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 can easily outruns streetcars when commuting with a bicycle. Those streetcars have dedicated lanes/tracks, have right of way in intersections. So they can’t get stuck in trafic unless bad drivers block an intersection. You’d think they would easily reach top speed.
But their path is terrible, causing them to slow to a crawl due to numerous tight turns and a couple bridges with a slope to climb.