TTC: Other Items (catch all)

[Coolibop]

Included in the staff recommendation to the board was a "Summary of E-bike Regulations Jurisdictional Scan" on the last 3 pages, here's screenshots of it

View attachment 616940View attachment 616939View attachment 616938

Thanks. Confirms my point re Toronto being one of the first if not the first. Most bans appear on busses but not rail for obvious reasons...

The ony one in the list where Ebikes ban on rail may exist is Boston...where the rule is vague... And scouring the internet forums, looks like they prevent the motorized scooters and not Ebikes (or not enforced).

 

[Admiral Beez]

The TTC is using plainclothes inspectors to fight fare evasion. Critics are calling it ‘creepy’

Beginning Wednesday, plain-clothes inspectors will start issuing tickets for fare evasion, ranging from 235 to $425.

www.thestar.com

Paywall free: https://archive.is/eCAfs

As I said in an earlier post, we need to focus fare enforcement to where the evaders are. Start with significant increase in roving inspectors on the College/Dundas/Queen/King streetcars between University and Sherbourne.

You fish where the fish are.

 

[evandyk]

I saw inspectors inside Broadview Station today checking fares of people getting off of buses and streetcars, which is smart but they hardly do it.

 

[nfitz]

Admiral, these comments are extremely prejudiced and I advise that you tone it down. I remind you that most of the goods you purchase do originate in China, including a large majority of safe lithium ion batteries. We can discuss battery manufacturing and quality control without discriminating.

Of all of the Admiral's questionable comments, I'm not sure this is the one to pick on, in particular.

Every indication I've seen of, that the percentage of counterfeit batteries out there coming from China/Taiwan is greater than the Chinese/Taiwanese batteries on the market as a hole.

And obviously there's a huge supply chain issue, with China's increasing descent into autocracy and state-controlled business. And obvious trade concerns given their increasing ethnic cleansing, warmongering, and criminal espionage operations in Canada. More and more international observers are predicting that China is expected to invade Taiwan. And we need to prepare now as Canada and the USA would ban all trade with China/Hong Kong. Not to mention the use of slave labour in the manufacturing of batteries.

Obviously though, it's not the TTC's place to choose and discriminate on which e-bikes. If the federal government can fix the issues and the safety concerns were eliminated, then remove the ban. At the same time, extending the e-bike ban outside of rush-hour seems to be a futile move, given it's never once been enforced during rush-hour.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/electric-vehicles-forced-labor-china/

What concerns should we have now?

It was quite clear in the slide shown at the TTC meeting that the ONLY thing that's been ticketed in the last 5 years is fare invasion. Thus making this extension of the ban on bikes in rush-hour useless.

 

[chrisw]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864437595591086110

Line 1 Yonge-University: Delays between Finch and St George while we fix a signal problem.Shuttle buses have been ordered to operate between Finch and Bloor Stations

A big crowd at Finch station platforms who didn't get notice of the shuttle buses yet.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

Automatic announcements are saying there’s delays between Finch and St. George. But in actuality there is no service between Bloor and St. George.

Complete failure of the system.

Addendum, it’s taking +10mins to turn trains around at St. George for northbound service to VMC.

 

[chrisw]

Jokes on me, the shuttle bus ended at Sheppard.

 

[Steve X]

Remember how they told everyone the old system is falling apart, that's why there's so many disruption and they need funding for a new ATO system. Well, what have we learn?

 

[nfitz]

Remember how they told everyone the old system is falling apart, that's why there's so many disruption and they need funding for a new ATO system. Well, what have we learn?

That it's a lot quicker to reset the new system than the old one? The first Finch shuttle bus only got as far as Sheppard before they put them back on the train.

 

[chrisw]

That it's a lot quicker to reset the new system than the old one? The first Finch shuttle bus only got as far as Sheppard before they put them back on the train.

It should be noted the time before ttc deciding to launch shuttle buses, and the delays could've been much worse downtown.

https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/lDPuDDN7Be

 

[nfitz]

It should be noted the time before ttc deciding to launch shuttle buses, and the delays could've been much worse downtown.

https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/lDPuDDN7Be

As always.

But for a large system-wide issue? Compare to what used to happen on Line 1? Here's a typical 3-hour delay for just 2 stations on Line 2 earlier this year.

 

[Northern Light]

It should be noted the time before ttc deciding to launch shuttle buses, and the delays could've been much worse downtown.

https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/lDPuDDN7Be

In that thread.........this comment caught my attention (caveat I have no idea who the poster is, and whether his third-hand information is at all accurate)

 

[Smoke2011]

The communication was really lacking. I was at Queen. Nothing said for about 15 minutes. Then got an alert for overcrowding at Dundas. Then some annoucments and depending on the person it was either the whole line or the U. It wa sluaghable when the annoucement was no service on the U but shuttle buses above bloor. Over and hour to get from Queen to Bloor.

 

[Amare]

The communication was really lacking. I was at Queen. Nothing said for about 15 minutes. Then got an alert for overcrowding at Dundas. Then some annoucments and depending on the person it was either the whole line or the U. It wa sluaghable when the annoucement was no service on the U but shuttle buses above bloor. Over and hour to get from Queen to Bloor.

It's the TTC's specialty...not knowing how to communicate anything to riders.

I had a great experience last Friday with a train being stuck northbound at Dundas with a mechanical issue for over 20 mins. The TTC communicated that issue, but then that's where the fun started: they decided to hold trains southbound at Dundas for whatever idiotic reason so pretty much the entire Yonge line was crippled.

Logic would say the reason may have been to turn back trains from Dundas to head back north, but they instead of doing that they simply chose to stop service southbound without saying anything to customers. Which is the TTC's typical half-a**** approach to basically almost everything.

 

[81-717]

What concerns should we have now?

Concerns about one's own personal safety come to mind. Luckily for those who wanna go transit fanning, no one cares to enforce "no loitering" anymore, especially since they even gave up enforcing fares and only recently decided to start cracking down on that.