When Toronto’s streetcars hit a rare open stretch of road, the metallic grind gives way to an airy electric hum, and for a fleeting moment, there is a feeling that one is hurtling along the knife’s edge of the future.
Seconds later, the illusion shatters: the car grinds to a halt, at a stop – or more often, in traffic. As the city slips past the stalled riders, some notice a runner zipping by.
Mac Bauer is fast, but the city’s trams, weighing more than 100,000lbs and travelling at a maximum speed of nearly 45mph, should be far faster than him.
And yet as of late December, in head-to-head races against streetcars, the 32-year-old remains undefeated in his quest to highlight how sluggish the trams, used by 230,000 people daily, truly are.
You’re lucky if the busses even stopped for you where I used to live at. Half the time, they’d see you’re the only one at the stop, then just nope off without stopping.