TheTigerMaster
Superstar
94 Wellesley is the exception.
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- Thread starter Electrify
- Start date
94 Wellesley is the exception.
Electrify
Senior Member
When I saw him last year, he mentioned that the analogy of 'police is to enforce the law' is that 'transit is to get people to where they are going,' and then defined that as abundant access. I thought that was a clearer way of expressing what he meant rather than 'transit is abundant access,' and am not too sure why he decided to change it.
While L.A. might be doing things from a planning perspective right, it is hardly a transit friendly city. Besides the built form generally not being ideal, there is a strong social stigma about transit which does not exist here. At least not to the same extent.
That said, most everything else I fully agreed on. His weather argument was very good, and reminded me of arguments I've had here and elsewhere against articulated buses where people claimed they could not work in Toronto because we get snow. Took me only 30 seconds to find a video of a 40' New York MTA bus stuck in the snow.
Perhaps his finest comment was that if you build enough good transit infrastructure across, you don't have to worry about it gentrifying an area to the point where it displaces those who need it most away from it. While York Region Transit is far from an ideal transit system, there is a lot the TTC could learn from it. On its busiest routes it could not only implement limited stop service, but also off-board payment, special branding, etc. Hell, even where there are three through lanes of traffic, we should consider making the far right lane bus only with the exception of right turns, like on Dufferin.
I also wonder what his thoughts were on the rectangular shape of the city. One of the main reasons why these buses terminate at Yonge is because to run through it would be up to 40km long as opposed to 20km north-south, using Steeles and Yonge as examples. This doesn't include the GTA at large, which if still using Steeles/Taunton, is about 75km long from Winston Churchill in Mississauga to Lakeridge in Ajax! FURTHER if we use Highway 2 and attempt to take on the entire conurbanization across metropolitan boundaries (though I suppose GO already does this).
Finally, on the question sheet, I asked what we should do about Sheppard. I also suggested on the back that we convert the 'heavy rail' tunnel to a 'light rail' tunnel to allow through running.
While L.A. might be doing things from a planning perspective right, it is hardly a transit friendly city. Besides the built form generally not being ideal, there is a strong social stigma about transit which does not exist here. At least not to the same extent.
That said, most everything else I fully agreed on. His weather argument was very good, and reminded me of arguments I've had here and elsewhere against articulated buses where people claimed they could not work in Toronto because we get snow. Took me only 30 seconds to find a video of a 40' New York MTA bus stuck in the snow.
Perhaps his finest comment was that if you build enough good transit infrastructure across, you don't have to worry about it gentrifying an area to the point where it displaces those who need it most away from it. While York Region Transit is far from an ideal transit system, there is a lot the TTC could learn from it. On its busiest routes it could not only implement limited stop service, but also off-board payment, special branding, etc. Hell, even where there are three through lanes of traffic, we should consider making the far right lane bus only with the exception of right turns, like on Dufferin.
I also wonder what his thoughts were on the rectangular shape of the city. One of the main reasons why these buses terminate at Yonge is because to run through it would be up to 40km long as opposed to 20km north-south, using Steeles and Yonge as examples. This doesn't include the GTA at large, which if still using Steeles/Taunton, is about 75km long from Winston Churchill in Mississauga to Lakeridge in Ajax! FURTHER if we use Highway 2 and attempt to take on the entire conurbanization across metropolitan boundaries (though I suppose GO already does this).
Finally, on the question sheet, I asked what we should do about Sheppard. I also suggested on the back that we convert the 'heavy rail' tunnel to a 'light rail' tunnel to allow through running.
ehlow
Senior Member
A video of the talk has been posted:
http://www.humantransit.org/2014/02/video-my-presentation-in-toronto.html
http://www.humantransit.org/2014/02/video-my-presentation-in-toronto.html