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TTC: Other Items (catch all)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
salsa
Senior Member
My beef with DMW is his extreme bias against cycling and pedestrian initiatives in the rest of the city.
nfitz
Superstar
Though I don't think he should be on the TTC commission if he's not using TTC.
Where does he live anyway?
nfitz
Superstar
You always (at least for years) had to add the nickel, dime, or quarter to tickets straight away.
Fortunately I used up all the old child tickets this week.
If anything they are more lax than they used to be. I only recently realised that they sold tokens in rolls of 50. So much more convenient than buying 10 or 20 loose ones. I guess it wasn't a real issue before, because of the trouble of getting that much cash on you. But now it's payable with VISA, it seems like a no-brainer to buy a roll, instead of loose. So I did it today for the first time.
I was surprised though, I assume either they'd have blocked sales of tokens just before the fare increase (like they have some years previously), or simply be charging the new price for large purchases (say 10), given the fare goes up on Sunday. But the price for 50 tokens today is only $135 and not the $140 it will cost on Sunday.
Perhaps then, they are less penny pinchers than they used to be!
the lemur
Senior Member
Near Lawrence & Vic Park. A 2-minute walk to the nearest stop of the 144 Downtown Express.
DarnDirtyApe
Active Member
Ugh, that bus is horrible; it has one of the worst on-time ratings of any bus route (32%) and is only scheduled to run at best every 20 minutes, while in reality there is no schedule adherence whatsoever in anything but perfect conditions thanks to traffic on Adelaide and the DVP.
You guys also know that council meetings usually run late into the evening, right? The last run of the night for the 144 is at 7ish.
The city should create a bus/HOV lane on the DVP, Richmond and Adelaide if they are serious about running more of those express buses, but of course they are money losers so there's not much interest.
nfitz
Superstar
The closest 144 stop to Lawrence/Victoria Park is almost a mile.
If we assume he's at Underhill and Roanoke, that's a 14-minute drive to City Hall (15 minute in current traffic). Obviously worse in rush-hour, but he'd have no congestion at all getting to the DVP.
Right now about an hour to City Hall on transit, walking to Lawrence and the 54 bus. If he's further north than Lawrence (say up on Cassandra/Underhill) then probably taking the Woodbine bus to Woodbine station and 2 subways ... 64 minutes right now - not much worse later. In rush hour, the 144 would give you a non-stop trip, in about 40 minutes - but it only runs every 15-20 minutes for a 70-minute period each morning. I can see why he might drive.
Personally, I'd never choose to live there - for that very reason.
Part of the problem with serving the burbs, is that even if you stick a station at Lawrence/Victoria Park, he'd still be a mile or so away from it ... or more.
the lemur
Senior Member
Well, it's just one option. There's the Lawrence East bus, for one thing. Or his wife could drive him to the subway. Or he could carpool some days.
It's not too much to ask for a TTC commissioner to use the TTC some of the time, is it?
the lemur
Senior Member
I should have said DVP & Lawrence, which is closer. His closest stop is Underhill & Cornerbrook.
ksun
Senior Member
I wonder how much time this family has wasted in waiting for buses. Can they really go anywhere in Brampton they want to, and on any day of the week? I highly doubt it. What if the kids get sick at 11pm, can they quick hop on a bus and get to the hospital right away? A car independent life only makes sense when it doesn't negatively affect your quality of life and doesn't prevent you from going anywhere. I am sure the vast majority of Parisians won't think "I wish I had a car" living in the city, but even being 1 minutes away from Yonge/Queen, I often felt I need a car, because there are many places within the city/metro that is so hard to get to, or take too much time to.
In Toronto, I think as long as you live north of Eglinton Ave, and/or outside the Bayview/Bathurst corridor, you pretty need a car, or will feel very inconvenient not have a car. You may not need it to do everything like in Barrie, but you will often need it.
DarnDirtyApe
Active Member
Maybe he does, who knows. Do we really need to micromanage how individual councilors get to work? It's a crappy enough job as it is.
ksun
Senior Member
I wish I could move to Barcelona, but unfortunately I am not a EU citizen.
I do think the Europe city layout, particular cities like Paris and Barcelona with a small and compact core with extensive public transit, works best for my needs. Barcelona's urban design and traffic flow is simply amazing. For example, for its wide streets, it has a sidewalk for pedestrians, then a bus lane, then center island for pedestrians and bikes only, and then 3 or 4 car lanes. isn't that wonderful? Be a pedestrian, you feel you own the street and are never overwhelmed by the passing cars. Narrower streets are mostly one way, but the sidewalk is safe enough, and the surroundings urban enough (think King East between Church and Parliament) so that you don't feel the cars that much. Our one way streets such as Richmond/Adelaide don't work because these street themselves are used as back alleys for King and Queen, and there is no shops, restaurants, green space, arts and sculptures on them (even the entrance of Bay on Richmond is often closed). So don't blame one way streets, blame the street furniture.
Then look at our University ave, Spadina Ave or Jarvis st, all pretty wide. There are some sidewalks, but most of space are dedicated to 6-8 lanes of personal cars, sometimes mixed with public transit. Look at King and Queen, the poor streetcars have to share lanes with hundreds of personal cars at all time. This has nothing to do pre-auto or post-auto history. This is simply "put car first" philosophy and bad urban design. It pisses off both drivers and transit users.
I don't hate the city - I just find many of the practices here very backward, and people are too suburban. I am utterly unhappy and dissatisfied with the urban design and transport in Toronto because it is inferior, but it is not always up to me where to live, is it?
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nfitz
Superstar
Why wait for a bus? You see when it's coming, and get there just before it.
Oh, like I can just drive anywhere in Toronto when I want to ... except when there's traffic everywhere, highways close for car racing, etc.
If that happens frequently, then one has some unusual circumstances. I've got kids ... never once took them to the hospital (no stitches yet, knock on wood). Though those kind of things don't happen at night. Even with a car, I use a taxi to get back and forth to the hospital, if transit isn't an option ... it's generally cheaper than parking for who knows how long ... and if the kid is in the car bleeding everywhere ... do you really want to strap them in, and let them alone in the back seat?
But hang on ... they say they use taxis AND car sharing as well. The whole point is that you save money ... not that you never use a car!
Lots of car sharing options near Yonge/Queen! And taxis are everywhere.
the lemur
Senior Member
Maybe you could ask the dad - he's on Twitter (@kemosite) and Facebook, among other things.
As someone else pointed out (and the article says), they sometimes bike, sometimes take transit, sometimes call for a taxi, etc. It's not about replacing the car with nothing, it's about using what makes sense, which isn't always the car.
Some people have a real problem with the idea of letting go of car use for even some of the time. They point to things like shopping for large items or deliveries to business and say 'How are things gonna get to stores without trucks? On a bike?'. Or 'How are you gonna get a couch/fridge/big screen TV home on a bus, herp derp?'. As if you buy things like that every single week and delivery doesn't exist.
the lemur
Senior Member
I guess not, but he should be seen to use transit to some degree. It would be a little hypocritical of him to try to manage a service he is not familiar with. Same as with his bike plans - he has no real familiarity with biking in the city, but somehow he knows where bike lanes should or shouldn't be?