[Abdullah77]

Ooh, a 6 roundel!

View attachment 496189

And here’s Metrolinx’s implementation of the 6 in Clearview font.

 

[Abdullah77]

We can thank Toban Allison (Metrolinx Head of Wayfinding) and Ian Dickson’s (TTC Head of Wayfinding) decade old twitter spat for these competing standards which have minor differences.

 

[nfitz]

Ooh, I missed that. Link?

Though why isn't Metrolinx following their own standards for Line 5? Were the standards changed?

With the black space left on the signs - it would be fun to get a white van, a step-ladder, and a stack of 5 roundels (in the TTC specified font!), and stick them on stations!!

 

[Abdullah77]

Ooh, I missed that. Link?

Toban Allison deleted their account, probably when he joined Metrolinx. I believe Ian Dickson runs @TTCDesign on twitter. I saw some of their arguments using the Wayback Machine, but a lot of it’s gone now.

Though why isn't Metrolinx following their own standards for Line 5? Were the standards changed?

With the black space left on the signs - it would be fun to get a white van, a step-ladder, and a stack of 5 roundels (in the TTC specified font!), and stick them on stations!!

Line 5’s wayfinding was contracted out to Entro many years before the Metrolinx Standard was finalised. Metrolinx has said they plan to eventually replace all signage along Line 5 with their own Standard. But I suspect that won’t happen until later into the 2030s. There’s no point in garbaging already installed signage.

 

[EnviroTO]

I see they've a lot of space at both the front and the end for the operator to add their own logo and route symbol.

I also note that the Line 5 stations didn't follow this guideline.

View attachment 496130View attachment 496134

And are using a wheelchair symbol that's not in the guideline. Still plenty of space for a 5

Yes the Eglinton LRT didn't follow the Metrolinx wayfinding standard and even though most of the signs weren't even created at the time the standard was published the contract was signed and for whatever reason they didn't think it made sense to adjust the contract... perhaps due to the friction between Metrolinx and the contractor on other topics.

However, you are right, the sign still has space for a TTC logo, a Metrolinx logo, a 5 roundel, a note of East to Kennedy, West to Mount Dennis, and bus routes 25, 34, 54, 81, 100, and 162 in red boxes, bus route 925 and 954 in green boxes, and a sign in the window written with a sharpie marker indicating that night bus routes 324, 334, and 354 are available at stop on the street.

 

[turbanplanner]

So, If anyone is at Kipling and finch this week please let me us know!

The TTC said they're upping the 45/945 schedule due to finch west construction finishing on the 30th. Well I visited the area to see on the weekend and 1 section was repaved but the intersection is still very much a gong show and 1 lane.
I wonder what they're going to do about it since it can't really fit more service as they will bunch up.

 

[Towered]

Such a depressing landscape.

 

[turbanplanner]

Such a depressing landscape.

I can't wait till 3 months from when it opens and the grass is all dead

 

[W. K. Lis]

I can't wait till 3 months from when it opens and the grass is all dead

The rainfall has been above average for July this year.

 

[turbanplanner]

The rainfall has been above average for July this year.

I biked on eglinton a few weeks ago and a bunch of of the sod they put down around mt dennis had died.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I biked on eglinton a few weeks ago and a bunch of of the sod they put down around mt dennis had died.

Freshly laid sod needs to be watered 3x a day. Can see the accountants saying less, to save on money.

0-7 days	3x a day
8-13 days	once a day
14-21 days	3x a week
22+ days	2x – 3x a week

 

[afransen]

Along my local arterial, some sound barrier and multi use path work was done over the last couple years. Fresh sod was laid and apparently never watered. Most of it died. Whatever survived rotted (it was literally slimey in early spring) after being saturated and covered in salty snowbanks over the next winter. Then a utility did some hydrovac excavation for what seemed like fibre. Of course, they put a hydrovac truck on the boulevard grass for the week in march where the ground was maximally squishy, creating enormous ruts. Now the boulevard is littered with pits. traffic cones, construction fencing, loose plywood, discarded grease tubes, loose chucks of asphalt and concrete from the cutting up the MUP, etc. All the soil is completely colonized by weeds, with some bare patches. I called 311 a couple times to inform them of the poor conditions.

How do we screw things up this badly?

 

[Towered]

Along my local arterial, some sound barrier and multi use path work was done over the last couple years. Fresh sod was laid and apparently never watered. Most of it died. Whatever survived rotted (it was literally slimey in early spring) after being saturated and covered in salty snowbanks over the next winter. Then a utility did some hydrovac excavation for what seemed like fibre. Of course, they put a hydrovac truck on the boulevard grass for the week in march where the ground was maximally squishy, creating enormous ruts. Now the boulevard is littered with pits. traffic cones, construction fencing, loose plywood, discarded grease tubes, loose chucks of asphalt and concrete from the cutting up the MUP, etc. All the soil is completely colonized by weeds, with some bare patches. I called 311 a couple times to inform them of the poor conditions.

How do we screw things up this badly?

You need to crosspost this to the shabby Toronto thread, with pictures.

 

[turbanplanner]

Along my local arterial, some sound barrier and multi use path work was done over the last couple years. Fresh sod was laid and apparently never watered. Most of it died. Whatever survived rotted (it was literally slimey in early spring) after being saturated and covered in salty snowbanks over the next winter. Then a utility did some hydrovac excavation for what seemed like fibre. Of course, they put a hydrovac truck on the boulevard grass for the week in march where the ground was maximally squishy, creating enormous ruts. Now the boulevard is littered with pits. traffic cones, construction fencing, loose plywood, discarded grease tubes, loose chucks of asphalt and concrete from the cutting up the MUP, etc. All the soil is completely colonized by weeds, with some bare patches. I called 311 a couple times to inform them of the poor conditions.

How do we screw things up this badly?

Literally the city could not give less of a flying fuck about shoddy contractor work. Things like sunken utility cuts from what I've been told can be reported and the city is supposed to have it re done to be smooth, I see so many that are basically a pothole OR the asphult chunks away after a year.

 

[allengeorge]

Literally the city could not give less of a flying fuck about shoddy contractor work. Things like sunken utility cuts from what I've been told can be reported and the city is supposed to have it re done to be smooth, I see so many that are basically a pothole OR the asphult chunks away after a year.

I think the general public and politicians have a naive notion on contracting out. Specifically, they imagine that you can just have the private sector take responsibility and have minimal staff on the public side for oversight, thus generating massive amounts of savings. But…

1. If you’ve ever managed anyone - hell, if you’ve given chores to kids! - you know you can’t always just give people a task and have them do their thing. Even when they are competent and have your best interests at heart, there are problems that only come up during implementation. It takes a lot of expertise and oversight to do this, both of which are very costly to acquire. And of course, we do our best not to acquire enough talent or pay them enough - and on top of that we give them minimal autonomy at times to actually fix problems.
2. It’s costly to litigate and recoup expenses. It takes a lot of time and/or to properly document and report the deficiencies, and, you have to convince the legal dept that the effort is really worth it (they’re probably understaffed too). And, I wouldn’t be surprised if the contractor was working on multiple jobs in the city because of the effort involved in becoming a city vendor. At that point…even more imagined barriers to litigation, unfortunately.

TL;DR: my guess is that naïveté, penny-pinching/understaffing, limited autonomy and the mechanics of contract assignment make this situation a given nowadays.