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.’

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.

As reported by Steve Munro here is what we can expect:

• Peak bus loading standards are reduced by about 10% (a route will be considered to be “full” with a lower average load).  This triggers service improvements on many routes, but loading generally has been rising and there is already a backlog of changes waiting to begin.  This affects 62 routes with a total of 89 more am and 65 pm peak buses.
• Off peak bus standards, as well as streetcar and rapid transit standards for all periods, are unchanged at, effectively, a seated load.  Note that this is an average over an hour and local variations will occur.
• Routes with services less frequent than 30 minutes will be improved to the new 30-minute maximum headway.  This affects 26 routes.
• All routes will operate seven days a week during all periods until at least 1:00 am.  This affects about 86 routes.

Routes Affected:

The full list of routes affected can be found here. As you can see it’s a lot of routes!

I’ll test out this new plan tonight. One of my usual routes is the 501 Queen, notorious for not running on schedule and breaking down. I’ll keep you posted on my experience tonight.

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

Lately it has become more challenging with the weather, but more importantly because I’m beginning to fear my own personal safety.

On Wednesday night on my way to class a fight errupted on the bus approaching the Wilson Station. A woman, for no apparent reason, decided to attack the woman beside her. Sitting right in front of this incident it appeared that the woman decided to launch her fingernails into the other woman’s face. Now to be fair to the woman that was attacked she did retaliate but quickly realized she would seriously harm the other woman if they fought. She was the much ‘bigger’ person and walked away from the fight.

Reported on 680 News this morning a woman was grabbed as she exited the bus last night in Scarborough. Some sex offender had been waiting for an innocent victim. Luckily the woman managed to escape relatively unscathed.

I’ve even had to switch bus routes because the one I previously used had a shooting incident in one of the shelters. On Sept 8th the victim was gunned down in the bus station at Keele and Eglinton. The full story can be found here.

I’m still for preserving our environment but not at the expense of my life. Hopefully the TTC can get it’s routes cleaned up, otherwise my days of public transit will be limited.

The TTC decided to abolish tickets because of fraudulant copies being produced and used across the city. It was estimated to cost the TTC somewhere between $3 and $4 million per year.

In 2007 a similar scheme was implemented for the old, plain tokens. The new two tone tocken was implemented in 2006 and customers had until the end of February 2007 to use their old tokens. When all the old tokens were rounded together it was estimated that approximately 30% were counterfeit.

How long until the current token can be copied easily and costs the TTC millions of dollars a year?

When the decision was made to abolish tickets my worry was that individuals would only be able to purchase tokens at Subway locations. I just spoke with a representative from the TTC and that is not the case. I was assured that the 1200 locations that previously sold tickets would continue to sell tokens.

With approximately 1.5million people using the TTC every day it is the third in terms of system demand each day. Hopefully these news schemes can minimize counterfeit losses and the TTC can continue to operate at current prices or even lower fare costs.

A New Interior

This year wasn’t quite as exciting as years passed. This year the excitement and hype around new initiatives was a new interior. Manufactured by Bombardier up in Thunder Bay, ON the new subway is due to make its first appearance in 2010. The new subway will feature a modern look, which includes:

• Digital signs indicating the next stop and which sides the doors will open on
• Announcements for the next station
• Fully open trains offering open access between cars
• Closed circuit cameras

Agreed the fleet of streetcars is aging but I hope the TTC plans on bringing forth new lines, new street cars, and modes of transit that make Toronto more efficient.

TTC drivers definitely do not have the easiest job in the world
While engulfed in my book yesterday (currently Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel) I noticed a small altercation at the front of the bus. The kind driver had allowed an elderly woman to get on the bus and sit down without paying first; protocol on the TTC is to pay and then move to your seat. He had asked her to get her fare ready and to pay as she exited the bus. As the woman prepared to exit the driver asked for the fare where the woman proceeded to yell at the driver. Instead of causing more of a scene, and delaying other fellow riders, the driver simply let the woman off the bus without paying.

A more serious incident occured in Toronto yesterday and a driver was attacked with a hammer. The driver alledgedly ignored an individual’s stop request and proceeded to attack the driver. The story can be found here.

I had an appreciation for these drivers and what they have to endure each day.

I had a very different experience on the ride home.
I wanted my car! It was an extremely frustrating and long drive back towards the subway. The driver, who must have been trying to meet a schedule, kept waiting at various stops.  Not only did it inconvenience the passengers on the bus but it also inconvenienced surrounding drivers.

At one of our ‘pause’ locations the driver had pulled over into a shared right-hand turn and bus stop lane. The drivers behind the bus, now trapped, had no idea that the bus would wait here until ready to go. And other drivers then proceeded to make the turn from the middle lane, to avoid being delayed by the bus. Another incident occured when the bus decided to ‘pause’ again in a general purpose lane. It was rush hour and the bus was blocking traffic in the right lane. Towards the end of our journey we came across some major congestion so were late anyways in getting to connecting subway!

On a bus that is considered frequent service on the TTC, one might think that it could just continue towards its destination.

I guess in the end the two balance each other out. Unfortunately for some having one negative incident may make the difference, the individual may revert back to using their personal auto. I won’t give up on Transit, I’m trying to make my difference, but those days it frustrates me!

Here’s to many more days on the bus with a good book (and please send me any good book recommendations)