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Urban Scrawl

By Rob Graham

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Toronto’s dysfunctional love affair with its streetcars is hurting the environment. Each day, scores of streetcars block the progress of thousands of vehicles that, as they idle, spew tonnes of toxic exhaust fumes into the atmosphere.

Streetcars bring with them other major problems as well.Do you ever wonder why you don’t see them grinding through Manhattan and other major North American centres? They’re a disaster in mixed traffic, slow-moving and costly to operate.

Those deficiencies don’t stop the TTC from running streetcars even where they don’t belong.

Let’s examine the issue of speed, or lack thereof. Consider the rider who gets on the 501 streetcar at the corner of Queen Street East and Kingston Road, en route to Queen Street West and University Avenue, a distance of 6.2 kilometres.

On a good traffic day the trip takes 27 minutes, a speed of about 13.5 kilometres per hour. You can run faster. In fact, the 501 streetcar would have finished 202nd if it had been entered in a well-known Toronto half-marathon last year.