Trams are Great! So why are the Streetcars SO BAD!?

Made by humans for humans. No generative AI or AI voices were used in the making of this video. Support this channel and the production of real human content by signing up to Nebula for only $36/year with this link: https://go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes Buy a Nebula gift card (now with iDEAL): https://gift.nebula.tv/notjustbikes Watch this video ad-free and sponsor-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-trams-are-great-so-why-are-the-streetcars-so-bad Live in Toronto? Join the TTC Riders advocacy group, and help make the streetcars better! https://www.ttcriders.ca/greenlight Patreon: https://patreon.com/notjustbikes Mastodon: @[email protected] NJB Live (my live-streaming channel): https://youtube.com/@njblive --- Relevant Videos The Absolute Best Transportation for Cities (Trams) https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-the-absolute-best-transportation-for-cities https://youtu.be/bNTg9EX7MLw This Train Station Has No Business Being This Good https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-this-train-station-has-no-business-being-this-good https://youtu.be/HACaRm2KP6Q More Lanes are (Still) a Bad Thing https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-more-lanes-are-still-a-bad-thing https://youtu.be/CHZwOAIect4 How Toronto Got Addicted to Cars https://nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-how-toronto-got-addicted-to-cars https://youtu.be/KkO-DttA9ew A Plan to fix Toronto's Streetcars [RMTransit] https://nebula.tv/videos/rmtransit-how-to-fix-torontos-streetcars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmSj162rSoc --- References and Further Reading Photos of Historic Streetcars courtesy of Transit Toronto, Richard Glaze, Howard Wayt (used with permission): https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4114.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4116.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4133.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4120.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4118.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4136.shtml https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4138.shtml Historical streetcars in Canada https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~wyatt/streetcar-list.html Shuffle Demons - Spadina Bus https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QOlpwwfamSo Toronto: Let's Talk About the Streetcars. https://nextmetro.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-the-streetcars Cost of running buses instead of streetcars on Queen Street https://web.archive.org/web/20170611182254/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/queen-street-without-streetcars-the-city-might-give-it-a-look-1.4152158 https://stevemunro.ca/2017/06/14/the-cost-of-running-the-queen-car/ Streetcar Stop Spacing https://stevemunro.ca/2024/08/05/streetcar-stop-spacing/ Wheelchairs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELRxc6Jliuo https://nowtoronto.com/news/be-on-the-lookout-for-us-toronto-resident-in-wheelchair-calls-on-ttc-to-be-more-aware-after-streetcar-passed-him-twice/ https://www.enables.me/rvs-ttc-streetcar-adventure/ Changes to Amsterdam tram lines https://www.at5.nl/nieuws/231818/gvb-wil-tramlijnen-fors-wijzigen-wethouder-vraagt-aanpassingen-aan-plannen Switches https://stevemunro.ca/2015/06/25/the-state-of-ttc-streetcar-track-switches/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150701203823/http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/1413525/why-ttc-workers-manually-switch-directions-of-streetcar-tracks/ Streetcar Frequent Dewirement Spot (Lithic Halcyon) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOtMf1Oj4os As usual, the YouTube Description is not nearly long enough for all of the references. You can find the full list on Nebula or at this link: https://notjustbikes.com/references/torontostreetcars.txt Thanks to RM Transit for helping with the research for this video. Thanks to Extra Credits for the quote read! The vast majority of the content in this video was filmed on location by Not Just Bikes, with some images licensed from Getty Images, RM Transit, and other sources. --- Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:17 Brief History 4:00 Trams vs streetcars vs LRT 5:19 Stuck in traffic and at red lights 7:55 I'm sorry, but I needed a "winter" segment or Canadians will just blame winter and stop listening to every other argument. It's a cultural flaw of Canadians. Make fun of them for it every time you see it, please. 9:00 Dedicated lanes are still slow 11:27 Streetcar stops and wayfinding 13:46 Level boarding and wheelchair access 18:16 Streetcars vs buses vs subways 19:43 Pedestrianisation and great urbanism 21:56 Streetcar streets should not have through traffic 22:55 King Street Transit Priority Pilot Project 25:14 Suburban sabotage of the streetcars 28:18 The results of the King Street project 32:54 Toronto is addicted to cars 34:19 The solutions to improve the streetcars 35:37 Eglinton Crosstown & Finch West LRT 38:30 Cobbling together 100-year old technology 43:29 The streetcar network is frozen in time 45:45 The right-wing attacks on the streetcars 46:58 Concluding thoughts & how to support the channel