Dedicated TTC bus lanes coming to busy portion of Spadina Avenue

Starting this week, a dedicated lane for TTC buses on southbound Spadina Avenue between Richmond Street West and Lake Shore Boulevard West will be in place.  

To create the dedicated lane, on-street parking and a taxi stand on the west side of Spadina Avenue between Richmond Street West and Front Street West will be removed. Two southbound lanes for general traffic will also be maintained. 

In June, the 510 Spadina streetcars went out of service and were replaced with shuttle buses due to track repairs and power line upgrades. The work is slated to be completed in January.

“I’ve taken the streetcar here before and it’s been really, really slow. There is so much traffic it just takes forever,” said one commuter.

However, the construction work has taken congestion on this portion of Spadina Avenue to another level.

Earlier this month, Deputy Mayor and Spadina-Fort York Coun. Ausma Malik sent a letter to her council colleagues and City of Toronto staff outlining how travel times for the 510 Spadina route have tripled since the initiation of the replacement bus service on June 23.

During a city council meeting on Thursday, Malik introduced the replacement bus lane motion.

“I know first-hand that this construction has had a big impact on neighbours and workers and businesses and all road users, and that since this construction started it has been deeply frustrating,” said Malik.

The motion was unanimously approved by council. On Sunday, CityNews reached out to Malik for comment on the situation.

“By making sure buses and cyclists on Spadina have their own space, we make sure traffic as a whole is moving. It also will mean buses can travel the whole of Spadina again, making a smoother trip without needing to walk two blocks to pick up a connection,” she wrote in a statement.

When breaking down the numbers, it’s estimated that the bus lane would cost the city over $240,000 in total, which is about $78,000 to add the bus lane and $162,000 in lost parking revenue.

“All things considered, $240,000 for the City of Toronto is actually not that much. Just in plain terms it’s a lot of money, but for how much the city spends on other infrastructure projects it’s actually quite small,” said one commuter.

“The fact that there is so much traffic, a lot of people stop taking the bus because of that, so since there are going to have their own dedicated bus lane, I feel like they will get more customers on the buses,” said another commuter.

The 510 Spadina route is one of the TTC’s busiest. Last year, streetcars carried an average of 35,000 passengers each weekday.