A new TTC pilot will record drivers who illegally pass open streetcar doors
“Every day, our customers and operators see vehicles blow past open streetcar doors, putting people at risk,” TTC chair Jamaal Myers said in a statement
The TTC has launched a new pilot program aimed at identifying road users who don’t stop to let passengers safely exit streetcars.
For nine months, streetcars on five TTC routes—501 Queen, 504 King, 505 Dundas, 506 Carlton and 511 Bathurst—will record people who defy the streetcar’s flashing lights, which are meant to instruct them to stop for transit passengers.
It is already illegal to pass open streetcar doors. The pilot is meant to test new technology before potentially implementing the camera system permanently.
According to a media release published by the TTC, between 2014 and 2025, at least 141 streetcar passengers were hit by vehicles while boarding or exiting streetcars.
Related: The TTC has been ordered to stop randomly testing employees for drug use
“The Streetcar Passing Automated Enforcement Pilot will be collecting information from cameras installed on the side of the streetcar where passengers board and alight, for the purpose of quantifying the issue and testing the viability and accuracy of camera technology for the issue of automobile infractions respecting the illegal passing of streetcars under the Highway Traffic Act,” the release explained.
TTC chair Jamaal Myers said in the TTC release that, “Every day, our customers and operators see vehicles blow past open streetcar doors, putting people at risk. This pilot is an important step toward ending that behaviour and making sure everyone gets on and off the streetcar safely.”
Tickets will not yet be issued during the pilot phase, but Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters she would be in support of ticketing offenders, should the pilot become permanent, and with the provincial government’s okay.
“We are not giving tickets yet, but be warned: we are looking at you, we know who you are,” she said. “It is a warning. Don’t pass a streetcar if there are lights flashing at you and it is stopped.”
Related: A Mercedes driver allegedly hit a parking enforcement officer with his car over a ticket
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
