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Before we think big ...

C

carrefour

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Maybe this topic has been brought up before but with all the news of new GO train stations and metro expansions and dismantling of highways, I thought this would be a good time to bring it up again.

Sure we could dream up big projects like Subway City and DRL, but before we think big, let's look at some simple things that can be easily implemented and not be outrageously expensive to improve transit quality and service in Toronto.

Here are a couple ideas :

1 - a website where one could enter a departure and arrival address and it will tell you different ways of how to reach your destination, with different methods of transportation (ie. TTC, GO, Mississauga Transit) and at what time. every "world-class" city and even some backwater towns have this. It's 2008.

2 - signage in the stations pointing to the preceding and subsequent
eg. king * QUEEN * dundas -->

3 - the ANNOUNCEMENT of stops ! Why is this so difficult ? A computer can do it.

simple things that would improve service and that virtually every other transit system in world i have been on (and I have been on a lot) have.

your thoughts?
 
carrefor:

Please feel free to read up on existing postings on the forum - as you will find out, these simple changes are already at various stages of implementation.

AoD
 
While it is true that a website is being discussed along with automatic control and the stop announcement, i guess my real question is why it should take 1 or 5 or 15 years for this to be done when every other major jurisdiction already has such tools up and running. i want to hear opinion of what small improvements should be completed as soon as possible.

another example if I may : ticket machines. to buy a ticket. we could "dare" to be fancier and incorporate different modes of transit and passes that one could buy at these machines. and not just 3 like at union station for the GO. but plenty. or are we just trying to create jobs at the ticket counters. why hasn't this already been done?
 
I prefer a topic called "As we think big..." opposed to "before we think big."

Why? I don't see delays and slow implementation as the sole source of angst in transit and urban planning. Rather, I see lack of coordination, horizontality and appropriate championship for big ideas as the problem. Instead of one arm looking at dismantelling a highway and another arm looking at trains, why can't both come together and do it it all right at the same time. If the Gardiner goes down in the east I see no reason* why this can't coincide with the construction of the East Bayfront LRT.

*note: I see several reasons why this can't coincide. There are too many layers.

It should not be thinking small but thinking right. Think on the large scale: what is best for this district? What is best for this city? What is best for this region? Not all transportation developments need to be done in silos.
 
Well, one thing we're working on right now is the Ridership Growth Strategy, a simple and low tech means of improving transit service throughout the city that will help increase ridership ahead of significant expansion.

TTC's ridership fall really reversed when the TTC improved subway service so that the absolute longest anybody had to wait for a scheduled train was five minutes. No subway expansions involved, nothing. Just paying the money for the additional drivers needed to provide the service. And the passengers responded by turning out.

We need something similar for our surface network. As TTC passengers, regardless of the time of day whenever the subway is open, the TTC should schedule things so that we should have to wait no longer than 5 minutes for a subway train, 10 minutes for a streetcar, or 20 minutes for a bus -- that or better.

In terms of bus service, the Ridership Growth Strategy will run all surface routes whenever the subway is open at intervals of 30 minutes or better, starting in November. It will take a chunk of change to continue this into 2009, and further decrease minimum headways to 20 minutes, but it will provide a lot of bang for the buck.

...James
 
I think the past couple of months has shown quite a bit of improvement from TTC in terms of small things (after years of almost non-activity).

The automated announcement system is already up (don't know if you've noticed, carrefour), and although there are still some problems to work out (one major one appears to be switching between express and local announcements, but this probably has more to do with training the drivers to program the announcements correctly than with the system itself), I'm quite satisfied with it.

The TTC has worked hard providing easier access, the latest being the introduction of bike racks on buses on many routes.

The TTC's graphics (advertisements, Metropasses, etc.) appear to have improved. They're not pieces of art yet, but they're at least better than all the cheap TTC advertising from yesteryears. Hopefully this improvement will translate to the new website.

After so many years of lagging behind other transit systems in terms of small things, I think the TTC has caught up quite remarkably. Today the TTC in many areas are as good as, if not better than, transit systems in most major American cities. If the TTC manages to follow through with ideas like new website, signage, station entrances, public art, streetcars and subway trains, and platforms screen doors, it could become a respectable world-class transit system.
 
i don't just mean stop announcements on the subway. but on the streetcars. and on the buses. and on a LED screen hanging from the roof of the transit car. and a route map with all the stops listed posted inside the bus. i had to take the 38 the other day out in Scarborough - i think i've been to scarborough twice before in my life - and besides not knowing when the bus was arriving and if the route I was taking was the correct one, i had no idea where to get off, if the stop was coming up, if i already missed the stop and if the stop was the appropriate stop to get off at.

and why aren't the stops named? before a barrage of excuses start pouring in, i used to live in japan and there, every stop was called something - train, bus, boat - every mode of transport. and they don't even have street names in japan.
 
to be fair to the OP, not all of the newer busses have the automated system yet. The 38 bus uses alot of them, so maybe he was on one of those.....
 
Voltz said:
to be fair to the OP, not all of the newer busses have the automated system yet. The 38 bus uses alot of them, so maybe he was on one of those.....
Click to expand...

I was on 1351 today on 102 and the system is not working.

Been on streetcars and buses where the sign works only, or only the PA works, sign said cannot connect to network or nothing working at all.

TTC said at the public meeting 2 weeks ago, that every vehicle in TTC fleets will be 100% operational by June 1st............OHHHHHHHHHHHH it June 2nd and not 100%
 
i had to take the 38 the other day out in Scarborough - i think i've been to scarborough twice before in my life - and besides not knowing when the bus was arriving and if the route I was taking was the correct one, i had no idea where to get off, if the stop was coming up, if i already missed the stop and if the stop was the appropriate stop to get off at.
Click to expand...

Route 38 (Highland Creek) is run entirely with the new hybrid buses, which do not have stop announcements. However, if I were in your situation, I'd make sure the driver called out the the stop I wanted to get off at... the tried and tested method of knowing where you should get off.
 
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