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GLOBE & MAIL

Battle over streetcar lanes heats up on St. Clair

By JEFF GRAY
Monday, October 27, 2003 - Page A8

The scene is St. Clair Avenue West, some time in the future: Streetcars glide unimpeded along dedicated lanes in the middle of the gleaming, refurbished street.

To Jeff Gillan, head of the local Corso Italia Business Improvement Association, this is a dystopian vision. He says giving St. Clair Avenue West Spadina-like streetcar lanes will snarl traffic, make parking even scarcer and frighten off the many customers who drive in from places such as Woodbridge.

And he doesn't trust the city, which is currently assessing options for St. Clair, when it says that no decision has been made.

"We believe . . . that we are not being told the complete truth, that the data is being analyzed and summarized to tell a favourable story for the [streetcar] right-of-way," Mr. Gillan said.

The TTC has been itching to put in dedicated streetcar lanes wherever it can to improve efficiency and reduce collisions between streetcars and cars.

At first blush, St. Clair looks like an ideal candidate.

The work on the tracks and the road needs to be done anyway, at a cost of $25-million. The street is ranked first in car-streetcar crashes, and is certainly wide enough to accommodate dedicated lanes. (It had dedicated streetcar lanes in the early 20th century, but they were torn out in the 1930s.)

However, putting the lanes back in could have some extreme side effects.

According to a TTC report from 2002, the proposed right-of-way would cut traffic capacity in half, causing "significant delays and congestion in all directions at intersections, an expansion of peak-period traffic conditions and increased traffic infiltration in neighbourhoods."

With the outcry making the streetcar lanes an election issue, both the city and the TTC say all options are on the table -- including scrapping the streetcar altogether -- and that no decision has been made.

Joanna Musters, the city's project manager for the refurbishment of St. Clair Avenue West, says the environmental assessment now under way is looking at a range of options for improving transportation along the busy avenue. Streetcar lanes are one possibility among many, she said.

A couple of public meetings recently held in the community drew hundreds of backers and opponents of the right-of-way. More are planned for December or January.

But it will be some time next year before we learn who has won the struggle for St. Clair, and 2005 before motorists can start complaining about the never-ending construction on the street.

Gord Perks of the Rocket Riders, a transit advocacy group, says the businesses opposing the streetcar proposal are wearing blinkers.

"I wish that I could take these guys and show them what a European shopping district looks like," he said, adding that better, more efficient public transit would bring new customers into the area, not drive them away.

Many of you sent e-mails about the issue of toll roads for Toronto, which became a political hot potato recently when it was raised by mayoral candidate David Miller, much to the delight of his opponents. Drivers pay enough through provincial and federal taxes on gasoline, many of you wrote, and that money should go toward road repair.

Of course, that's not what Mr. Miller -- and new Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty -- have been talking about. They want some of the province's gas tax to be dedicated to public transit, not roads.

That leaves reader Doug Lowry scratching his head: "Why is the person driving the car financing transit and not the person taking the transit?" he asks.

Reader Ken Dow writes that drivers should pay extra for the environmental damage they choose to do every day, perhaps through additional licensing fees based on fuel-consumption rates.

"If cars consumed no non-renewable energy and generated zero pollution, then being stuck on the [Hwy.] 400 would be just another lifestyle choice -- like, say, wearing plaid or working out at the gym. . . . But cars don't run on hydrogen, and we all bear the environmental burden of rampant commuting. . . . Don't like the fee? Move closer to work, swap the Hummer for a Prius or (gasp) ride-share."

Dr. Gridlock appears every Monday. Send your traffic or transit questions, tips and rants to jgray@globeandmail.ca.