This weekend the exclusive Toronto neighbourhood of Forest Hill
will again hear the clanging bells of electric trolley cars. Toronto
Transit Commission streetcars have long travelled along midtown
artery St. Clair Avenue -- and often got stuck in traffic. Since
2005, controversial transit-only lanes have been under construction
between Yonge and Bathurst Streets. Roadwork will continue further
west on St. Clair for another few years, but streetcars are set to
roll down this new exclusive corridor by Sunday, February 18.
Forest Hill residents used to be able to pull out of their Walmart-sized
garages and charge across St. Clair’s six lanes to winding side
streets that would carry them downtown. With the centre lanes of St.
Clair now off-limits to cars, a lot of drivers are already testing
out the special U-turn lanes that carry them around the tracks. The
real test comes when the trams return -- will impatient motorists
keep clear of them?
The last time Toronto built a similar right-of-way (also known as a
ROW -- after the internal squabbles they engender in adjacent
neighbourhoods) some car drivers just didn’t get it. When the
Spadina streetcar line opened in 1997 an alarming number of
motorists could not refrain from driving in front of the huge red
and white vehicles. After all, Torontonians said goodbye to trolley
cars on Spadina during the post war boom, when the line was closed
due of electricity shortages in the city.
St. Clair doesn’t offer the same tradition of vehicular chaos as
Spadina, and a few lessons have been learned. This new ROW will not
permit drivers to cross at minor streets, and physical impediments
are already in place -- not to be installed after opening as
happened on Spadina.
David Crichton of the city’s transportation department says the
raised concrete right-of-way on St. Clair is 15 cm higher than the
rest of the road. Approaching from a 90-degree angle, it would be
difficult to drive up onto the tracks he says. “You’d probably hit
the underside of the car. If you come onto it at an angle, you can
probably mount it, like you can a regular sidewalk.”
Hopefully no one is going to be curb-hopping, which means there
will be plenty of U-turns at signalized intersections. Drivers not
already familiar with Spadina may be flummoxed when they see the
three sets of traffic lights.
One signal is for TTC vehicles, another for through traffic. There
will be a distinct, advanced cycle for left and U-turns -- but
you’ll have to be quick. If they operate as on Spadina, expect just
a few seconds to make your move.
To combat the problem of distracted drivers who miss the green
arrow, here’s a trick I use on Spadina to prepare fellow
left-turning motorists: If you roll forward a wee bit just before
the signal changes, drivers ahead and behind seem to pick up the
hint and more cars get through.
Some residents near St. Clair worry that the loss of traffic lanes
to transit will spread congestion to local streets. Construction of
the ROW has not begun in earnest in the western parts of St. Clair,
and many merchants in the Corso Italia strip are convinced that
suburban shoppers won’t drive to an area perceived to have
diminished parking or difficult access. The roadwork will hurt, but
it was overdue regardless of the ROW. While the jury won’t deliver
the final verdict until St. Clair is finished, storeowners can stop
complaining and find ways to turn the make the best of the
reconstruction. It’s time to make some refreshing limonata out of
the lemons they’ve been given.
edrass@nationalpost.com