Streetcars will have priority on King Street: city council

By News Staff

Downtown drivers will have to prepare for some major changes that are coming to King Street this fall.

Toronto’s city council has voted overwhelmingly to support a year-long pilot project to give streetcars priority between Bathurst and Jarvis streets. The vote passed on Thursday, 35-4.

The project will force drivers to turn right at every intersection, and more than 180 parking spaces will be removed.

Taxi companies and cab drivers have criticized the plan, suggesting it cut down on their ability to pick up passengers flagging down a ride on one of the city’s busiest downtown streets.

City planners say the goal is to move people through the area as fast as possible.

On its website, the city noted that the King streetcar carries more than 65,000 riders on a typical weekday. In what is an understatement, the city writes that King “isn’t working well.”

The pilot project is expected to cost $1.5 million.

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