Re: Item 6: King Street Transit Priority Corridor Improvement - Update
Dear Members of the Infrastructure and Environment Committee,
TTCriders is a membership-based transit advocacy organization advocating for safer, more reliable, and more accessible transit. We are writing to express our support for automated enforcement along the priority corridor and other transit routes and public realm improvements. We are asking for ongoing accessibility barriers to be addressed with full level-boarding platforms and public realm improvements to be accelerated ahead of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Prioritizing Accessibility in the Immediate Term
The King Streetcar is the busiest surface transit route in Canada, and riders deserve to have safe and accessible transit infrastructure. It has been 7 years since the Transit Priority Corridor was established, but the 20 transit stops along the route have not all been upgraded to raised platforms to facilitate more accessible and safe transit. Riders have also expressed concern that the new modular raised platforms that have been installed still do not facilitate true level-boarding, and leaves a gap that requires a ramp to be deployed. TTCriders is urging for new transit stop platform designs to incorporate true level-boarding, so that users with wheelchairs, other mobility devices, strollers or carts can easily and safely board at all doors. Additionally, this would allow for faster boarding and save transit riders’ time.
On August 24, 2024, TTCriders organized a group of volunteers on a walk along King Street to observe areas along the Transit Priority Corridor where improvements could be made. Volunteers noted several instances where tactile strips were chipped away or paved over with asphalt, a hazard for persons who have low vision or are blind. Several asphalt ramps that connected the sidewalk to street level had been eroded away, making it much more difficult to navigate a wheelchair or other mobility device to street level. We support the urgent repair of important accessibility infrastructure along the King Street Transit Priority Corridor to keep all riders safe.
Traffic Agents and Automated Enforcement
We sincerely appreciate the improvements in travel times resulting from the deployment of Traffic Agents, but service issues related to congestion and illegal driver movements persist during the evenings and weekends when there are no agents present. We are encouraged to see progress on the deployment of automated camera enforcement, which is a more sustainable solution in the long-term to cover these gaps and expand enforcement measures to other transit routes. We wish to see ticketing begin as soon as feasible.
Leveraging Opportunities to Expand Transit Priority and the Public Realm ahead of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup
The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup will bring 300,000 visitors to the city, adding to already-overcrowded downtown public transit and sidewalks.² We welcome the proposed changes to expand sidewalk space and the public realm. We encourage you to explore all opportunities for near-term public realm improvements and evidence-based improvements to transit reliability, such as exploring the extension of transit priority measures westward to Dufferin Street ahead of the 2026 event.
We would like to thank you for working with TTCriders and including transit rider voices in the King Street Transit Priority Corridor Working Group.
Sincerely,
TTCriders
Read the Staff Report related to this item here.