Oh dear, oh dear! That poor old overworked, underappreciated TTC!
The Spadina car opened in July 1997, and one thing immediately obvious to anyone who bothered to look was that “transit priority signalling” was simply not working the way that phrase might imply to mere mortals who ride the service. Indeed, a newspaper article by Stephen Wickens has taken on legendary status with the claim (valid under some circumstances) that a trip down Bathurst to Western Hospital in mixed traffic makes better time than the Spadina car and its right-of-way. I’m not going to revisit that debate here .
In June 2005, I spoke to the issue of non-priority for Spadina cars at a Commission meeting. At that time, then Vice-Chair Olivia Chow moved that staff take the necessary action to implement priority signalling by September 2005 where it is not already active and report back by September 2006 on the impact; and that the recommendations in my submission be forwarded to TTC and City staff with a joint report to fall meetings, presumably in 2005.
The due date for this report has always been a few months away, and I have had the honour of holding the longest outstanding report request at the TTC for some time. I was expecting the report in April, but that month came and went. Now, according to this week’s agenda, the report will be at the Commission meeting of December 16, 2009.
That is at least still “fall”, by a few days, albeit not the one Olivia Chow had in mind.
Steve Munro 
The problem with Spadina is the width of the street. The length of the cross street signals is determined by the time that it takes a slow pedestrian to cross. Unlike University Avenue there is no place in the centre median for pedestrians to wait for the next cross cycle. While it might be possible to improve things by changing the total length of the light cycle this would require that that all of the other signals in the downtown be changed to match. The TTC might be able to improve things by running two car trains on a 4 minute headway so that the cars “would not bunch up” but that would require more cars as every second car would need to go to Union not to mention the problem of fitting two trains in to Spadina or Union Stations.
It would probably not be necessary to run trains in the a. m. rush but it would help in base service and the p. m. rush and possibly on weekends. What other line would benefit from running mu service on Sunday but not in the a. m. rush? From what I remember of my transportation and traffic courses I don’t think that there is much that can be done to improve the service on Spadina by “transit Priority Signals”.
Steve: I must disagree. There are locations on both the Spadina and Harbourfront lines where there are extremely long times given to traffic on Lake Shore (both at Spadina and at Bathurst). Transit vehicles can be held for an interval of minutes even at times when there is no cross-traffic present. This is complete madness.
Another problem is that streetcars can lose time, relative to the traffic wave for which the signals are timed, with the farside stops. The result is that they encounter red signals more often than green ones. There is no mechanism to trigger an extended green for situations where a Spadina car is approaching an intersection. Ideally, a streetcar should cross to a farside stop at the end of a green phase for Spadina rater than at the start of one.
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Steve: I must disagree. There are locations on both the Spadina and Harbourfront lines where there are extremely long times given to traffic on Lake Shore (both at Spadina and at Bathurst). Transit vehicles can be held for an interval of minutes even at times when there is no cross-traffic present. This is complete madness.
This is true but this is more of design decision, especially at Spadina and Front, to give more time to traffic trying to reach the Lakeshore and Gardiner. The best way to clean up the problem at Spadina and Front is to eliminate the on ramp to the Gardiner at Spadina and somehow connect Front to the Gardiner but that ain’t likely to happen. The other alternative is to grade separate the streetcars through the intersection.
I agree that there are many spots on Queen’s Quay where the signal timing is totally incomprehensible. Hopefully with the redesign of the street this fall that will be taken care of. The introduction of new cars with faster all door loading will hopefully speed up the loading process enough to allow the cars to get to and through the next light before it turns red.
At Lakeshore and Spadina there should be a streetcar only phase before the left turn phase for Spadina south bound as street cars wait here a long time. They should also keep their light with the through traffic. The light at Bathurst and Lakeshore is also on a long cycle time and needs to be re thought. Does this light have a street car turn phase, especially for west to south Harbourfront cars between all light changes like Queen’s Quay does?
Steve: I have to assume that you mean “east to south” as the turn you cite does not exist. Yes, there is a transit phase for eastbound Harbourfront cars to turn south into Queen’s Quay. It is paired with the north to west phase if there is a car present in each direction.
The problem with extending the green light on Spadina for, say five seconds if a street car is near is that you cannot steal the time from the cross street. Many of these times are at a minimum for safe pedestrian movements. This means that the next green light for Spadina will start 5 seconds late which may cause problems for the following LRV, not to mention what it does for the cross streets as the lights start to get out of sync and all traffic slows down on them, including their TTC service.
From my casual observation of St. Clair and Spadina it would appear that many of their problems would be solved by speeding up loading or making the total cycle time a few seconds longer. This being said there are still areas, like Front and Lakeshore were a major rethink is necessary. All street car turns on Spadina and St. Clair should get a TTC only phase, the white bar, and this should be triggered by the vehicle or the switch. I have not seen the Queensway a lot but the far side stops there appear to create a similar problem to what is happening on St. Clair or Spadina as a car arrives at an intersection just as it turns red.
Steve: There is one distinction between Spadina and the other locations. On Spadina, the service is so frequent that there will be a streetcar present for just about every cycle. Elsewhere this is not necessarily true. The TTC should get first crack at the crossings at most locations.
The far side stop seems like the answer to a traffic manager’s prayer as, in theory at least, it allows the left turns to happen from a designated lane so they don’t hold up through traffic while allowing the transit vehicle to go through on the green and load on the far side with out missing the light at that intersection. Instead it misses the light at the next intersection.
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The Spadina trams are slow, but at least they show up often. The problem of slowness does not only come from the traffic signals themselves. On the Spadina section of the line, the trams slow down when crossing at intersections like King, Queen and Dundas even when the signal is green.
There is no reason for a tram to slow down when crossing another perpendicular tram tracks. Even if a light is green, the tram cannot blow by the intersection.
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For what it’s worth, I watched some of the City Council debate regardinag the bike lanes on Jarvis and the main staff member seemed to imply that transit priority signals are coming.
Steve: Well, the Spadina line has been open for 12 years this July, and it was supposed to have priority from day 1. However, the prioritywas granted more to the cars than to the transit vehicles.
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Benny said: “There is no reason for a tram to slow down when crossing another perpendicular tram tracks. Even if a light is green, the tram cannot blow by the intersection.”
Streetcar operators are required to stop at each intersection where there’s a streetcar turn to visually ensure the switches are in the right direction. Apparently because our switching system is not reliable enough. Steve or anyone who might know, does this order extend to Spadina? (It certainly feels that way.) You’d think they could at least get the signals right on the protected right of way!
Steve: It applies everywhere, even in the few amusing situations where a switch has been plugged because the alternate track does not go anywhere. The TTC has had a capital project for years to replace unreliable electronics for the electrified switches, but this is showing no sign of progress yet. The slow order is left over from a few derailments of cars moving at speed through junctions.
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On the lines that have Transit Priority traffic lights, most don’t work. Some that do work no longer favor transit, due to changes in how they work. When they first put the priority lights in it was near impossible to get a red light on Queen. Now it’s nearly impossible to get a green light, you can now get two reds at one intersection.
Steve: Yes, I have noticed that there seems to be a lack of attention to keeping “priority” for the streetcars. However, I was very amused today to see the transit light at Lower Simcoe and Queen’s Quay providing a cycle for the non-existent streetcar service.
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“Steve: Yes, I have noticed that there seems to be a lack of attention to keeping “priority” for the streetcars. However, I was very amused today to see the transit light at Lower Simcoe and Queen’s Quay providing a cycle for the non-existent streetcar service.”
Yes Steve, that happens along Harbourfront all the time. On Spadina there are intersections where left turns are permitted. Streetcars will activate the left turn signal for autos. Southbound at Adelaide is one, if there is no auto and the streetcar stops at white line at the intersection. Then the green left turn arrow comes up. Had the streetcar stopped back from intersection, then the light would have gone to regular green. Problem is when you are a Charlotte car you have to stop at white line to activate switch and transit light. But now you sit for a green left turn arrow with nothing turning.
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