Humber Journalism Student Looking for Comments on Winter Commuting

Hi all,
I am a journalism student at Humber College and I am writing a paper on how Torontoians plan to commute in the city this upcoming winter with all the congested traffic delays. I also wouldn't mind your general thoughts on the matter and how you feel the city should improve the issue for all winter commuters.

Please leave me a private message if you want to participate and help me out. This is a school assignment so if you can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Alison said:

Hi all,
I am a journalism student at Humber College and I am writing a paper on how Torontoians plan to commute in the city this upcoming winter with all the congested traffic delays.

Click to expand...

#1 - I stay off public transit
#2 - I reverse commute, drive from Cabbagetown to McCowan Rd. and Steeles.
#3 - stay off dvp and 401, instead take city road (Dundas to Kingston to Birchmount to Danforth to McCowan)
#4 - when not commuting, walk everywhere, shop local supermarket with bundle buggy.

live 2 minutes from school, cross street like I always do. Other travel patterns will remain unchanged. Trips around the city will still consist of the Subway, streetcar, and bus. Bus home for christmas will be GO bus / Train as always. essentially, my travel patterns are not going to change one bit.

I currently have a great commute by bicycle along the Taylor Creek Trail. It's sheltered from the wind and completely grade-separated, so my commute is incredibly reliable and fast. Last month was particularly enjoyable with the leaves changing colour in the misty early morning light.

But the city does not clear snow from the bicycle path so I will soon be forced commute using the TTC, making me vulnerable to the aforementioned traffic congestion as well as miscellaneous transit delays. Even in ideal conditions, my commute is 35 minutes on the TTC, compared to 20 minutes by bicycle (or 20 min by car with no traffic).

To sum up: in winter months I have to pay well over twice as much money per month and spend an extra 30 minutes a day commuting because the city couldn't be bothered to run a plow down the bike path.

Yonge subway. King streetcar. Coffee. The first two stages are brutal but the third makes it all worth it.

I graduated from York in the spring, and will be starting an online masters next month (if anyone has a spare $15-$45K lying around that they don't need, send ME a PM). That said, I still commute to my job at the local grocery store.

My bike is out of commission, so I will likely be taking the bus. In Richmond Hill, they need to do a much better job maintaining the sidewalks. Last winter was absolutely brutal with how slippery and dangerous they were!