What is RapidTO?
“RapidTO” is the City of Toronto’s name for bus and streetcar priority measures. Transit priority can include measures like a dedicated lane, letting transit vehicles go first at intersections with traffic signal priority, queue-jump lanes where buses can move ahead of traffic, and more.
Toronto’s first RapidTO lane was installed along Eglinton Avenue East, Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue in Fall 2020, giving buses their own lane from Brimley Road to the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. This project has successfully increased reliability and decreased bus trip times. However TTCriders has also raised concerns about the loss of some key local bus stops along the route (also known as “stop consolidation”) and the decrease in service hours.
Bus lanes have been delayed
In July 2020, the TTC Board approved a motion to fast-track bus lanes on Eglinton East and target installation of four more corridors in 2021: Jane Street, Dufferin Street, Steeles Avenue West, and Finch Avenue East, which are some of Toronto’s busiest bus routes. Lawrence Avenue East was added as a sixth bus priority corridor.
In Fall 2020, City Council debated a Surface Transit Network Plan, which proposed a ten-year schedule to implement priority measures on twenty transit corridors. Ten of the proposed bus routes serve neighbourhoods with the highest rates of COVID-19.
Instead of building on the success of the Eglinton East RapidTO project and voting to fast-track transit priority, Councillors voted to conduct further public consultations and study. A bus lane on Jane Street was scheduled for implementation in Spring 2021, but now has no target implementation date. The next two priority projects were scheduled for implementation in 2023. At a recent public consultation meeting, staff said that local Councillors requested further public consultations about the Jane Street bus lane, which has delayed its implementation.
Take the survey
The guide below highlights key questions to answer with some suggested responses. Click here to take the RapidTO survey before November 28 and ask Toronto to implement more transit priority, faster. Other cities have done it: Vancouver implemented four bus priority projects in 2020. New York City and Boston implemented miles of bus lanes as a pandemic response. The City's own Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild (TORR) made several recommendations about speeding up transit priority initiatives. Recommendation #59 is to “accelerate or make permanent transit initiatives the City undertook quickly to support crisis response and restart, such as instituting priority bus lanes.”
Section 2: "Understanding Your Priorities"
This is one of the most important questions on the survey, because it asks about which corridors should be prioritized. You can click the grey "comment" icon to add a comment to each question. See some suggested responses below.
Tab 2. Ease of Implementation
Suggested comment to type: "Transit priority measures should be implemented faster because they are a simple, quick, and cost-effective way to improve transit. The Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild recommended accelerating transit improvements like priority bus lanes (recommendation #59). The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important reliable transit service is."
Tab 3. Equity
Where should the TTC focus on improving transit? Suggested comment to type: "Transit priority measures need to be implemented faster in neighbourhoods that need better transit the most, and that have been most impacted by the pandemic. Scarborough and North West Toronto neighbourhoods were most impacted by COVID-19, have some of Toronto's busiest bus routes, and have more racialized, low-income residents who depend on transit."
Tab 4. Growth
Should the TTC prioritize neighbourhoods that are increasing in population or areas where there are many jobs? Suggested comment to type: "The TTC should improve transit now in neighbourhoods that are increasing in population and jobs, to prevent congestion and so bus riders don't get stuck in traffic."
Tab 5. Ridership
Should TTC prioritize the busiest bus routes? Suggested comment to type: "TTC should speed up the implementation of transit priority on Toronto's busiest corridors, like Jane, Dufferin, Finch East, Steeles, Sheppard, Lawrence East, Queen, College/Carlton, Dundas."
Tab 6: Safety
Should the TTC prioritize areas with the highest numbers of collisions with vulnerable road users? This would mean prioritizing Scarborough bus routes. Suggested comment to type: "TTC must speed up the implementation of bus priority in Scarborough, where more pedestrian fatalities occur, and use transit upgrades as an opportunity to improve pedestrian safety and active transportation connections."
Tab 8: Other
Add any other comments you have about why Toronto needs to speed up transit priority measures like bus lanes, streetcar transitways, and signal priority.
Section 4.
Tab 1. How did you travel?
If you used a combination of travel methods please fill in the section titled “Impact of Covid-19 on Your Travel” and state the methods you used and why. This adds more contextual data to how residents move about the city and what impacts their choices.
Tab 2. Why did you travel?
This question doesn’t capture the unique and varying reasons residents use transit services within the city. Trip chaining is common among women as they move about going to work, picking up/dropping off kids, grocery shopping, and running various other errands. Choose the answer that best fits you and then in the section titled “Impact of Covid-19 on Your Travel” please note down all the reasons that you use transit on a daily basis. It can be as simple as “on a given day I use transit to: pick up someone, run errands, work, visit a relative/friend, etc”.
Tab 3. Where did you go?
We suggest filling in your postal code for where you begin your transit and use the end destination that you most commonly visited (work, school, family member) with the postal code. This will show how far you travel and give the TTC data to improve transit access within and to those neighbourhoods.
Tab 4. How long did it take?
Answer how long you take from leaving your location to arriving at your destination. If there are things you noticed that have increased the length of trip time note it in the tab titled “Impact of Covid-19 on Your Travel”. For example, you may have noticed that the bus you normally take should arrive every 7 minutes but it can arrive anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes and when it arrives there is bunching of the same bus. Or perhaps the location of the stop is poorly placed on a street with long traffic light changes so you miss the bus.