Toronto Man Outruns Streetcars To Show Up Sluggish Transit Network (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180488103
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/30/202203/toronto-man-outruns-streetcars-to-show-up-sluggish-transit-network
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/30/i-dont-like-winning-toronto-man-outruns-streetcars-to-show-up-sluggish-transit-network
> Mac Bauer is fast, but the city's trams, weighing more than 100,000lbs and traveling at a maximum speed of nearly 45mph, should be far faster than him. And yet as of late December, in head-to-head races against streetcars, the 32-year-old remains undefeated in his quest to [1]highlight how sluggish the trams, used by 230,000 people daily, truly are .
>
> Some races have pushed him closer to his limits as a runner. On other occasions, the car has been so slow he's had time to nip into a McDonald's before it reaches the last station. "I don't like winning. I really don't. I really, really wish these streetcars were faster than me," he said. "But they're not. And this is the problem." Bauer's rise as a running celebrity and transit critic embodies the mounting frustration of a city beset by chronic delays, congested streets and decades of under-built transit.
>
> "Streetcars just shouldn't be stuck in traffic," he said, adding the system also needed more "signal priority" which gives the streetcars lengthened green lights and shortened red lights. Bauer started racing transit vehicles roughly a year ago after he and his wife realized how long it took them to traverse the city. He posted videos of those races to Instagram and quickly transformed into a minor celebrity. Bauer describes his runs as a form of social activism, and his ability to lay bare the absurdities of Toronto's beleaguered public transit system -- a person can outrun a streetcar! -- has struck a nerve with the tens of thousands of commuters who share [2]his Instagram posts .
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/30/i-dont-like-winning-toronto-man-outruns-streetcars-to-show-up-sluggish-transit-network
[2] https://www.instagram.com/514runner/?hl=en
Two words (Score:3)
Grade separation.
This is why many cities bury their trams (Score:2)
and call it a "subway" or put them up on a viaduct and call it an "elevated."
In theory it ought to be possible to have surface level rail transit, but in practice it almost always succumbs to cheaping out in the expensive bits that deconflict surface traffic from the trains.
That, and surface level boarding takes time if fair control happens at the front door.
Here in Boston the MBTA put card readers at all doors recently, but people just "forget" to pay the way they always have.
Re: This is why many cities bury their trams (Score:1)
Yes. I'd wager that unless it's in a state of horrible disrepair, it's a little harder to outrun than the surface trolleys.
Re: (Score:2)
The Toronto subway is fine, but even it isn't super-speedy, especially the parts that are not underground and need to deal with winter weather. Definitely faster than streetcars, though.
"A person can outrun a streetcar!" (Score:2)
Yeah... but they have to get to their destination under their own power. It's like he's forgotten the main reason people use motorized transportation to start with. Early automobiles were generally under 10 mph. A public streetcar doesn't even require you to deal with operating the machine yourself, if you don't enjoy that.
"Streetcars just shouldn't be stuck in traffic" (Score:3)
Nor buses. Give them their own lane, because when buses don't get stuck in traffic, [1]people ride them [youtu.be], freeing up road space and reducing traffic for everyone else.
Converting regular lanes into bus-only lanes is a cheap and easy way to solve traffic congestion, provided you have enough buses to run at 10-minute intervals or better during peak travel times to improve transfers and so people don't have to plan their travel around the bus schedule, and provided you run buses 24/7 so people don't get stranded if they miss the last one.
[1] https://youtu.be/RQY6WGOoYis
Re: (Score:2)
Assuming the bus' main problem is the lane, and not the intersections (which I think may well be the case).
Re: "Streetcars just shouldn't be stuck in traffic (Score:1)
Intersections, street parking, bike lanes, right turn lanes. All of it.
If you are building a dense urban environment from scratch, you can make the street right-of-way wide enough to segregate different kinds of traffic completely.
They do this in China. Since they don't really have property rights, they can just level the old stuff and build sensibly anew. Hangzhou, for example, has separate car lanes, bus lanes, and bike/scooter lanes on all the main roads. Of course their drivers aren't so good at the who
Re: (Score:2)
> Nor buses. Give them their own lane, because when buses don't get stuck in traffic
Oh, do sod off please. Buses should just be banned entirely, they are nothing but misery concentrators.
Bus lanes do NOT appreciably increase the average speed of regular buses. That's because it's dominated by the _stops_ and is typically around 10-15mph. What bus lanes do is displace drivers by forcing them to waste more time riding transit. Nothing more.
Re: (Score:2)
Well designed bus lanes double their speed. But in Toronto and most other cities they do crappy jobs. To do a real job on busses you need:
1) No cars in them at all, not even turning. Yeah those right turns lanes are NOT allowed in the bus lane it has to be a seperate lane.
2) Properly sized curbs designed to let wheel chairs ride directly onto the bus without any kneeling.
3) Busses set to arrive every 5 minutes, not 15. 10+ minutes = a line of people waiting to get on the bus. 5 minutes = a couple of pe
Re: (Score:2)
> Well designed bus lanes double their speed.
No, they don't. I'm not aware of a single large city that has regular buses faster than 15mph. Bus lanes work only for express buses that have few stops. In NYC, the average speed of buses went sometimes _down_ after adding bus lanes. The average speed of Manhattan buses during rush hour is now below 7 mph: [1]https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iborepor... [nyc.ny.us]
[1] https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/speeding-up-slowly-a-review-of-initiatives-to-improve-bus-speeds-in-new-york-city-february-2025.pdf
Re: (Score:2)
> Oh, do sod off please. Buses should just be banned entirely, they are nothing but misery concentrators.
> Bus lanes do NOT appreciably increase the average speed of regular buses. That's because it's dominated by the _stops_ and is typically around 10-15mph. What bus lanes do is displace drivers by forcing them to waste more time riding transit. Nothing more.
Buses can move the equivalent of two city blocks worth of single occupant cars down the road. That bus lane removes more traffic from the roads than the o
Re: (Score:2)
Because they are running on the street , hence the name. So they have slow down/stop for other vehicles like a car does. They don't operate on their own exclusive path like a elevated train or a subway.
Also they have to do that pesky thing of stopping to let people on/off. Where the fellow on foot can run as many blocks continuously since it's he's the only passenger.
Re: (Score:2)
Is the fellow European or African? And how heavy is the passenger?
Re: Aren't streetcars on rails? (Score:2)
Transit enthusiasts starting realize why streetcars are the WORST for public transit.
City planners learned this early on in the 1950s that light rail needs it out grade separation otherwise it becomes bogged down which is why every major city remove its street rail system as cars became way more popular and busses could achieve the same and faster transit.
The best alternative are electrified busses that have the overhead caranary wires. Otherwise dig a hole and make subways because street cars suck.
Re: (Score:2)
Not at all. Sensible cities (Amsterdam, Zurich, ...) run their streetcars on dedicated routes so they can run quickly and predictable.
Toronto puts most of its streetcar lines mixes in with regular car traffic, so you get the worst of both worlds: A giant tram carrying hundreds of people having to wait for one guy in an SUV to turn left. It's really stupid. Buses wouldn't help because they'd also get stuck in that exact same traffic.
Unfortunately, the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, gets all whipped up