTC riders on the route.
Eliminating the driving restrictions after 7 p.m. and on weekends is a key demand of local business owners, but city and TTC staff have previously recommended against it, warning that imposing different rules at different times of the week could undermine the pilot’s goal.
After a meeting in the mayor’s office Friday with business owners and other affected parties, Cressy said the project is working for transit riders, but “there is a real recognition that more needs to be done at the local level for local businesses.”
Cressey said the city couldn’t commit to changing the operating hours of the pilot yet, “because, quite frankly, we need to make sure that if that is done . . . it does not sacrifice the integrity of a transit-first approach.”
“But, if there are operational options with exemptions that can maintain that integrity, but also provide a window, then those should be explored,” he said.
Tony Elenis, president of the Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association (ORHMA), said the free parking was “a good gesture,” but that his organization will continue to push for removing driving restrictions during off-peak hours.
“The business community knows the local flavour, and we believe that after 7 p.m. needs to be done, and we’re still waiting for it,” he said.
The pilot project was implemented in November between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts., and was designed to improve transit service for the people who ride the 504 King and 514 Cherry streetcars every day, who number more than 72,000.
Cars are still permitted in the area, but drivers are not allowed to travel straight for the length of the street. Instead, they’re compelled to turn right at most major intersections.
That has freed up space for streetcars that were often stuck behind the daily drivers who used King before the pilot began, who numbered roughly 20,000.
Data released by the city Friday shows the project is succeeding in reducing travel times for transit users. In December, the slowest trip times in the pilot area during the evening rush were down by roughly four minutes, from the previous time of about 25 minutes.
The number of people using King streetcars during the morning rush hour also increased by 25 per cent.
But entrepreneurs claimed the reduced traffic on the street has hurt their bottom line.
In a survey conducted by ORHMA, business owners reported revenue losses in December of between 5 and 52 per cent, compared to the same month the previous year.
In an email, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said for now the agency would reserve judgment on eliminating the pilot’s traffic restrictions during certain hours. “We’ll wait until we’ve had an opportunity to study and review any changes being proposed,” he wrote.
Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director of advocacy group TTCriders, said her organization is opposed to the idea. “We know that the King streetcar gets overcrowded on weekends, too. It’s the busiest line in the system,” she said.
She said she would support implementing time-based transfers on King as part of the pilot, however. The measure would allow riders to make unlimited transit trips within a two-hour window on a single fare. The TTC plans to implement the policy system-wide by August, but Cressy and Tory have asked if it could be rolled out sooner on King.
Pizey-Allen argued two-hour transfers would be “a great solution for everyone,” because they would make it more affordable for transit riders to patronize businesses on King.
“The city implemented the twohour fare on St. Clair to help businesses that were struggling there (as a result of construction of the streetcar right-of-way) and when they took it away, business dropped,” she said.
Under the parking discount being offered by the city, drivers who use the Green P app at on-street spaces and pay-and-display lots owned by the Toronto Parking Authority will get up to $10 free parking, which works out to two hours of time.
The city had previously announced one-time parking discounts of $5 in spots near the pilot. But the new $10-discount is reusable and will be in effect until the pilot ends in De- cember. The city didn’t immediately say how much the discount will cost in lost parking revenue or to how many spaces it will apply.
The city is also adding 90 on-street parking spaces to side streets in the pilot area. That will partially offset the 180 on-street spots removed from King to make way for the pilot.
There are about 8,000 parking spaces within walking distance of the project, according to the city.
Earlier this week, the mayor launched a campaign to attract more people to King businesses that included a public-space design competition, street performers, warming stations and a discount promotion for local restaurants.
The original budget for the pilot was $1.5 million, but additional efforts to support local businesses have added at least $200,000 to the cost.