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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

T3G said:
Sorry, but I stand by my language of choice. Nothing but a highly insidious form of puritanism could be the driver behind the banning of electric personal transport, whether it be only at one condo corporation or in the entire city, or the advocating of same, and if it is not most people in the city, it is enough to affect the governance of the city in a material way (see also: e-scooters being banned). If we used the same logic currently being used against electric personal transport, we wouldn't have trains or planes or cars, which were all fairly sketchy at best in their early forms. Every technology in its infancy is going to encounter some difficulties, and instead of trying to work through that as a society we'll just ban it and hope it goes away.

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" should be the city's official motto.


And yet, the only EVs I see pushback against are personal transport. I don't see any of this energy being used against electric cars and buses, I don't see the TTC threads being flooded with concerns about the flammability of the nearly 400 e-buses they've just ordered, despite there being quite a few high profile e-bus fires in the last couple of years, I don't see city council trying to stop the TTC from ordering these machines.

Which is it: are electric vehicles dangerous and should be banned, or are electric vehicles dangerous and should be banned unless their batteries are large enough and powerful enough to move a 12 m bus?
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I don't consider myself puritanical, nor do I advocate outright banning of the devices. There is much room for middle of the road solutions.

Bringing highly flammable battery devices into an enclosed public spaces has some obvious safety concerns. It so happens that e-mobility devices have greater amounts of flammable metals and greater amounts of stored energy than cellphones or laptops.... so yes I would say they deserve more scrutiny and possibly greater regulation.

E-vehicles may have even greater risk of fire, but the escapability from such an event is very different than from a fire on a subway car or heavy railcar in motion.

Seems to me the issue demands careful study. Calling for outright bans, and knee-jerk reaction to such calls, are equally unhelpful.

Can we get back to reasonable debate and seeing each others' points of view ?

- Paul
 
Northern Light said:
The City is not banning electric personal transport, nor is TTC or Metrolinx, again, this is wildly distanced from reality.
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No, but this conversation came about because certain condo boards have banned these, which is already punitive and screws over a not small group of people, and a post further upthread said "An ebike ban will happen eventually." This seems fairly credible to me, as the city has already banned e-scooters for no legitimate reason. I am gratified to see the numbers of e-scooters growing every time I find myself in the city, but it is nevertheless the case that this is not sanctioned.


Northern Light said:
following a fire on a subway which could easily have been lethal
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This is not a risk that would be eliminated by banning e-bikes. Buses burn down every now and then too, and did so before there even was electric personal transport.

Northern Light said:
seriously overcrowded GO Trains that caused people inconvenience and even to miss their scheduled run home
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This is also not a problem that would go away if you banned e-bikes. Regular bikes can also lead to serious overcrowding, all it would take is one nice weekend with pent up demand on the Niagara train.



Northern Light said:
But lets remember, the TTC has banned regular bicycles from rush-hour transit for decades. In rush hour, you park your bike at a station, or you can place it on the outside of a bus if there's room in the rack, but you can't legally board a train or a bus with it.
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Nonetheless, we are getting off topic here. I'm not talking about taking them on transit, I'm talking about the city or even individual condo boards banning them. If the transit system bans bikes from itself during rush hour, you have the option to leave your bike at home. Where exactly are you supposed to put it if your condo board bans e-bikes? Or if the whole city does? Suddenly you are up shit creek without a paddle.
 
T3G said:
No, but this conversation came about because certain condo boards have banned these, which is already punitive and screws over a not small group of people, and a post further upthread said "An ebike ban will happen eventually." This seems fairly credible to me, as the city has already banned e-scooters for no legitimate reason. I am gratified to see the numbers of e-scooters growing every time I find myself in the city, but it is nevertheless the case that this is not sanctioned.



This is not a risk that would be eliminated by banning e-bikes. Buses burn down every now and then too, and did so before there even was electric personal transport.


This is also not a problem that would go away if you banned e-bikes. Regular bikes can also lead to serious overcrowding, all it would take is one nice weekend with pent up demand on the Niagara train.




Nonetheless, we are getting off topic here. I'm not talking about taking them on transit, I'm talking about the city or even individual condo boards banning them. If the transit system bans bikes from itself during rush hour, you have the option to leave your bike at home. Where exactly are you supposed to put it if your condo board bans e-bikes? Or if the whole city does? Suddenly you are up shit creek without a paddle.
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I won't engage further here, as you insist on missing the fundamental point, you're a hammer and you're turning the entire City into a nail. @crs1026 is on point, this thread is about GO transit, not personal electric transport.
 
This thread is about GO Transit, but I'm not the one who started talking about banning e-bikes from all parts of society, not just from rush hour trains. I was just responding to what was posted.
 
T3G said:
No, but this conversation came about because certain condo boards have banned these, which is already punitive and screws over a not small group of people, and a post further upthread said "An ebike ban will happen eventually." This seems fairly credible to me, as the city has already banned e-scooters for no legitimate reason. I am gratified to see the numbers of e-scooters growing every time I find myself in the city, but it is nevertheless the case that this is not sanctioned.
Click to expand...

I'm willing to bet this becomes a building code issue eventually. And not much different than restrictions on propane stoves and barbeques on hi rise balconies. And likely applicable to all sorts of lithium battery and stored power devices and mobility aids. For that matter, would a condo board allow someone to store a 10 gallon tank of petrol in a condo, for, say, the owner's motor scooter ?

I do have an axe to grind with the irresponsible way that some of these devices are driven, but that's a separate discussion. There are bad motorists, and bad cyclists, and bad pedestrians...and now bad ebikers. I would not single one out over the other.

and now I'm the one off topic.

- Paul
 
tsm1072 said:
Form my memory of the 15 minute service previously, platform numbers were still shown 10 minutes beforehand.
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Has anyone else seen more "wait" messages, with the platofrm not being posted until 5ish minutes prior? Very anecdotal, but the last 3 times I've trained out of Union in the past year, it's always been with less notice. One of those times, I had my kids, one in a stroller at the time, and we didn't make it because of the crush after a Jays game. Had to wait for the following train (lucky it was Lakeshore West).
 
Solar Eclipse Information at a glance: If you know somebody taking GO for the first time to the solar eclipse, share this information sheet with them so they know what to do before they board.
You_Doodle+_2024-04-08T04_25_54Z.jpeg
 
Hopefully no one hits the yellow strip and everything runs smoothly. Lots of first time riders. GO transit needs to make a good first impression if it wants to attract more ridership.
 
Bojaxs said:
Hopefully no one hits the yellow strip and everything runs smoothly. Lots of first time riders. GO transit needs to make a good first impression if it wants to attract more ridership.
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Sinkhole just apparently opened up at Danforth GO Station. Not gonna be as smooth one if you’re coming from the East.
 
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