Posts tagged ttc

The first tangible sign of Ford-era Service Cuts

The first tangible sign of Ford-era Service Cuts

One more analysis with the maps. Isolating just the areas of Toronto that would be no longer be within a five-minute walk of late evening TTC service, should the proposed cuts proceed, then taking the sum of the proportion of all the census zones these areas intersect with, I get a decent approximation of how many people would actually no longer have late evening TTC service. That number? 160,000 Is this major? Roughly 1 in 15 Torontonians may be losing late evening TTC service. That’s pretty major to me. The commission meeting to decide on these cuts is February 2nd.

One more analysis with the maps. Isolating just the areas of Toronto that would be no longer be within a five-minute walk of late evening TTC service, should the proposed cuts proceed, then taking the sum of the proportion of all the census zones these areas intersect with, I get a decent approximation of how many people would actually no longer have late evening TTC service.

That number?

160,000

Is this major? Roughly 1 in 15 Torontonians may be losing late evening TTC service. That’s pretty major to me. The commission meeting to decide on these cuts is February 2nd.

It took me awhile to do this, but it actually changes my opinion a bit on the proposed route cuts during the late evening currently proposed by the TTC. Admittedly, the first map was very crudely put together on the whim - I had an old MapInfo table from 1999 - and many of the branches (even routes) in that table no longer exist. So all I could do is select entire routes that would be affected by the proposed cuts, and not show what the actual impact may be. However, after getting an updated map file for the current route network, I was able to do a better analysis, the results of which is the map above. Clearly, several areas of the city will be significantly impacted by the cuts, but in general, most people will still be within a 450-metre (five minute) walk of a TTC route in the late evening.  This goes back to what I mentioned before: the conflict between financial and service standards. The RGS-related ‘service on all routes until subway closes’ service standard made sense, but might not make financial sense when routes overlap as closely as some do. A suggestion for compromise, therefore, would be to change the service standard to ensure all Torontonians are within a 450-metre walk of late evening bus service. Thoughts?

It took me awhile to do this, but it actually changes my opinion a bit on the proposed route cuts during the late evening currently proposed by the TTC. Admittedly, the first map was very crudely put together on the whim - I had an old MapInfo table from 1999 - and many of the branches (even routes) in that table no longer exist. So all I could do is select entire routes that would be affected by the proposed cuts, and not show what the actual impact may be.

However, after getting an updated map file for the current route network, I was able to do a better analysis, the results of which is the map above. Clearly, several areas of the city will be significantly impacted by the cuts, but in general, most people will still be within a 450-metre (five minute) walk of a TTC route in the late evening. 

This goes back to what I mentioned before: the conflict between financial and service standards. The RGS-related ‘service on all routes until subway closes’ service standard made sense, but might not make financial sense when routes overlap as closely as some do. A suggestion for compromise, therefore, would be to change the service standard to ensure all Torontonians are within a 450-metre walk of late evening bus service.

Thoughts?

King Station gets another typeface

On my way through King Station this morning, I noticed a new addition to the southbound platform wall:

I’m not exactly sure why this was added as it wasn’t apparent that the tiles had been replaced. The new lettering is just stuck on and not sandblasted into the tile.

Worse: it’s a different typeface than the rest of the station (Gill Sans or Humanst521BT, vs. Univers), a different colour (black vs. maroon), and installed at a different height (two rows from the top, vs. three).

There’s plenty other prizes to be won on the TTC for type and design inconsistency, but this one wins on the “why the heck is this even here” category.

An idea: A better service status panel on TTC.ca

An idea: A better service status panel on TTC.ca

An Idea: Bay Bus BRT

A northbound Bay bus at Dundas, with a bunch of cars illegally using the lane behind it (source: Michael Chu / flickr)

The Bay bus has an enormous potential to reduce congestion on the Yonge and University Subways and the transfer points at St. George and Bloor-Yonge Stations. Once the downtown’s lone trolley route, it ran as frequent as every two minutes. The Bay Street Clearway was implemented in response to the high volumes of buses on Bay Street, to get cars out of its way. However, since the removal of the trolley wires in 1993, a number of things have occurred that have diminished the potential of the Bay bus for the downtown transit system:

  • Service cuts in the mid-90s dramatically reduced ridership across the entire TTC network. Although ridership, in general, has now recovered, and gone to all-time highs, the Bay bus is not back at its old-time glory
  • Zero enforcement of the clearway lanes: despite the ‘clearway’ status, there is seldom enforcement of motorists encroaching onto the lanes, other than the symbolic, and ineffective, blitzes once a year

The result is a slow, unreliable service - most TTC passengers would rather walk to Yonge or University to hop on the subway and brave the congested interchange stations.

So whereas all the major mayoral candidates, with the exception of Joe Pantalone, are proposing grand, unrealistic, far-off schemes for new subway lines across Toronto, how about an idea that is simple, effective, and achievable?

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299BloorStore Now Open with TTC Rollsigns!

Apparently, being a transit geek super chic now, at least according to Apartment Therapy, which describes it as “the new ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’”. Well, here’s your chance to get some Toronto rollsigns onto your walls. I have made up two featuring vintage subway rollsigns, and one featuring the current streetcar routes. You can check them out, and pick them up, here:

http://www.zazzle.ca/laurencelui

When the new Toronto Rocket trains come, it’ll be finally time to update the subway train pictograph

When the new Toronto Rocket trains come, it’ll be finally time to update the subway train pictograph

Inspired by this from Japan, an idea for signage at Bloor-Yonge Station to improve customer experience and help people move down the platform

Inspired by this from Japan, an idea for signage at Bloor-Yonge Station to improve customer experience and help people move down the platform