Toronto man runs weekly races against TTC streetcars, keeps winning

Global News

a day ago

A Leslieville resident is on a mission to find out whether he can outrun Toronto's streetcars.
So far, he's seven-for-seven in beating transit along multiple city routes.
'I've won all of them and I think I've won all of them by quite a margin,' said Mac Bauer.
The runner, who is posting his weekly challenges of 'Man vs. Machine' to his Instagram account, first came up with the idea for this challenge during an especially long streetcar ride home.
Keeping record of his race times while running the full routes of the chosen streetcar, he's won by as long as 25 minutes — even taking a snack break at a Tim Horton's while outrunning one.
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Bauer hopes he can highlight the need for better infrastructure to improve transit efficiency.
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'If we want TTC or the streetcars to be a positive experience — and definitely a more efficient experience than driving — we have to update the infrastructure to at least have its own lanes,' Bauer said.
'When we see a car that's moving single people holding up a streetcar that is moving 50 to 100 people, it doesn't make it a more appealing option.'
Walking towards a streetcar line, Bauer points out to Global News a streetcar getting stuck in traffic as it goes through Chinatown.
He believes a lack of designated streetcar lanes or left-turn signal priority largely contributes to his ability to outrun the streetcars.
According to Bauer, the streetcars do move quickly, but slow in the downtown core — that's when he makes up a lot of time.
'I'm not out here hating on the TTC, I think for the most part it does a fairly decent job,' said Bauer. 'But, there are a lot of places for improvements. And — as Torontonians — we deserve better.'
Global News reached out to City of Toronto and TTC, neither was able to provide comment.
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For Bauer, his next challenge will be taking on the St. Clair line.
He's more optimistic for its shot at beating him, as there is a designated lane for streetcars — but, still no signal priority.
'I'm hoping in the future it is a tighter race,' he said. 'I'm hoping that St. Clair can actually win.'