King Street's First Attempt At A Pedestrian Only Road Was An Epic Fail

King Street is easily one of the busiest roads that span across the downtown area and with an estimated  65,000+ transit riders and 20,000 vehicles zipping down it every day.

In an attempt to reduce the constant congestion happening on King, the City of Toronto has created the King Street Transit Pilot project, a plan to restrict cars/ trucks from driving down the busiest areas of King Street to allow for faster flowing movement of road transit, cyclists, and those walking area the area.

The project launched over the weekend and to say things were rocky would be an understatement. Those watching on Sunday as officers tried to redirect traffic off King stated that many ignored the instructions offered and instead were seen zipping past officers 'dangerously'. Hundreds of cars were seen driving down King Street when they weren't supposed to be.

Seeing so many people fail at the #kingstreetpilot - do they not care or are they just blind to the signs massive yellow road markings?

November 13, 2017

At Yonge and king. 75% of traffic ignoring pilot project. No enforcement in site. @TPSOperations @JohnTory @bradTTC #kingstreetpilot

November 13, 2017

For now officers will be handing out informational pamphlets on the new changes to King Street rather than tickets, but that it's not said how long that will last.

Red-vested TTC staff  were also out in hordes working alongside the local police on Sunday, alerting to offer up info on the changes to pedestrians and transit riders.

However, when it comes to how Monday commuters feel about the changes to their morning ride, the feedback has been fairly positive:

Hell yeah. It took only 15 mins to get from Jarvis to Shaw. 😍@TTChelps #KingStreetPilot #TOpoli #reclaimingmytime

November 12, 2017

Day 2 of #KingStreetPilot. Early reports of easier & faster transit rides as well as some early growing pains. As a pilot, it will take time

November 13, 2017

Chatted with my 504 King streetcar driver, who said things downtown are going very well, and about car drivers ignoring new signs, said “it’s the first day. Give it a week and then we’ll see!” #KingStreetPilot

November 12, 2017

The new #kingstreetpilot is amazing. Shaved 15 minutes of a normal TTC commute.

November 13, 2017

Shorter transit commute times and confused/angry drivers. The summary of Day 1 of the #KingStreetPilot. 👉👉 Keep in mind some banks and employers are off today, tomorrow is the real test! 👈👈

November 13, 2017

While naturally there will be some growing pains as local commuters figure out how to navigate through the new road rules, so far this seems like it could be a better means of traffic flow in the transit dominant city.