I'm PROROW (or: IMBY!)

I support the boycott of businesses that oppose the St. Clair streetcar.

I have been a big fan of rapid transit ever since I was first exposed to it. As a child, I was greatly impressed by the hop-on-hop-off ease and convenience of the London Underground, and wished my own home and all my potential destinations were served by a subway. It seemed to me the ultimate freedom, even more so than a car. As an adult, I deliberately arranged my life in this way, so that the vast majority of my travels would, in fact, be by subway. As such, I greatly support building rapid transit anywhere and everywhere, as my vision of the ideal Toronto is like a super-efficient city in the original Simcity: you can get anywhere by train alone.

I have never lived or worked on Spadina, but I have had to visit there a few times for various reasons, and each time I was highly impressed by the streetcar service. Because of the quality service provided on Spadina's dedicated right-of-way, a trip down Spadina is no more of an expedition than a subway trip. Generally, if I need to do an errand, I think first "How can I do this in my immediate neighbourhood?" and then "How can I do this using only the subway?" Going down Spadina feels the same as using only the subway. Going down St. Clair does not. I rarely have any reason to go down St. Clair, but I know that if the street had a dedicated streetcar right-of-way, I would consider a trip along St. Clair to be no more difficult than a subway trip. I might even use the St. Clair streetcar to cross over from the Yonge line to the Spadina line when my intention is to go back north. (I currently find crossing over via the Bloor line takes up no more time than crossing over by bus, so I tend to ride down to Bloor since I can read on a train but not on a bus.)

If St. Clair doesn't want ROW, I would like to humbly suggest that they consider building it at Eglinton. I, personally, would welcome it enthusiastically, although I can only speak for myself. IMBY!