Toronto mayoral candidates use King Street pilot project figures in campaign race

After figures released this week show the King Street pilot project achieving what it was intended to, two of the top contenders in the city’s mayoral race are using the figures to their advantage.

Officially launched last November, the pilot restricts car traffic on King Street between Jarvis and Bathurst streets. The city released figures showing that between May and June, transit ridership jumped 35 per cent during the morning commute and 27 per cent in the evening. Travel times have also improved and customer spending rose, but just by 0.3 per cent over the same period last year.

Mayor John Tory, who has championed the pilot program, used the new figures to paint the project as a success.

“We now have 20,000 people that are now riding the King Street car that weren’t riding the streetcar before. We have people travelling faster to where they’re going. We have streetcar reliability that’s hugely up,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We now have 20,000 people that are now riding the King Street car that weren't riding the streetcar before. We have people travelling faster to where they're going. We have streetcar reliability that's hugely up," he said.

But Tory now finds himself in somewhat strange territory — one of his main challengers for mayor, former Chief City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat, was in charge of rolling out the pilot.

While continuing to promote the project, Tory’s campaign took aim at Keesmaat questioning if she still championed the plan.

Keesmaat confirmed with Global News on Thursday that she is still in favour of the pilot and said she would be open to it continuing past its planned end date if she were to become mayor.

“When we first drew this up on my white board in my office, we saw there were a lot of potential pitfalls,” Keesmaat said. “In fact what we’re seeing today is that we can make a project like this work, we can deliver it, and we can improve commuting for Torontonians.”

Tory said that while he was pleased with the numbers released by the city, he isn’t ready to commit to the pilots continuation after December.

READ MORE: Toronto police face ‘unique challenge’ when it comes to issuing tickets on King Street

“We said we would look at the data at the end of the year and I think we’ll stay the course on doing that,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We said we would look at the data at the end of the year and I think we'll stay the course on doing that," he said.

However, one aspect Tor said that the city will continue to monitor, is how businesses are affected.

“We have to make sure businesses thrive in there, and I think they’re coming back from an early adjustment they had to make last winter,” he said.