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Traffic Enforcement/Policing

There may be some element of confirmation bias in my conclusion, and I will admit that I failed to take into account that a substantial portion of the cost of TTC is covered by fares, so maybe that comparision isn't as pointed as I've thought it to be. The flip side of saying that I see few cops is that I once thought someone should start a blog or a tumblr called Cops on Cellphones, because when I would occassionally see them doing footpatrol downtown they'd be in groups of three or four all texting away on their phones like packs of teenage girls. The week running up to the G20 would have been harvest time for capturing gangs of cops all playing with their phones, but who would have the nerve to take their picture?

So I'm not saying that we absolutely don't see them (outside of paid-duty), but that their presence isn't near as apparent as we should expect given their cost. They'd work better for us if they were on the street tasked with doing modest duties like keeping traffic moving rather than being Team Cop: Heroes Standing By to Save You and Your Family from Poor People, Ethnics and Hippies. But that would require a big culture change that I'm not expecting anytime soon.
 
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nfitz said:
I don't think a weekday passes when I go to work that I don't see them, somewhere along my commute. Sometimes they even get on the streetcar with me. Stopped at the ATM on my way home, and I thought the cop was following me ... turns out he was just doing his banking.
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Police get on the streetcar with you regularly? Wow. Last week I was surprised to see two police officers on the subway. It's probably been several months since I last saw a police presence on transit.

Maybe the police are just avoiding me or something.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Police get on the streetcar with you regularly?
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Irregularly. The 504 passes near Station 51, and it's not unusual to see the police boarding there to head downtown. Doesn't happen every day (well for me, with 30 streetcars an hour, it might happen very frequently, just not on mine!).
 
Something fishy going on...for a second year in a row...

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...n_in_declining_number_of_traffic_tickets.html

That's a 10 cent fair increase worth of inaction - just this year...plus the lack of action caused more problems for TTC - so let's put it at costing 15 cents...maybe a total of 40-60 million when you factor in external costs...

How many traffic enforcement officers can be hired for $30 million dollars? That's how many they should be hiring...even if we are paying 100k a year, it's 300 officers - there are 2300 signalized intersections...so each officer could get 8 of them and rotate each day...
 
I don't know that the Cops are Tops Ford types really like enforcement. Haven't they gone on about tax grabs when some councillor proposed tightening up on traffic infractions or setting up red light cams? Why are you harrassing the good hardworking citizens when there are real criminals out there for you to catch?
 
ehlow said:
Tory unveils six-point plan for tackling Toronto’s gridlock

http://www.theglobeandmail.com//new...r-tackling-torontos-gridlock/article21949359/
Good stuff. This is exactly what he promised to do.
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Admittedly, I think this list is a great start. However, I would add a #7 and reduce parking on major roads for many more hours of the day. In fact, I might take some flack for this, but I think all parking should be removed on Adelaide and Richmond permanently. As it stands, I see the bike lanes creating a lot of flash points whereas removing the parking would help with the flow quite a bit and make those great bike lanes a little less contentious.
 
JasonParis said:
Admittedly, I think this list is a great start. However, I would add a #7 and reduce parking on major roads for many more hours of the day. In fact, I might take some flack for this, but I think all parking should be removed on Adelaide and Richmond permanently. As it stands, I see the bike lanes creating a lot of flash points whereas removing the parking would help with the flow quite a bit and make those great bike lanes a little less contentious.
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Saw a tweet today suggesting that when the TTC plans to run busses on Bloor (i.e. over a weekend for construction) - they should put temporary signs up (of the easily removable vinyl type) with no-stopping/no-parking symbols for the area affected so that the busses could run faster (especially since they often need to pull over)...
 
JasonParis said:
Admittedly, I think this list is a great start. However, I would add a #7 and reduce parking on major roads for many more hours of the day. In fact, I might take some flack for this, but I think all parking should be removed on Adelaide and Richmond permanently. As it stands, I see the bike lanes creating a lot of flash points whereas removing the parking would help with the flow quite a bit and make those great bike lanes a little less contentious.
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I agree with this suggestion one million percent. Allowing parking on major avenues shows how ass-backwards this city is. Why should hundreds of drivers and transit riders be at the mercy of a few dozen business owners' desire (not a "need") to have on-street parking directly in front of their businesses? Makes no sense.
Just witness Spadina NB at Adelaide.. or Richmond WB at Spadina.. those turning lanes gets dominated by parking at the stupidest hours and then you get jams onto the through lanes. I shake my head at this day in and day out while experiencing this.

Maybe back in the 70's that made sense. Now we have literally hundreds of paid parking lots near all major arterials and that's where the cars should go.

I posted this suggestion as a comment on Tory's Facebook post; how else can we communicate it to him?
 
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How do the prices at the Green P lots compare with private operators? Are they lower? Shouldn't they be the same or even higher, to discourage people from driving downtown? Shouldn't free parking be banned all over the GTA, to encourage using public transit?
 
W. K. Lis said:
How do the prices at the Green P lots compare with private operators? Are they lower? Shouldn't they be the same or even higher, to discourage people from driving downtown? Shouldn't free parking be banned all over the GTA, to encourage using public transit?
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Since public transit is already very over-crowded we certainly do not want to force more people onto it before increasing capacity. That would be a sure way for ensuring that such a plan failed. In London they made huge increases in transit (primarily surface transit) BEFORE they imposed the 'congestion charge' and, at least for a while, there were far fewer cars inside 'the zone'.
 
W. K. Lis said:
How do the prices at the Green P lots compare with private operators? Are they lower? Shouldn't they be the same or even higher, to discourage people from driving downtown?
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Generally at peak periods they are lower. But can be higher for off-peak. It's not unusual to see private lots repricing weekly, based on supply and demand (and then changing prices through the day). Green P prices tend to stay the same for years.
 
Toronto traffic problems are visible from space:
Tcw2Kra.png
 
^ Wow. Now that I wasn't aware of. What amazes me is that in the highly congested areas in the U.S. (none of which anyone is surprised about), the traffic is really only limited to the metropolitan area. Once you're out of the core, traffic volume alleviates. Not so with the GTA, where traffic spreads well out into the suburbs.
 
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