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Transit City Plan

Which transit plan do you prefer?

  • Transit City

    Votes: 95 79.2%
  • Ford City

    Votes: 25 20.8%

  • Total voters
    120
You really outta go back and read the live coverage/commentary on @graphicmatt (and others') tweets. Some wonderful stuff, that.

If anyone knows mattelliott, please pass along my thanks and tell him he ought to get together with @jonathangoldsbie, @himysyed and @ddale and have spacing publish a coffee table book (foreword and audiobook by Margaret Atwood) to commemorate the occasion. Run the book sales out of TPL branches with proceeds to Reclaim the Streets and OCAP.
 
Stintz motion passed:
- Eglinton (TC version), Finch West LRT, and SRT conversion to LRT to go ahead. Report on LRT vs subway on Sheppard East to come to council in March for consideration.
- TTC and Metrolinx to discuss future projects: Sheppard West subway to Downsview, DRL, Danforth extension to STC, Sheppard LRT to Zoo, Eglinton to airport.

Stintz and Webster spent almost a year studying the various transit plans and concluded that the original Transit City was best. This means no elevated line, no South side alignment between Laird and Don Mills, no increased stop spacing and no continuous line between SRT and Eglinton.

Same thing with Finch West LRT - no change in stop spacing.

Sheppard East is put on hold for a month.

A bunch of more studies on various projects, DRL looks good, but it just means no real work for quite a while.

Finally, with conflicting messages from the Province and the Mayor, funding will probably be delayed even longer for these projects at the next provincial budget.
 
If anyone knows mattelliott, please pass along my thanks and tell him he ought to get together with @jonathangoldsbie, @himysyed and @ddale and have spacing publish a coffee table book (foreword and audiobook by Margaret Atwood) to commemorate the occasion. Run the book sales out of TPL branches with proceeds to Reclaim the Streets and OCAP.

Matt posts here. That's how I first found his blog :)
 
Solid Snake:

The will of the electorate is demonstrated through council in our electoral system. His dismissive attitude towards the latter is only going to make him a persona non grata he already is - no provincial body, no matter their own preferences, will have masters that would want to hedge their bets twice and fall on the losing side each time. His latest outburst caught on video is borderline grounds for removal from office - should he decide to do anything about it.

AoD
 
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If Eglinton is going to be light rail, then it needs to be designed for high capacity like the Calgary/Edmonton light rail systems:

- No minor stops. Surface stops at Wynford, Bermondsey, Victoria Park, Warden. No stop at Ferrand, Pharmacy, Lebovic or Ionview. The line should be fully grade separated as far east as Don Mills to allow 2 minute headways as far east as there.
- Pedestrian bridges at stations, and large stations with real platforms. This avoids the problem of large amounts of pedestrian traffic crossing the street to the LRT seen on the Spadina and St. Clair routes. Google Street View
- Level crossing barriers at intersections Google Street View
- Very long trains similar to a subway train

This is the only way that you can reach the maximum possible capacity of a LRT system (about 10000/hour with subway-length trains and 4-5 minute headways). If the LRT is not designed like this you will get much lower capacity (closer to 5000/hour) and frequent delays at red lights, resulting in lousy service like St. Clair/Spadina. The Golden Mile area looks very similar to many sections of the Calgary LRT system.
 
I think the overall thrust of having that section of the line behave more like LRT is agreeable - not sure about the very long train part, since you are pretty much limited by the length of the underground stations (unless you want a car or two not having access to those).

AoD
 
Would be great if they used the Sheppard panel to initiate a discussion (referendum?) on new revenue tools for financing.

If the left-leaning members of council REALLY want to be dicks to Ford, they can put forward motions to implement a lot of really progressive funding mechanisms in order to make the Sheppard Subway a reality (road tolls, etc). Basically beat Ford at his own game. "Rob Ford wanted subways, so we're giving him the financing tools to get it done". If Ford votes against them, he'll be labelled as a huge hypocrite. If he votes for them, that can easily be used as ammunition against him.

If they go to council with stuff like that, either way Ford looks like a tool. And if the vote goes through, we get a subway on top of it. AND it also opens the door for these policies to be applied on a larger scale to help fund the DRL.
 
All well and good for the young and the fit, but people with accessibility problems (the people living with the giant retirement home halfway between Royal York and Scarlett for example) will probably have a lot of difficulty with a 500m walk to their local stop.
I have no idea how long it tales to walk 500m but one thing I have noticed is a road may seem like it would take forever to walk from point A to point B but usually when you walk it you realize it does not take as long as one thought. I live 2 blocks south of Lawrence and could not believe I was able to walk to Eglnton in 20 min. And this was in the Summer when it was hot and I was not walking fast.
 
I think the overall thrust of having that section of the line behave more like LRT is agreeable - not sure about the very long train part, since you are pretty much limited by the length of the underground stations (unless you want a car or two not having access to those).

AoD

TC simply needs to be faster either by elevation or better separation. Metrolinx clearly favors this and it'll be interesting what they will do to do this while still abiding by "above ground" mandate.

Council also voted for subways: BD to STC, Sheppard to Dowsnview, DRL. it makes no sense to build LRT to STC if subway will reach it anyway. Metrolinx might cancel refurbishment in this case and replace by subway, and maybe use the rest to build Sheppard to Dowsnview. Both proposals which council and Ford agree on.
 
If all these other places are getting real subways, I do not understand why they are not being built along Eglinton. Maybe that will,be the next surprise we get.
 
Common ground for McGinty: Use eglinton east and STC money to build Bloor Danforth to STC (scarb gets subway, no need for LRT) and if there is money left, build Sheppard to Downsview. This was AFFIRMED by council and Supported by ford.
 
I have no idea how long it tales to walk 500m but one thing I have noticed is a road may seem like it would take forever to walk from point A to point B but usually when you walk it you realize it does not take as long as one thought. I live 2 blocks south of Lawrence and could not believe I was able to walk to Eglnton in 20 min. And this was in the Summer when it was hot and I was not walking fast.
500 metres takes about 5 minutes, unless you spend an awful long time stuck on red lights. Eglinton to Lawrence is 2.0 km (2,000 metres). About 20 minutes.

Google maps is good at predicting walking times. Most people walk a bit faster than they predict (the have 6 minutes for 500 metres).
 

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