Toronto Red Light District.

[JuanGoodman]

Ok, so it's not what you think. It's about the Red Traffic Lights that are slowing this city to a grind.

I had to do a lot of city driving this weekend and the traffic was insane. The traffic lights that were suppose to be synchronized years ago, are not synchronized at all. Or even worse, they are synchronized to slow traffic down and make the commute unbearable.

There are traffic lights at many intersections of major streets and smaller secondary streets , that are RED for the major street when there are no cars on the secondary streets. The whole traffic on the major street has to stop for nothing. It makes absolutely no sense, how the

flow of traffic is disrupted by that. It's a constant stop and go. Pass one intersection just to see the lights turning RED at the next intersection. It almost feels like its done on purpose. There used to be an idea that if you cross the intersection on a yellow light and speed a little,

you will catch a green at the next intersection. Well that's gone now, you will catch a red no matter what you do.



Also, I used Waze app for the first time, I know,everybody else is using it for a long time now. It was amazing. I enetered my destination and not only did the app get me there with voice navigation, but it also gave me an estimated time of arival right at the start. And at the end of

the trip the time was off by only 3 minutes!!!


So I had an idea. Why not let Waze control the traffic lights? It's already doing a great job, against all odds. Just imagine what an improvement it would be if the app controlled all the traffic lights in the city. It wouldn't cost the city anything. The app is FREE!!! :biggrin:



I made one more observation while on my city tour. What the hell is wrong with pedestrians and their phones? People are so preoccupied with looking at their phone they do not look anywhere else. Even when crossing the street.

What happened to the way we were taught as kids how to cross the street? Look left, look right then look left again and if the way is clear you can cross the street.

So teach your kids and your grown up friends to L.O.L when crossing the street. It might save their life.

LOL

L - look left

O- look the other way (right)

L- look left again.

LOL

 

[basketcase]

...
There are traffic lights at many intersections of major streets and smaller secondary streets , that are RED for the major street when there are no cars on the secondary streets....

The city is transitioning many smaller streets so they aren't triggered unless a car trips the sensor or a pedestrian hits a button. It costs money and takes time though. In my observations, the city is very willing to try a bunch of things to improve traffic. The King St. Pilot, Richmond being synched to the speed limit, those scramble crosswalks they tried on Bloor etc. When it comes down to it there are two major roadblocks. One is money and the other is simply too many cars for the way our downtown streets are designed.

 

[JuanGoodman]

The city is transitioning many smaller streets so they aren't triggered unless a car trips the sensor or a pedestrian hits a button. It costs money and takes time though. In my observations, the city is very willing to try a bunch of things to improve traffic. The King St. Pilot, Richmond being synched to the speed limit, those scramble crosswalks they tried on Bloor etc. When it comes down to it there are two major roadblocks. One is money and the other is simply too many cars for the way our downtown streets are designed.

Yes, but its old school thinking. Putting sensors in the pavement is old technology, we don't need it anymore. We all have cellphones and a wonder app like Waze. I think that concentrating on using the new technology is a much better and cheaper way of dealing with city congestion and also safety for all road users.

 

[Jake2525]

It seems in York region the lights are synchronized to impede the flow of traffic. I’ve gone along Hwy 7 or 16th and go from 1 red light to another

 

[shack]

There used to be an idea that if you cross the intersection on a yellow light and speed a little,

you will catch a green at the next intersection.

That sounds like a pretty unsafe idea. Run yellows and speed.

 

[JuanGoodman]

That sounds like a pretty unsafe idea. Run yellows and speed.

At least it's an idea. Do you have any?

 

[xmontrealer]

In Vaughan streets such as Yonge north of Elgin Mills (so far), and Bathurst north of Center Street, and Center Street itself, are being divided with bus only lanes, so that left turns require special left turn lights, that are only green for a short period of time, and there's no such thing any more as turning left when the oncoming lanes are clear if the left turn lights are red. So instead of two stop light cycles cars have to wait for 3 cycles before it's their turn for the green light.

Really slows down left turns, and traffic in general at busy times, as often the left turn lane is so full it encroaches on the straight through lanes.

And don't get me started on the Eglinton LRT disaster!

 

[shack]

At least it's an idea. Do you have any?

Realize that you live in Toronto and just accept it, the same as in cities like NYC, LA and Chic. All you can do is use the GPS and find the least congested route. Traffic will never ever be what it was even 15 or 20 years ago. Those days are gone.

 

[JuanGoodman]

Realize that you live in Toronto and just accept it, the same as in cities like NYC, LA and Chic. All you can do is use the GPS and find the least congested route. Traffic will never ever be what it was even 15 or 20 years ago. Those days are gone.

The problem with accepting the status quo is that it will only get worse. The question should be why don't we use modern technology to improve traffic? We have computers, GPS, cellphones and different app that can easily deal with this issue.

The only problem that I can see is that there is no money in it for the government.

 

[shack]

We have computers, GPS, cellphones and different app that can easily deal with this issue.

So what major city in N. America with 7 million people has easily dealt with this issue?

 

[JuanGoodman]

So what major city in N. America with 7 million people has easily dealt with this issue?

What's with you and them negative vibes? "Just accept it, Those days are gone, can't be done".

I do not know what cities are using a computerized system to control traffic lights. I'm not an expert on that subject and I do not have to be to have an opinion about it. I use my common sense that tells me that I could do better if I just stood there and controlled one traffic light by hand and I know that a computer could do a better job than me, easily! Multiply that by all traffic lights and there surly be some improvement.

 

[basketcase]

The problem with accepting the status quo is that it will only get worse. The question should be why don't we use modern technology to improve traffic? We have computers, GPS, cellphones and different app that can easily deal with this issue.

The only problem that I can see is that there is no money in it for the government.

Again, the problem is the number of cars. All we are doing is trying to slow down the damage. You will also find that if everyone uses waze, it no longer has much benefit wrt. congestion.

If you want traffic problems reduced, the only option is to either limit the number of cars or make their use so expensive that people choose other options.

p.s. I love what they did on King St. They made it a better option to leave the car and take TTC when hitting the core.

 

[JuanGoodman]

Again, the problem is the number of cars. All we are doing is trying to slow down the damage. You will also find that if everyone uses waze, it no longer has much benefit wrt. congestion.

If you want traffic problems reduced, the only option is to either limit the number of cars or make their use so expensive that people choose other options.

p.s. I love what they did on King St. They made it a better option to leave the car and take TTC when hitting the core.

If we take your logic a little further, the problem is not the number of cars. The cars do not drive themselves. The problem is too many people. If you take away cars, you still have the people that somehow have to get around. Unfortunately the city transit system is mediocre at best and above full capacity in many cases.

So you are really saying that we have too many people! Sorry, the city is closed to new comers. We are not accepting new members at this time, until we figure out what to do with the people we have here now.

Well, you see the problem with that solution, right? Don't you think that maybe we should give my idea a try first.

To build new infrastructure will take years or decades if it will ever get done at all. And it will cost billions, the money that we simply do not have.

Using modern technology to solve the problem would be practical, fast and relatively inexpensive. It might not bring us back to how the traffic was 20 years ago, but it might make it manageable.

 

[WULA]

Toronto desperately needs public education on how to behave on city streets ...motorists, bikers, pedestrians and transit takers. We all need to try to get along to optimize travel times.

We need more technology and better thinking. More flexibility.

King Street sits mostly empty outside of rush hours. It is very expensive vacant transit infrastructure. A no cars on the tracks from 7am to 7pm - like a normal bus lane - would have been a more optimum solution.

John Tory's only idea is to add lots of red lights and cut speed limits to a crawl.

Maybe if the City or Province invested in traffic management, it could be turned into an exportable product/service and sold to other cities.
Nah, they all would rather build their own empires ! OR do not much !

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

The dumbest lights they put up are at Simcoe & University.
During rush hour it causes a huge traffic jam that makes it way to University, which in turn blocks traffic going southbound

*cute reporter alert*: https://toronto.citynews.ca/video/2019/03/14/mixed-signals-over-new-traffic-lights/