On October 25th all of Ontario goes to vote their municipal leaders. Here in Toronto the race for mayor seems to be cooling down. While candidates continue to campaign, Rob Ford seems to be storming ahead with the lead.

What? Rob Ford? The man who has insulted at least half of the city’s population; he announced he was opposed to gay marriage and does not support immigrants coming to Toronto. He’s been arrested for impaired driving. But this blog is not meant to be about bashing Ford (I’ll save that for another day).

When we go to the polls on October 25th we will all be voting for the future of our cities and towns. Toronto is at a cross-roads. With construction having started on the Spadina Subway extension and the current transit system somewhat in limbo the city needs a mayor that will revitalize transit and make it a priority of their term.

What does the city need for Transit?

Last week I vented about Rossi’s proposal to tunnel the Allen expressway down to the Gardiner. My theme with transit is similar; Toronto needs to work with what it has before unrolling expensive, ostentatious, impossible transit.

Currently Toronto is serviced by 3 subways, a Rapid Transit line (an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line), 11 streetcars and (≈) 144 daily bus routes. Wow, sounds pretty robust. But it’s still inefficient and people opt for their car over transit.

In addition each of the suburban communities has a transit system, Mississauga, Brampton, Viva (servicing York Region), as well as, GO Transit and VIA Rail (servicing a variety of communities). And while the transit operations are starting to ‘work’ together (under PRESTO) there is no seamless system for transit riders to move between the systems (something else to take into consideration when voting).

What can we do better?

1. Work with what we’ve got: When you look at the system map it’s clear that Toronto has the means to have a great transit system, it just needs some tweaks (see suggestions below). London, UK drastically improved reliability when it introduced a congestion charging scheme. First people chose transit over cars due to the cost savings. With fewer cars on the road and dedicated bus lanes, transit was more efficient, even faster than your personal automobile so people switched to transit for efficiency.
2. Dedicated streetcar and bus lanes: Not only do they improve transit times, they also improve transit reliability
3. Signal Priority: As a bus approaches an intersection the lights change in favour for the bus. This is necessary with dedicated lanes to keep transit vehicles moving on schedule
4. Add to the system: Not new routes, just more vehicles on the routes. People opt for their personal vehicle in off-peak hours because their bus runs every 30mins to hour. Reduce that to ten minutes and more people will choose transit over their vehicles.
5. Permit bicycles on subways during peak hours: The new buses and street cars are equipped with bicycle racks, but you’re still not permitted to bring on the subway during peak hours. People would be much more inclined to switch out of their cars given the means to travel efficiently through the city, which means bringing your bike on the subway any time of the day.

Aside from suggestion 4 all of these examples are very low cost to implement and can improve the reliability of the TTC. But what would cost more having more buses in a dedicated transit lane with signal priority or constructing dedicated streetcar and subway lines?

What are the Candidates Saying

Rob Ford: Ford wants to see more streetcar lines, but as the Transit Toronto blog argues this will only increase congestion. He also wants to see an additional 12km of subway lines along Sheppard Avenue. His final comittment was to for 100km of bike trails (rumour has it these are not to be on Toronto roads). His transit plan was released on youtube and just like the quality of the video, his plan is lackluster.

George Smitherman: Smitherman’s plan is called the Integrated Transit Plan. At the heart of the plan is customer service; including free service for seniors between 1oam and 2pm, a transit charter, and a promise to keep vehicles clean and maintained. Looking at a longer term horizon (10- and 20-years out) Smitherman is committed to extending subway lines and adding more LRT lines.

Rocco Rossi: Rossi has a 5 priorities for improving transit in Toronto, #1 being to build more subways. He also recognizes that Toronto cannot continue to operate as a silo, under priority #2 Rossi recommends a stronger partnership with Metrolinx. While this will improve regional transportation, Rossi ignores a massive part of our current local system, buses.

Sarah Thomson: Again she sees subways as queen bee. She’s going all-out, stating that the city needs another 58km of subway lines (the current system is 70km so she’s trying to almost double it). Thomson does have the most aggressive cycling plan with more than 1000km on-road and 40km off-road through utility corridors.

None of them look to our existing system and how to make it better. Instead they’re promising unrealistic, expensive systems. Smitherman’s plan seems best, work on the small things before tackling the big ones, create a better sense of ‘community’ our transit system and while he spells out big ticket plans, he understands that Toronto needs to keep moving – ‘faster, better, easier and safer’.

Over the next few weeks I’ll look at some of the other relevant issues for Toronto’s Mayoral campaign including municipal taxes, city roads and anything else relevant to sustainable cities and transportation.

While his end of camp tag line seems comical now, Toronto’s bus system is depleting so rapidly that it might take a year for you to see your friends again (ok, not really). Unless you live directly on the subway there is little hope that you can travel on the transit system efficiently.

40 minutes to go 5 kilometers?

Reported in the Globe and Mail yesterday, Toronto’s bus routes “fail those who need it most.” According to their research only those who are part of the ‘creative class‘ can afford to live on the subway routes. The remainder, the working and the service class can’t afford to live along the subway, despite needing it the most. Unable to afford a car, insurance and parking these people are forced to use ‘The Better Way‘.

Would a Congestion Charging Scheme Improve Bus Scheduling in Toronto?

In early 2003 London introduced a congestion charging scheme; camera’s were installed and charged people who drove into the city. Rates varied by time of day and day of the week. People who lived in Central London were charged a tax to own a car. And more buses were added to there vast route network just prior to the congestion charging scheme implementation.

The overall result: there was a 30% reduction in automobile traffic. Reliability of the buses increased. With reliability increasing more people saw buses as an attractive alternative to get in and an around town.

Toronto currently does not have a congestion charging scheme. Individuals commute to and from the suburbs, local Toronto residents drive anywhere and everywhere with no other viable option available. In the end the TTC, along with individual automobiles, competes for space on the road.

Forget “fancy, European-style light-rail transit” and subways. Create dedicated bus lanes and carpool lanes during rush-hour. Implement a congestion charging scheme. Promote living where we work. Once again make all aspects of the TTC ‘The Better Way.’

I was absolutely shocked by the traffic of the Toronto bedroom community. It wasn’t the predictable congestion of downtown Toronto, it was chaotic and random and looked like it would drive any commuter to insanity. With it’s 6 lane roads with dedicated double left turn lanes and right turn lanes at intersections, why wasn’t the traffic moving?

I was also surprisingly amazed at the number of people that used the Mississauga transit system – it is after all archaic, completely surface routes with no dedicated transit or carpool lanes, i.e. it moves at whatever speed the traffic is moving.

Why is the traffic so congested in these outlier cities?

Mississauga, and many of the other bedroom communities, is no longer just a commuter city. They have vibrant industry that result in many people commuting to these bedroom communities. But the reason it doesn’t function well is represented by the picture above, long blocks, empty sidewalks and a million people trying to get around.

This problem will only get worse. According to Smart Commute already more people commute into Mississauga than out of Mississauga every day. Over the next 30 years it is predicted that Mississauga’s population will grow by 22% and the number of people working here will grow by 31%. Overall that means even longer commute times, denser congestion resulting in increased pollution and stress levels. And this is only data for Mississauga other jurisdictions will face similar growth.

It will be a combination of city planners, traffic engineers and visionaries to improve this situation. Otherwise Southern Ontario will be plagued with the traffic congestion and pollution from all the single commuter cars.

Thanks to my bf I was directed to the ‘ultimate’ TTC Map on torontoist.com. Dreamed up by Dieter Janssen, an architecture professor at the University of Toronto this map adds new lines, extends existing ones and tries to capture the GTA audience.

Below vs. Above Ground

Streetcar or Subway? Economically it just doesn’t make sense to build more subways. From what I’ve heard every subway kilometre costs $200million and every streetcar kilometre $70million. But with the harsh climate and rolling ravines in Toronto I don’t know that complete surface transit is the answer.

Fare Hikes to Fund New Transit

Either solution where are the funds going to come from to build on this infrastructure? With budgets stretched thin already and existing infrastructure already failing one suggestion has been to increase fares. Before the fare hikes come in, we need to have a zone system in place and a ‘pay-as-go’ card.

Paul Kashimoto made an interesting remark – why not follow the Hong Kong example and earn revenues from managing properties in the vicinity of the transit stations? From Design-Build to Design-Build-Operate.

Although Jansenn’s dream might seem far-fetched it is necessary to have a healthy, sustainable city. For too long Toronto has let its infrastructure be stagnant and we’re paying the price today.

Adron B. Hall, resident of Portland and author of Transit Sleuth, maintains a blog dedicated to transportation. Adron is conducting an interesting experiment and is interviewing other transportation bloggers and is posting their comments on his website. Thus far the series has 6 responses, mine being the sixth.

Adron’s posts cover a range of topics from his commutes around Portland to Transit Politics. It’s an interesting read, with a human side to it (something which I think is generally lacking from transportation/transit planning). And after reading many posts at Transit Sleuth it’s obvious how far Toronto is from an efficient transit plan!

I was inspired yesterday by a tweet by ReNew Canada to think about this issue again. As quoted from the Future of the Gardiner East “Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto have started a conversation considering the removal, replacement or improvement of the Gardiner Expressway from Jarvis Street to just east of the Don Valley Parkway.”

It would only add a small amount of time
I remember hearing back in the fall that tearing down this section would only add 5 minutes to a commuters drive. When? At 5am when there is hardly anybody on the road.

These four routes represent a huge part of Toronto’s transportation infrastructure. Any change to make it more inefficient will further handicap an already ailing transportation network. At a time when Transit City is still in the distant future and public transportation is inefficient we need to preserve and expand what infrastructure we have, not remove it.

It would be great if more people took the train, bus or subway to work. But for most it is still not cost or time efficient to do this. If in the future we have a more robust public transit system than revisiting the demolition of the Gardiner may be feasible.

By Merging GO Transit and Metrolinx Ontario should be able to create more jobs in our fragile economy

The merger will be lead by Robert Prichard and he will be advised by several others including current Metrolinx Chair Rob MacIsaac and GO Transit Chair Peter Smith. By merging Metrolinx with GO Transit this will not only allow Metrolinx to fulfill the original intent of Metrolinx, but also to take advantage of the Federal budget announcements and get shovel ready projects in the ground.

This merger also means that Ontario tax payers will own selected new regional transit infrastructure. But municipalities will also have to consult with Metrolinx on any changes to their existing transit system. With this merger it should hopefully mean the end of municipalities acting as silos and transit being more consistent across Southern Ontario.

Other quick facts:

• there are more than 1.6 million transit trips a day in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area
• GO Transit carries 55 million passengers a year
• Congestion of the Greater Toronto Area costs $6 billion annually

For more information please see Metrolinx, particularly the two articles Ontario Merging GO Transit and Metrolinx and Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Transit Implementation Act, 2009.

No, once you click on the article you’ll see that it is actually titled GO Transit Service Is Expanding: A Summary of Improvements Since 2003. How disappointing.

Does this mean that we should not expect too much in the future from GO Transit?

Don’t get me wrong, I think GO Transit is doing well considering we live in a somewhat anti-transit environment. I do fear that this article sets the stage for McGuinty to say with the next budget that there is no money for any GO expansion in 2009.

The budget is to come down on March 26th, I guess until then we’ll just have to wait and see what the future is for GO Transit.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. Paying with Plastic: We live in a plastic society. Rarely do I carry any cash on me. Like so many others I rely on my debit and credit cards. I find it increasingly annoying that I cannot buy tokens from the machines with a card.
2. By-Pass lines: Have you ever taken the bus or streetcar to a subway stop and been stuck in line while people are purchasing tickets, tokens, passes, etc? I find it very inefficient and extremely annoying that I have to stand in line once again. Aren’t those token machines there for a reason? And can’t I walk around the individual counting change and just show my transfer? (I’ll try it in the coming weeks and let you know my experience)
3. Stop-off Passes: The rules with your TTC fare – one ride, no stopping. Unless you have a metro-pass (which I do not) you cannot stop to grab a coffee, a bite to eat, your dry cleaning, etc. What about paying an extra $0.50 to have the right to make multiple trips within a certain time frame?
4. Student Pass: Ryerson, U of T, and York could all do with cheaper passes. Want to get students out of their cars and on to transit than make the metro pass really inexpensive for them (somewhere in the range of $25 to $50). When I was at Western we received Bus Passes when we picked up our registration packages. If you returned your bus pass for credit you only got $100 back, meaning the school gets bus passes really cheap.

As my frustration grows with the TTC my car becomes more and more attractive. I am trying to minimize my carbon footprint but my sanity is quite important to me to

Plan to ride until the streets are snow covered.

This morning was my first early morning ride to work in the colder weather. Lately I’ve been using the TTC more but today was a great opportunity to get back on my bike. But what a difference. Here is my list of essentials for staying warm while riding:

• Gloves – biking or ordinary just make sure they block the wind. Some of my friends in the ski industry use construction gloves; they block the wind and are very cost effective
• A thin hat – I am pro-helmet but keeping your ears warm makes riding so much more enjoyable. Look for a hat that fits comfortably under your helmet (MEC usually has a great selection). Or you can try the Swix Earmuffs; they are thin, comfortable and very affordable (I have a pair and use them for all sorts of activities)
• A good wind breaker to keep your chest (and more importantly your lungs) warm
• A pair of leggings that fit either under your pants or your cycling shorts depending on your preference.
• Sunglasses – protecting your eyes from swirling debris is important. For those early morning rides in the dark find a pair that illuminate the things around you (typically yellow lenses).

I hope to be able to continue to ride to work until the roads are snow covered. So continue to ride to work, to ride to public transit and to ride to run short errands. Cycling keeps you fit and lets you see all the wonderful things around you.