Toronto has a plan to speed up transit on 18 bus corridors and the King and Queen streetcar. But the plan is too slow - some routes won't see improvements until 2031!
Take action by sending a message to the Mayor and your City Councillor using the form above, or signing up to speak to the Executive Committee on November 18th. Copy and paste information below to personalize your message.
Information below is from this November 2020 staff report.
What's being proposed?
Transit priority measures are proposed for 18 bus corridors and 2 streetcar corridors. Transit priority can mean everything from better bus stops, to traffic signal priority, to bus-only lanes. Bus lanes are planned for four more corridors (Jane, Dufferin, Steeles, Finch East) and others are being considered. An expansion of the King Street transit corridor is planned from Roncesvalles to the DVP and similar streetcar priority is in store for Queen Street, but not until 2028. The plan is positive, but it is moving too slow.
We need better buses where COVID-19 rates are highest
The majority of proposed bus corridors run through neighbourhoods with the highest COVID-19 positivity rates (see the map from the report below). Higher numbers of Black residents and people of colour live in these same neighbourhoods. Fast-tracking these bus improvements is an urgent equity issue. The Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild
has recommended that the City
“accelerate or make permanent transit initiatives the City undertook quickly to support crisis response and restart, such as instituting priority bus lanes."
Local stops & more service needed on bus lanes
The TTC is reducing the number of buses on the first RapidTO corridor on Eglinton East. Instead, TTCriders is calling on the TTC to increase service frequency and add buses. Local residents have opposed the
removal of mid-block bus stops, some of which are
right outside of apartment buildings.
Scarborough has a high proportion of pedestrian deaths and the poor snow and ice clearing at some of the removed stop locations will make transit less accessible.
Other cities are doing more
Toronto is lagging behind. Vancouver is implementing
four bus lanes this Fall, on its most crowded routes.
New York City and
Boston are implementing bus lanes as a pandemic response. TTC users need these improvements because 70% of all journeys on the TTC currently include a trip on surface transit, according to the report.
City Council should fund the plan in 2021
The Surface Transit Network Plan needs around $62 million in funding from 2021-2024 to study, plan, design, and implement surface transit projects. This funding will be requested during the 2021 City Budget process.
We shouldn't have to wait a decade
Bus lanes were proposed by the TTC Board this summer as an urgent pandemic response. But only one has been installed 2020. A report on the Jane Street bus lane proposal will be debated at City Council in June 2021, with no date set for implementation. Then the next set of transit priority is not scheduled until 2023. Yet the TTC Board had
asked staff to consider speeding up installation of four more lanes in 2021.
City Council approved a motion in July 2020 to fast-track public consultations on Dufferin Street. But in the plan being debated this month, Dufferin is not slated to have public consultations until 2023, with installation planned for 2024.
There timelines from the report show how long you'll be waiting for transit priority improvements:
Corridor |
Engineering studies |
Detailed Design |
Project delivery |
Jane Street |
Ongoing |
Ongoing |
2021 |
Steeles Ave West |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Finch Avenue East |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Dufferin Street |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Lawrence Avenue East |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Finch Avenue West |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
Sheppard Avenue West |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
Don Mills Road/ Overlea Boulevard/ Pape Avenue |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
Victoria Park Avenue |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
Keele Street |
2025 |
2026 |
2027 |
Sheppard Avenue East |
2025 |
2026 |
2027 |
Queen Street |
2026 |
2027 |
2028 |
King Street |
2026 |
2027 |
2028 |
Markham Road |
2027 |
2028 |
2029 |
York Mills Road/Ellesmere Road |
2027 |
2028 |
2029 |
Wilson Avenue |
2028 |
2029 |
2030 |
Lawrence Avenue West/ Scarlett Road/ Dixon Road |
2028 |
2029 |
2030 |
Kipling Avenue |
2029 |
2030 |
2031 |
McCowan Road |
2029 |
2030 |
2031 |