Any gains made by the King St. pilot project will likely be moot if just 6 per cent of future residents along the line take the streetcar, a new study from Ryerson University has found. The problem is that transit cannot keep pace with development, said Diana Petramala, senior researcher at Ryerson’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development, calling the issue a “mismatch.”“What we’re seeing here is that they’ve put a lot of development along the King. St. corridor, and now you basically have the streetcar operating at its full capacity and still have an overcrowding problem,” she said. Read more:The GTA`s population is booming — but not necessarily in the right placesDrivers regularly ignoring new traffic rules on KingSpending on King St. up since streetcar pilot beganThe King St. pilot project seeks to make the service more reliable between Bathurst and Jarvs Sts., cutting down east-west travel times. According to TTC’s March update, 85 per cent of streetcars travelling west arrive within four minutes during morning commutes; travel times have improved by five minutes in each direction during the evening.But Petramala noted that King St. streetcars travelling eastbound are now running six seconds slower during the morning rush hour than they did prior to the pilot project, indicating an already stressed line.“Density is good,” Petramala said. “What’s better, I think, is a more milder density spread out across the region, as opposed to directing so much construction to one small pocket.” The study is based on 8,000 residential units under construction within 400 metres of the entire King St. corridor. It excluded new office space, meaning overcrowding could be more severe. Toronto has seen rapid housing growth for years, particularly along King St., which has caused transit infrastructure to “creak under the pressure” because it hasn’t seen corresponding i ...
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