Recent content by insertrealname

I'm afraid Toronto Transit "planning" since 2010 has turned me profoundly cynical. The *one* and *only* question that this City Council and Mayor Tory (assuming they really want to meet a July 1 2018 appointment date) should need to ask of potential candidates is: "Are you comfortable with...

Interesting. I wonder, though, how much friction capping will have to overcome from the "but, think of the revenue loss" side of the eternal budget debates!

OK, I really must thank you for taking up each and every question I had about Presto's rules. I had become so used to the simplicity (from a user's point of view, since 1985) of the Metropass card that the Presto card rules seem like a corset. But as you say, think of it as cash/tokens, and...

Thanks for the re[ly, but I'm still interested if people have any comments on the first three scenarios or questions. (I'm assuming that timed transfers will never be implemented due to "revenue loss", although the TTC Board might want to consider that transit is, or should be, a *convenient*...

RE: Questions about when an extra fare is charged (Presto/TTC). I am a long-time monthly pass user who has just switched to a Presto card save money, since I was not using the pass more than about 25-30 trips a month (but many of those involved stopping at an intermediate point to do shopping...

Exactly, it's the objective of every corporation like KFC to squeeze out the small independents from the neighbourhood, and KFC has now moved closer to Chicke'n'Joy (or whatever it's called) thus upping the competition with the small operator. KFC will probably sell the Coxwell property to some...

What reasonably forward-looking planning professional who did their homework regarding the history of Toronto's peculiar mix of planning and politics since 2010 would apply to sip from that poisoned chalice?

Yes, that's just one example of how Toronto manages to shoot itself in the foot again and again. Apparently the fire/emergency services insisted on a hard median to allow their vehicles to run on it... which I find entirely unconvincing given size, entry & exit considerations needed for those...

I can't see a political career as satisfying her professional commitment to planning. I see her high public profile gamesmanship as being the necessary concomitant, even a requirement, of a Chief Planner position in a major urban area and hope that however long she lasts--the attitude of some...

Completely agree. And then there is the effect of the berms/spillway/parks development and people's actual access to the area raising general awareness and interest in further development beyond pictures in planning documents. As others have said, though, all this takes a long, long time--we...

Back in 2010 there was a really interesting sports/community complex proposal for the RL Hearn, see http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/22/sports-complex-plan-unveiled-for-mothballed-hearn-station/ It was an innovative energy saving design (an ironic angle on converting a coal-fired power...

I have questions: what about the energy efficiency of this project? Average? Although this design has a bit less window area (as a proportion) than the larger condos now being built all over Toronto, still, isn't the time for *real* building efficiency? I wonder what will happen to all these...

Sorry, that should be unnecessary: surely drivers can see streetcar stops and the length of a typical Toronto streetcar (single or articulated) and draw the right conclusions? But maybe some unmistakable signage (and some enforcement) is a good way to start changing driving behaviour.

Arrgh, what's the hurry to save just a couple of seconds of time? Why can't drivers simply follow the rule and avoid any possibility of something going wrong: when the streetcar in front of them begins to slow down and stops for passengers, under no circumstances should cars in the right-hand...

One summer back in the early `80s I was in Munich for a few weeks: one way to the language school I was attending was parallel to one of the downtown cemeteries, and I would occasionally enter the cemetery for a little peace from the traffic noise, and I was always surprised at the presence of...