Mayoral hopeful Brad Bradford is proposing to take out priority bus lanes in Scarborough, on one of the busiest transit corridors in the city.
asserted
Bradford → propose → city
Bradford, at an announcement Wednesday, said that, if elected, he would commit to removing bus lanes on Kingston Road, Morningside Avenue, Kennedy Road and Midland Road so that “those lanes, 12 kilometres, go back to everybody who uses this road.”
asserted
who → say → road
“Scarborough gets its roads back now, and it gets its trains for real, instead of paint forever and a train never,” Bradford said, promising that he would secure funding for the Scarborough Rapid Transit Line, or Eglinton East LRT, which he has criticized his mayoral rival Olivia Chow for not building.
asserted
he → get → rival
“Toronto’s not broken, but it is stuck.
asserted
it → break → ?
And nowhere is it worse stuck than right here in Scarborough.”
asserted
it → stick → Scarborough
Scarborough transit takes centre stage
Chow has promised to push the federal and provincial governments for funding to build the Scarborough East Rapid Transit Line, renamed from the Eglinton East LRT.
asserted
Chow → take → LRT
Bradford has made the same promise, saying that he would have shovels in the ground for the project by 2030, the end of a hypothetical mayoral term.
asserted
he → make → term
The Eglinton RapidTO bus lanes that Bradford has promised to remove, and revert to HOV lanes, are some of the most heavily travelled across the TTC surface system, as they connect Kennedy Station to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus and Centennial College.
asserted
they → promise → campus
As part of his new promise, Bradford has said he would keep the Eglinton portion of the RapidTO bus lanes.
asserted
he → say → lanes
The lanes were installed, in part, because of a push made by Bradford himself when he was a councillor in 2020.
asserted
he → instal → 2020
The bus lanes on Kennedy and Midland roads were already going to be removed as they were made redundant with the opening of the Scarborough busway last week, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green confirmed.
asserted
Green → go → busway
Bradford pushed for the lanes in 2020
Bradford originally pushed for the bus lanes in 2020, when he moved a motion fast tracking the installation of the Eglinton RapidTO bus lanes (which included priority bus lanes on Eglinton, Morningside and Kingston roads) at the TTC board and spoke in favour of them at city council.
asserted
which → push → council
“I think we do need to prioritize transit in the city of Toronto and certainly making investments in bus priority in our neighbourhood improvement areas … that’s the right thing to do,” Bradford said at a July 2020 city council meeting.
asserted
Bradford → think → meeting
“If we want to improve service, which I can tell you we hear at the (TTC board) day in and day out … these are the types of moves that we have to make.
asserted
we → want → that
Big cities build big transit, and bus priority and surface transit moves among the most people in the city of Toronto,” the city councillor added.
asserted
councillor → build → Toronto
“So, advancing permanent transit priority along Eglinton, that’s a big win.
asserted
that → advance → Eglinton
And getting that done this fall, I’m thrilled about that.”
asserted
I → get → that
Nastassia Varela, a spokesperson for the Bradford campaign, said that the lanes were always meant to be “an interim solution.”
asserted
lanes → say → campaign
The Eglinton RapidTO lanes were part of a broad citywide initiative to install rapid bus and transit lanes across the city, including on Finch Avenue, Dufferin Street, Lawrence Avenue East and Steeles Avenue West.
asserted
lanes → install → Avenue
One TTC report, during Bradford’s time on the TTC board in 2020, noted that the RapidTO bus lanes would help build ridership for a future LRT in the area.
asserted
lanes → note → area
“Six years later, there’s no funding, no construction date, and the province has said the line isn’t a priority,” Varela said.
asserted
Varela → ’ → ?
“Olivia Chow is doubling down on the temporary solution and isn’t moving fast enough to build the long-term solution Scarborough needs.”
asserted
Scarborough → double → solution
Varela also emphasized that Bradford isn’t proposing “taking transit priority away from riders” but would revert the bus lanes back to HOV lanes as they were before.
asserted
they → emphasize → lanes
Have the bus lanes worked so far?
asserted
lanes → work → ?
According to the latest report on the Eglinton East bus lanes, published by the city in January 2024, travel times have improved by two minutes in the morning and three minutes in the evening for bus riders between January 2022 and March 2023 and improved reliability.
uncertain
times → accord → January
Car travel times, the report noted, have increased slightly as well, by 30 seconds in the morning rush and one minute in the evenings.
asserted
report → note → evenings
And, according to that report, ridership on the four bus lines that run along the Eglinton RapidTO bus lanes — the 86, 116, 905 and 986 — all had higher post-pandemic ridership recovery than the rest of the city’s bus network.
uncertain
that → accord → network
But, despite some of the success of rapid bus lanes, both in Toronto and internationally, they have drawn backlash as cities grapple with how to allocate valuable, limited road space.
asserted
cities → draw → space
Bus and streetcar priority lanes installed on Bathurst and Dufferin streets for the FIFA World Cup faced backlash from local businesses who raised alarms about the potential loss of on-street parking, leading to a scale down of those plans.
asserted
who → instal → plans
Residents divided on proposal
Scarborough residents were divided on Bradford’s proposal.
asserted
residents → divide → proposal
Kim McCormick has run Flowers in West Hill on Kingston Road near the intersection with Morningside Avenue for the past 10 years, and has lived in the area for nearly three decades.
asserted
McCormick → run → decades
“If I was an everyday bus person taking it (the bus) then yes, it’s wonderful, you have an express lane, you’re getting where you need to be on time, I certainly agree with that,” she said.
asserted
she → take → that
“But basically we would have needed another lane to work along Morningside (Avenue).”
asserted
we → need → Avenue
McCormick, who drives “most of the time,” said the exclusive bus lanes “create an awful lot of traffic and backup” and added it’s a “positive” thing if they are removed.
Clarisse McGowan, owner of Clarisse’s Hair Braiding Studio Inc. Scarborough, said the removal of the bus lanes “is not a good move.”
asserted
removal → drive → lanes
“If you’re thinking it’s (bus lanes) creating more traffic, if you make it harder for people to take public transit, they’re going to end up driving, right?” she said.
asserted
she → think → transit
“And that’s going to also create more traffic.”
asserted
that → go → traffic
McGowan lives in Durham, drives to work and has operated her salon on Kingston Road for about a year.
asserted
McGowan → live → year
“I don’t think removing this (bus lane) is going to help (with traffic congestion),” she said.
asserted
she → think → congestion
For McGowan, the bus lanes should be kept.
asserted
lanes → keep → McGowan
“I have many staff and many clients that take public transit, and it’s convenient, right?
asserted
it → take → transit
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
