Much attention regarding transit priority in recent months focused on the RapidTO red lanes for 29/929 Dufferin and 510 Bathurst, and on traffic signal timings for 6 Finch West, 5 Eglinton and a few intersections on 510 Spadina. Another change with less fanfare was the modification of parking and stopping restrictions on Dundas Street West between Dovercourt and University.

Council approved these changes in two groups. The first was for the area between Spadina and McCaul, and the second extended this east to University and west to Dovercourt.

• May 2024: Temporary Parking and Traffic Amendments – Dundas Street West
• December 2025: Transit Priority Measures to Support the 505 Dundas 6-Minute Network

In a previous articles, I reviewed the effect of changes on 7 Bathurst between Bathurst Station and Eglinton, and on 511 Bathurst and 29 Dufferin south from Bloor.

• 7 Bathurst Update: Data to April 2026
• Red Lane Effects on 29/929 Dufferin and 511 Bathurst

This article continues the series with a review of changes on Dundas Street West.

A few noteworthy points:

• Over the 29 month period of this review there has been little change in travel times, although there are some specific seasonal and weather-related spikes and dips.
• Peak period, peak direction shows more variation than off-peak, especially westbound in the PM peak.
• Extended travel times do not occur only in the “downtown” part of the route, nor only in the peak periods. Attempts at transit priority that focus only on the core and the peak periods will not address issues at other times and locations.
• There are quite striking “heartbeat” patterns in the data where the highest values usually fall on the same day of the week:
  • AM peak eastbound: The spikes tend to be on Tuesday or Wednesday. This corresponds to a known pattern that developed during the pandemic that midweek traffic was higher than the ends of the week.
  • Early and late evening eastbound: The spikes tend to fall late in the week on Thursdays and Fridays. A similar pattern shows up in the late evening westbound.
• Although travel times are fairly consistent, they only measure the service that actually shows up. At the end of the article are charts showing headways (the interval between streetcars) both ways at Dufferin, Bathurst and University in May 2026. Travel times might be consistent and even slightly improved, but the overall service quality remains uneven.

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