12-26-2017, 12:20 AM
(12-25-2017, 11:25 PM)plam Wrote:(12-25-2017, 11:04 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: I read a strange article about Toronto’s King St. from a merchant who claims the place has basically turned into a ghost town. I don’t see how eliminating a tiny number of parking spaces and a small fraction of the through traffic from the street can have as bad an effect as he claims on business. On the other hand I’m concerned that maybe there is some non-obvious linkage that actually is leading to a problem. On one level his article makes no sense. For example, he claims that walk-in traffic is off. But walk-in traffic is pedestrian traffic, and the street is a better pedestrian street than before. But presumably he’s not making up his customer counts, so if those are down I’m worried. Maybe it just feels quieter because there isn’t as much traffic noise, and the space feels more open because there isn’t a line of parked cars.
Was he the same guy who complains about everything? I thought I saw that. Might be good to Google his name for past press coverage.
Fortunately, in Toronto, they are also tracking the volume of business that restaurants are doing, so they can actually verify sky-is-falling claims. I was also on King St a few days ago and it does seem a lot less full of cars but not necessarily of people (which I think is great).
It's a good bet it was, if this was read on some news article. That particular proprietor has a 20 year history of "things killing his business"...starting all the way back on the ban on smoking.
(12-25-2017, 11:25 PM)plam Wrote: I do always cycle to the University of Waterloo because it's kind of annoying to park (not close and also costs money). I wouldn't expend my political capital on reforming the parking system.
It's amazing how small a pain point it takes to convert people to other means of transportation. Sure with the city had the political will to inconvenience people very slightly.