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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

Why does the subway system in Toronto have to be the personal plaything of the province? If Doug wants a train set so bad why doesn't he start small with one in his office first, it will save a lot of money if he does that instead.
 
in other news, Main street station is getting closer to being complete.

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How America Killed Transit

Streetcar, bus, and metro systems have been ignoring one lesson for 100 years: Service drives demand.

From link.

One hundred years ago, the United States had a public transportation system that was the envy of the world. Today, outside a few major urban centers, it is barely on life support. Even in New York City, subway ridership is well below its 1946 peak. Annual per capita transit trips in the U.S. plummeted from 115.8 in 1950 to 36.1 in 1970, where they have roughly remained since, even as population has grown.

This has not happened in much of the rest of the world. While a decline in transit use in the face of fierce competition from the private automobile throughout the 20th century was inevitable, near-total collapse was not. At the turn of the 20th century, when transit companies’ only competition were the legs of a person or a horse, they worked reasonably well, even if they faced challenges. Once cars arrived, nearly every U.S. transit agency slashed service to cut costs, instead of improving service to stay competitive. This drove even more riders away, producing a vicious cycle that led to the point where today, few Americans with a viable alternative ride buses or trains.

Now, when the federal government steps in to provide funding, it is limited to big capital projects. (Under the Trump administration, even those funds are in question.) Operations—the actual running of buses and trains frequently enough to appeal to people with an alternative—are perpetually starved for cash. Even transit advocates have internalized the idea that transit cannot be successful outside the highest-density urban centers.

And it very rarely is. Below is a set of maps that show the present-day network rail and bus lines operating at least every 30 minutes, all day to midnight, seven days a week, for five urban areas in the U.S. and one in Canada for comparison. That could be considered the bare-minimum service level required for people to be able to live adequately car free. In fact, research says that frequencies of 15 minutes or better—good enough for people to turn up and go without consulting a schedule—are where the biggest jumps in ridership happen. But that is so far off from service levels in most American cities that a 30-minute standard is more appropriate...

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From top left corner: Columbus, Ohio, does not have a single route that meets the full service standard. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the the newly extended Lynx LRT helps a little. Denver, Colorado is adding light rail and commuter rail, but many still struggle to get to the rail station without a car. So do people in Portland, Oregon, despite its large light rail network and forward-thinking transit culture. Washington, D.C.’s Metro is one of the most well-used U.S. rapid transit systems, but connecting bus service is limited. It’s Toronto, Canada, that shows what properly high level of transit service looks like in North America. (Design: Jonathan English/Michael Binetti/David Montgomery/CityLab. Ridership data: American Public Transportation Association/Toronto Transit Commission. Map tiles: Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.)
 
That's what I thought. Then it should be rides per capita.
 
I forgot to tap on a return trip today... interestingly I was just waved through by fare inspectors at Spadina even though they had a Presto reader. Any know what would have happened if they actually scanned the card (which was black btw) ?
 
I forgot to tap on a return trip today... interestingly I was just waved through by fare inspectors at Spadina even though they had a Presto reader. Any know what would have happened if they actually scanned the card (which was black btw) ?
Were you within the 2 hours?
 
Anyone who has visited Columbus will understand why they have no RT lines. Its a urban sprawl city with low density, including its downtown. They are moving to CNG buses and have no use for LRT/Streetcars. They are looking at a BRT system.

I have yet to visit Charlotte and it was on my do list for this year, but it went south along with a number of things.

Denver has being building lines and too long since I was last there. Same with Portland.

Washington is a mess since too many fingers are in the way. Look how long it took to get its streetcar line up and running and trying to expand it.

Now where are NY, SF and LA for comparison??

One has to look to the 40's and 50's to see who play a major roll in killing transit, starting at the White House. But mostly GM, Firestone, Oil companies to name a few.
 
Anyone who has visited Columbus will understand why they have no RT lines. Its a urban sprawl city with low density, including its downtown. They are moving to CNG buses and have no use for LRT/Streetcars. They are looking at a BRT system.

I have yet to visit Charlotte and it was on my do list for this year, but it went south along with a number of things.

Denver has being building lines and too long since I was last there. Same with Portland.

Washington is a mess since too many fingers are in the way. Look how long it took to get its streetcar line up and running and trying to expand it.

Now where are NY, SF and LA for comparison??

One has to look to the 40's and 50's to see who play a major roll in killing transit, starting at the White House. But mostly GM, Firestone, Oil companies to name a few.

The gist of the article is about total transit, not just rapid transit. In most American metros, buses are once an hour at best. Virtually all Candian metros have at least every 30 minutes on the majority of routes, and vancouver, toronto, ottawa and montreal all have explicit "frequent" networks

There are American cities with good transit, but they are the exception not the norm

Edit: Even going all the way down to small cities like Kingston, Sudbury, and Saint John you have at least 30 minute service on all mainline routes. It's not that Canadian transit is that great, it's that American transit is that bad.
 
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The gist of the article is about total transit, not just rapid transit. In most American metros, buses are once an hour at best. Virtually all Candian metros have at least every 30 minutes on the majority of routes, and vancouver, toronto, ottawa and montreal all have explicit "frequent" networks

There are American cities with good transit, but they are the exception not the norm

Edit: Even going all the way down to small cities like Kingston, Sudbury, and Saint John you have at least 30 minute service on all mainline routes. It's not that Canadian transit is that great, it's that American transit is that bad.
If one compare the GTA to Canada and the US, you will find the odd Canadian system not matching the quality of service of the GTA. The quality of most US systems would fail to meet the GTA standards to the point they shut down early, no Sunday service and over hourly service. This applies to commuter rail as well.

Even some of the large systems fall short of the GTA standards that I have been too.

Even with new LRT lines being built in the US, service starts late and end early compare to bus service, let alone headway.

I always shake my head when people here bitch about quality of service been bad, they should be thankful what they have compare to North America, as well the world.

I try riding other systems when I visited places to see what its like first hand to the point its not worth it.

Even today in the GTA, you have service more than 30 minutes on the weekday and hourly on Sunday, if there is Sunday service in the first place.

As long there is low density for routes, quality of service will be poor unless they are heavily subsidize. Been on routes from end to end where I am the only rider for the full trip in the GTA and elsewhere.

Even though streetcars are cheaper to operate with higher construction cost, I shake my head for US cities building new line that carry less than 5,000-10,000 riders a day. I hate to think where TTC would be if they did this, as well it would piss off more car drivers.
 

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