Overdue Idea: Toronto Subway Traffic Lanes

THE ISSUE: Running late at Union station and the roar below tells you to get to the platform. You make for a stairway, but nearly get laid out by some guy dashing for the token machine. You fight past a school group and politely bodycheck your way down the narrow stairway, knowing that your kids’ daycare up on Sheppard is prepping the overtime clock.

You hit the platform just as the doors open, but you’re going against traffic, and forced to the wall on the narrow platform. By the time you find a gap, the chimes are sounding and the doors slide shut.

The ‘next-train’ clock says 5 minutes, plenty of time to calculate the daycare late fee you’ll be paying.

THE VICTIMS: I don’t blame the builders, because when they planted the Toronto subway back in the 50s, the world was less than half as full as it is now, and Toronto was still a second-fiddle backwater wishing it were Montreal.

But modern world-beating T.O. (sports teams excluded, natch) is having a bit of trouble fitting into yesterday’s pants. Simply put, the crowds at the main stations are insane, and some of the platforms are built to Flying Wallenda dimensions (that means’ they’re really narrow).

And yes I KNOW they’re rebuilding Union and all that, but they did that years ago at Yonge-Bloor and it’s still a disaster. Meet me there Monday at 9 if you don’t believe me.

At some stations, the TTC uses Tim Horton’s-style lineup barriers to direct traffic. Forgive me, but I don’t think it’s a long-term solution to have employees running around with pylons like roadies at an Aerosmith concert.

We’ve got WiFi in the stations now, so let’s keep up with the technological revolution.

THE FIX: Let’s stick with the barrier idea, but take it digital. You’ve probably seen those interactive floor projections where the kids can walk on an image of a pond and make ripples.

Imagine projected pedestrian lanes. One lane for east, one lane for west, some lanes leading to turnstiles, some leading to exits. Since it’s just light, it could be adjusted to the situation, so that if it’s morning rush hour at King, the pathway guiding traffic towards the exit would be wider than the one leading down to the platform.

And think that a glowing line on the floor won’t be enough to stop you from blazing your own path? Do it and pay the price. These systems are interactive, and a lane violation could be punished by an aggressive neon glow that follows you as you move through the station.

And that bozo babbling into his phone as he wanders along clipping people with his elbows, he gets a shame glow, too.

Look, we take the rules of the road seriously when we’re driving, and most of us stand on the right side of the escalator. But for some reason, when we get into a subway station, we go all Darwin. Time to calm down and inject a bit of sanity.