Toronto runner Mac Bauer raced the Finch West LRT along its 10.3-kilometre route, and beat it by 18 minutes on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the day off and my friends had the day off so it kind of just aligned,\u201d Bauer tells Now Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went, let\u2019s do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Bauer didn\u2019t just beat the LRT that he was racing, he also beat the one ahead of it by eight minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201c[My friend on the LRT] said that he sat outside the station for five to six minutes because of signal issues. So, he should have been a little bit quicker,\u201d Bauer says.<\/p>\n
Bauer\u2019s victory is impressive but not surprising given the complaints reported by the line\u2019s riders since it opened a week ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Worth noting is that Bauer\u2019s win was in spite of the icy conditions parallel to the train\u2019s 10.3-kilometre route.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was slipping and sliding,\u201d Bauer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was kind of on me, though. I was running on the south side of [Finch] and I think it got more shade and didn\u2019t have a chance to melt.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Bauer has beat Toronto\u2019s public transit on foot. In fact, to date, he has raced every single streetcar line in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cBathurst, which is a very short line, I beat by over 20 minutes \u2013 over multiple times,\u201d Bauer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprisingly, Queen Street was faster than I thought, St. Clair was slower than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bauer says there are various factors that go into the speed of a streetcar, such as time of day and luck. One thing he has noticed across streetcars, including the LRT, is the consistent lack of signal priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cSignal priority really has an impact on the overall runtime [of a streetcar],\u201d Bauer says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf [the streetcar] hits a lot of lights, it will obviously be much faster than if they hit red lights one after another.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told Now Toronto she is planning to move a motion at city council next week to increase transit signal priority to the Finch West LRT and that she is hopeful it will move quicker by the end of winter.<\/p>\n
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