Raise the Hammer

A few new observations after a few more days of our transit lane:

1. It's ironic to hear all the one-way supporters complaining about buses slowly merging across all lanes of King to make a left turn into the McNab transit terminal. Ironic, and kinda funny.

2. Speaking of left turns, we really should have implemented transit-only signals at James, McNab, Queen and Dundurn. Buses go left at James, McNab and Queen. Having a transit signal would have allowed them to turn left from the bus lane without having to do the slow merge across traffic for a block prior to those intersections. Bus riders and car drivers win.

3. The lane should have gone to Dundurn. For a suburban-oriented strip mall style intersection, it has a tremendous amount of transit ridership. With the lane ending one block before Dundurn, all the cars get into the right curb lane (aka, the 403) and buses end up stopping well behind the intersection at red lights and take another full cycle to pull up and load/unload. Again, a transit signal here would have allowed the buses to leave before cars and easily get over into the 2nd lane before heading into Westdale.

4. Large planters. We really need to put large planters to act as bumpouts on the south leg of King at various intersections: Bay, Hess, Ray, Locke, Strathcona, Dundurn. This would make that lane unavailable for crazy speeders and promote more of the complete street affect with the 24-hour parking that is in effect. Also, would be great to add some green to the street.

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/04/02/new...

1. Speaking of green, why are pay machines set up west of Locke? It's pretty much just a residential stretch and Victoria Park recreation users through there. I've yet to see a single car park there. I'm guessing this is because people don't want to pay to visit a friends home/apartment or a park. They don't have to do this anywhere else in the city, why here??

All in all, it's a nice improvement for King. But issues like transit signals really should have been thought of. It is a bit ridiculous to see 5 buses all cramming into the 2 car lanes between James and McNab to turn left into the terminal. Too bad someone hasn't invented a two-way street. Could really eliminate that problem.

Comment edited by jason on 2013-10-29 20:47:59