Wednesday, January 3, 2006 - By Jack Lakey - Staff Reporter - Toronto Star - thestar.com
The weight of the bus stopping in the same spot has grooved the road at the southwest corner of Keele St. and Finch Ave. W.
It's well known that big transport trucks are hard on roads, but TTC buses cause their share of problems, too.
While making a right turn yesterday from the westbound lanes of Finch Ave. W. onto Keele St., we spotted a peculiar phenomenon in the right-turn lane that we've come to think of as a "bus knuckle." At many TTC bus stops, the bus always comes to a halt in approximately the same place. After a while, grooves begin to form in the asphalt from the weight of the bus. It's worse in hot weather, when the pavement softens.
Eventually, the grooves sink substantially below the grade of the road, creating a hump in between that looks like the knuckles on one's hand.
We've seen them at a few bus stops and thought they were nothing more than a bumpy inconvenience to drive over. Then we got an email from a motorcycle rider, who said he hit one at a slow speed, which pitched his bike to the left. He was almost thrown into traffic.
Since then, we've learned that bus knuckles aren't just a nasty bump, but a danger, too.
Of the knuckles we've spotted around the GTA, the granddaddy of them in our opinion is at Finch and Keele. The distance from the bottom of the grooves to the top of the knuckle is 10 centimetres or more.
STATUS: Hector Moreno of Toronto's roads department says there are several ways to deal with the problem. A grinder can be used to get rid of the knuckle, the pavement can be removed and replaced with firmer asphalt, or concrete is sometimes used because it doesn't buckle under the weight of the bus. Moreno said they'll likely grind it down in the short term, then consider a more permanent solution.
WHO'S GETTING IT FIXED: Hector Moreno, area roads superintendent; 416-395-6225; HMORENO@toronto.ca