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.
I mean I think my transit is good but yeah you could get those 3 bus pile ups. They do tell busses to go express which helps a lot. Basically if a bus is packed already it announces its going express after the next stop and folks get off and some folks going the distance its expressing or further get on and it gets out of the way of its follower busses. often its like the first goes express a few miles forward and the second is directed to express about a mile up and the third one then is picking up as normal so it debunches them.