TransitBart
Senior Member
Since I published a post on data, a number of participants here have batted about that conversation. Rather than pick through those responses, I am going to post this.
I find some of what was posted concerning. There is the note from @crs1026 which says that college students can produce "reasonably good" quality data at less cost than hard-core analysis of the mountains that come form counting taps.
I am going to assume that everyone here is contributing to this discussion because of a passion to see improvements in the city's and region's transit infrastructure.
This next sentence will offend a few around here, but it is true. Let's consider the TTC as a business for a moment. It is, although it is not a for-profit business. Even not-for-profit businesses (like Goodwill Industries) need to worry about revenue and expense. So does the TTC. Unlike other private-sector businesses, the TTC has less control over what it charges for its product (revenues).
The TTC is a (somewhat) sick business. To name two problems, tt needs more revenue, and its expenses are rising faster than the revenues it has. Let alone that it does not generate the capital required to invest for the next generation of needs. (Separate topic that last point.)
Now let's look at stories from the past year. I have read of endless debates about missing fare revenue. Is the economy weak? Are riders taking advantage of POP? Are we losing revenue due to out-of-service PRESTO readers? Are Metropass riders taking more rides? Two-hour timed transfer? Current old-fashioned baloney transfer?
In the private sector, and a great many other public institutions, if the business could not analyze properly why the revenues were shrinking, or behaving why they were, the management and maybe the board would be sacked.
Simply put, the TTC is a $1.2 billion business. To provide better service, a business needs to plan. To plan, it requires certainty of revenue and the data to support the planning. This business is too large to run with "airey-fairey" numbers. It is disappointing in the extreme to know that the data do not exist to understand precisely what is happening with the TTC fare revenue.
it is more disappointing to hear any TTC management commentary at all that "what got us here is good enough" so we'll keep doing that. I don't believe that the TTC has the data required to run the service properly.
I find some of what was posted concerning. There is the note from @crs1026 which says that college students can produce "reasonably good" quality data at less cost than hard-core analysis of the mountains that come form counting taps.
I am going to assume that everyone here is contributing to this discussion because of a passion to see improvements in the city's and region's transit infrastructure.
This next sentence will offend a few around here, but it is true. Let's consider the TTC as a business for a moment. It is, although it is not a for-profit business. Even not-for-profit businesses (like Goodwill Industries) need to worry about revenue and expense. So does the TTC. Unlike other private-sector businesses, the TTC has less control over what it charges for its product (revenues).
The TTC is a (somewhat) sick business. To name two problems, tt needs more revenue, and its expenses are rising faster than the revenues it has. Let alone that it does not generate the capital required to invest for the next generation of needs. (Separate topic that last point.)
Now let's look at stories from the past year. I have read of endless debates about missing fare revenue. Is the economy weak? Are riders taking advantage of POP? Are we losing revenue due to out-of-service PRESTO readers? Are Metropass riders taking more rides? Two-hour timed transfer? Current old-fashioned baloney transfer?
In the private sector, and a great many other public institutions, if the business could not analyze properly why the revenues were shrinking, or behaving why they were, the management and maybe the board would be sacked.
Simply put, the TTC is a $1.2 billion business. To provide better service, a business needs to plan. To plan, it requires certainty of revenue and the data to support the planning. This business is too large to run with "airey-fairey" numbers. It is disappointing in the extreme to know that the data do not exist to understand precisely what is happening with the TTC fare revenue.
it is more disappointing to hear any TTC management commentary at all that "what got us here is good enough" so we'll keep doing that. I don't believe that the TTC has the data required to run the service properly.
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