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http://news.nationalpost.com/toront...ood-news-story-toronto-refuses-to-acknowledge

And another article, from Selley in the NatPost. Quite favourable, despite the NatPost need for world-weary snarkiness about Toronto in general.

As per the Star: Why would anyone who lives in Riverdale go to Union to go to Pearson? That's a dumb example. You might as well have started at Birchcliff.

ETA: And, why would you take a cab to Union from Riverdale Park? Why wouldn't you grab the 504 in the other direction from the TTC rider and walk from York & King?
 
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Napoleon said:
Interesting, of course totally unscientific and anecdotal, article from The Star:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/08/the-airport-challenge-which-way-is-the-better-way.html
Summary: 3 reporters leave from Riverdale. Driving takes 40 minutes, TTC takes 70 minutes, UPX takes 80 minutes. Fairly consistent with my expectations for anyone leaving not close to Union.
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Riverdale Rink Rat said:
http://news.nationalpost.com/toront...ood-news-story-toronto-refuses-to-acknowledge

And another article, from Selley in the NatPost. Quite favourable, despite the NatPost need for world-weary snarkiness about Toronto in general.

As per the Star: Why would anyone who lives in Riverdale go to Union to go to Pearson? That's a dumb example. You might as well have started at Birchcliff.

ETA: And, why would you take a cab to Union from Riverdale Park? Why wouldn't you grab the 504 in the other direction from the TTC rider and walk from York & King?
Click to expand...

The "test" felt totally stacked against UPX IMHO. If I were doing the test I would have had all three start at Union, then at least you could add the qualifier "add (or remove for the drive option) travel time to Union to any of these three options"
 
Napoleon said:
Interesting, of course totally unscientific and anecdotal, article from The Star:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/08/the-airport-challenge-which-way-is-the-better-way.html
Summary: 3 reporters leave from Riverdale. Driving takes 40 minutes, TTC takes 70 minutes, UPX takes 80 minutes. Fairly consistent with my expectations for anyone leaving not close to Union.
Click to expand...

A lot of effort for the Star to "prove" that "from certain parts of the city UPe is not your best bet from a time perspective"
 
Pretty stupid test, really.

On the flip side, anyone in the west end, from say St.Clair to Queen, and Roncevalles to Yonge (it took the author of the Post article 33 minutes from Pearson to Yonge & Bloor), could probably get to Pearson in 30 - 50 minutes via the Bloor UPX station. That's pretty good, I think.

Obviously the train won't help everyone in ever single location. That's impossible, and I doubt that anyone ever claimed that it would.
 
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Woodbridge_Heights said:
The "test" felt totally stacked against UPX IMHO. If I were doing the test I would have had all three start at Union, then at least you could add the qualifier "add (or remove for the drive option) travel time to Union to any of these three options"
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While I agree the cab to Union is a bit odd, starting at Union is also a silly test as well. Better to pick a more neutral location: Eaton Centre, University of Toronto, or say the TIFF Lightbox. These are the kind of real world decisions people will make.

I also think it's really only fair to consider taking transit to the UPX. It seems fairly less likely that someone will cab it to Union just to wait for a train. Once you decide to hail a cab, you're just going to take it to the airport.
 
Napoleon said:
While I agree the cab to Union is a bit odd, starting at Union is also a silly test as well. Better to pick a more neutral location: Eaton Centre, University of Toronto, or say the TIFF Lightbox. These are the kind of real world decisions people will make.

I also think it's really only fair to consider taking transit to the UPX. It seems fairly less likely that someone will cab it to Union just to wait for a train. Once you decide to hail a cab, you're just going to take it to the airport.
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I work in the Eaton Centre, and took some flights right after work a few times. It takes 65-70 minutes by TTC.
If I take a train to Union then UPx, it would take about 50-55 minutes (15-20 minutes to get to the terminal, 5-10 minutes waiting, 25 minutes ride).
 
When the Gerrard Square RER station (as proposed by the SmartTrack enhancement to GO RER) gets built in Riverdale area, you've got additional options to the airport. Transfer to UPX, or go all the way to Weston/Eglinton station (or future Woodbine RER) and transfer to whatever airport shuttle (or UPX).

The immediate streetcar arrival versus a worst-case 15 minute wait for UPX, definitely fudged things a bit. TTC and UPX would have gotten rough parity.

Also, starting the race at 4:30pm would definitely make UPX more parity to car and TTC for Riverdale residents.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
The "test" felt totally stacked against UPX IMHO. If I were doing the test I would have had all three start at Union, then at least you could add the qualifier "add (or remove for the drive option) travel time to Union to any of these three options"
Click to expand...
It certainly seems to be pro-car. Other than the middle of the night, I can't imagine a better time to drive from Riverdale to Pearson than 9:25 AM. Even by 1 pm, the driving has changed a lot.

UPX 80 minutes? Hang on. 25 minutes on UPX 15 minutes wait for UPX (bad luck). It took 40 minutes in a cab to the UPX station from Broadview ... actually says 20 minutes. So what was the OTHER 20 minutes? What did she do, get off at the entrance Union Bus station on Yonge, and walk?!? At 9:25 AM, the cab should have taken 15 minutes, so worst travel time was 65 minutes not 80 ... and 50 minutes if just caught a UPX.
 
nfitz said:
It certainly seems to be pro-car. Other than the middle of the night, I can't imagine a better time to drive from Riverdale to Pearson than 9:25 AM. Even by 1 pm, the driving has changed a lot.

UPX 80 minutes? Hang on. 25 minutes on UPX 15 minutes wait for UPX (bad luck). It took 40 minutes in a cab to the UPX station from Broadview ... actually says 20 minutes. So what was the OTHER 20 minutes? What did she do, get off at the entrance Union Bus station on Yonge, and walk?!? At 9:25 AM, the cab should have taken 15 minutes, so worst travel time was 65 minutes not 80 ... and 50 minutes if just caught a UPX.
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Newsflash: Unscientific "test" run by low-quality newspaper does not have have a rigorous methodology.
 
nfitz said:
It certainly seems to be pro-car. Other than the middle of the night, I can't imagine a better time to drive from Riverdale to Pearson than 9:25 AM. Even by 1 pm, the driving has changed a lot.

UPX 80 minutes? Hang on. 25 minutes on UPX 15 minutes wait for UPX (bad luck). It took 40 minutes in a cab to the UPX station from Broadview ... actually says 20 minutes. So what was the OTHER 20 minutes? What did she do, get off at the entrance Union Bus station on Yonge, and walk?!? At 9:25 AM, the cab should have taken 15 minutes, so worst travel time was 65 minutes not 80 ... and 50 minutes if just caught a UPX.
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Ha! Thanks for pointing that out. Take the 65 min travel time subtract 7.5 mins (max expected wait time given 15 min service) the UPX trip should REALLY have been 58 mins beating the TTC option and within 20 mins of the drive option.
 
nfitz said:
UPX 80 minutes? Hang on. 25 minutes on UPX 15 minutes wait for UPX (bad luck). It took 40 minutes in a cab to the UPX station from Broadview ... actually says 20 minutes. So what was the OTHER 20 minutes? What did she do, get off at the entrance Union Bus station on Yonge, and walk?!? At 9:25 AM, the cab should have taken 15 minutes, so worst travel time was 65 minutes not 80 ... and 50 minutes if just caught a UPX.
Click to expand...

Waiting for a taxi: 5 minutes
Taxi: 20 minutes
Walking to UPX: 5 minutes
Wait for UPX: 15 minutes
UPX: 25 minutes
Walk to check-in: 5 minutes

75 minutes total... and well, the placards all had nice even multiples of 10, so round that up because maybe it was 76 minutes.
 
salsa said:
Just curious, if the Star is a "low-quality newspaper" then what isn't?
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The Star is lowest of four for Toronto papers in my opinion. I ran an unscientific survey of my own a couple months back, and the Star used the word 'shocking' on its front page more than twice as often as any of its competitors. It's a tabloid quality rag that just tries to get a gut reaction from readers. Of course, the Post is a bunch of wingnuts, who occasionally score a good point, and the Sun is a bunch of hosers, who occasionally score good points. The Globe is a milktoast collection of bright people who seldom score good points because they try too hard to be objective and balanced. I read all four before I feel I understand the various perspectives of an issue - but I read the Star last.

- Paul
 
Well, despite the Star having some low brow rag elements and lower quality columns (fewer words written at a lower grade level audience), it does have other things. For one, its investigations division has been excellent, with the Ford, Ghomeshi, Lang, and now Solomon affairs all being broke by the Star. This was all just excellent journalism and won a lot of respect from me.
 
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