[nrb]

Will this become something we see here as the TTC declines?

From The Economist

IN PARTS of New York City, if you know what to look for, you will find a vast and quasi-legal transit network operating in plain sight. It is made up of “dollar vans”, private 15-passenger vehicles that serve neighbourhoods lacking robust public transport. With an estimated 125,000 daily riders, they constitute a network larger than the bus systems in some big cities, including Dallas and Phoenix.

Van drivers, like all entrepreneurs, have recognised a market and met demand. Some shuttle between Chinese communities not connected directly by public transit, for example Flushing in Queens, Manhattan’s Chinatown and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Others service Caribbean communities in Brooklyn and south-eastern Queens. The Utica and Flatbush Avenue corridors patrolled by the vans in Brooklyn are the borough’s busiest and fifth-busiest bus routes, respectively. These vans offer what New York City buses fail to provide: speed and reliability. They are also cheaper, at $2 per ride.

Eric Goldwyn, an urban planner, compared a week’s worth of ridership data from the B41 bus route along Flatbush Avenue with average travel times of dollar vans making the same trip. Buses took one hour with a standard deviation of 10 minutes, meaning that 68% of all rides lasted between 50 and 70 minutes. That’s a big window. Vans took just 43 minutes with a standard deviation of five minutes.

New York City’s dollar vans trace their origins to 1980, when a massive public-transport strike sent customers looking for alternatives. Private vans surfaced to meet demand. The strike eventually ended, but the vans kept going. In 1993 the city took regulatory control over the industry and became responsible for licensing, inspections and insurance certifications. In exchange for a licence to operate, drivers had to accept onerous legal requirements that few have complied with since.

Technically dollar vans can only accept pre-arranged calls and must maintain a passenger list. The idea was to protect yellow taxis’ street-hail privilege and, according to Mr Goldwyn, elbow the vans out of business. But vans are flexible and spontaneous by their very nature; the street-hail prohibition goes ignored. In Brooklyn drivers cruise up and down Utica and Flatbush Avenues, tapping their horn to attract fares. Passengers wave and jump in, and the vans keep on rolling. Without street hails there would be no business.

Dollar vans—even the 481 licensed ones—have been operating more or less illegally for decades. An estimated 500 more operate unlicensed. Lax enforcement means that the unlicensed ones have little incentive to go above board. “Why drive a name brand when you can drive a regular vehicle and make more money?” asks Winston Williams, whose struggle to pay insurance in the face of rogue competition forced him to shrink his fleet by 21 drivers. Several bills before the City Council attempt to close the gap between law and practice by allowing street hails and ramping up enforcement.

Nimble and reactive as they are, dollar vans might teach the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) something about the needs and preferences of passengers. The vans are fast because they make fewer stops than buses, which tend to load and unload every two blocks. City buses are slowed down further by the lack of all-door boarding and well-enforced bus lanes. “There’s a serious degree of policy inattention to operating the bus system in an effective way,” says Jon Orcutt of TransitCenter, a research group. Investment is much lower than in the subway, which carries 5.7m riders each weekday and commands $14.2 billion from the MTA’s five-year capital plan. Buses, which transport 2.5m riders daily on weekdays, get just $2 billion. As long as the city neglects its buses, dollar vans will be there to mind the gap.

Variations on this already operate here. They are operated by large businesses mostly in mississauga and brampton that aren't very accessible by transit and/or don't pay their employees enough to afford a car. If you know what to look for you can spot them easily.

 

[drum118]

Variations on this already operate here. They are operated by large businesses mostly in mississauga and brampton that aren't very accessible by transit and/or don't pay their employees enough to afford a car. If you know what to look for you can spot them easily.

They also exist in Toronto.

 

[Jonny5]

Based on the amount of hits, he made more than enough to pay that fine.

I highly doubt he made much of anything at that. Youtube doesn't even care you exist until you have millions of hits, and then they give you cents per hundred thousand.

 

[drum118]

I highly doubt he made much of anything at that. Youtube doesn't even care you exist until you have millions of hits, and then they give you cents per hundred thousand.

That wrong, as I got money long before I hit a million. I sit at 1.3 million and earn $800 us.

 

[Jonny5]

That wrong, as I got money long before I hit a million. I sit at 1.3 million and earn $800 us.

800 per what period?

 

[drum118]

800 per what period?

4 years with about 2,000 video added

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

That wrong, as I got money long before I hit a million. I sit at 1.3 million and earn $800 us.

yup I have almost 80,000 video views and I just added my 514th video yesterday. In April I got a payment from Google for $100 which is the minimum they will pay you for a month or any period unless you make more than it for a particular month.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Here’s how US regional transit agencies impede the development of public transport

These massive regional transit agencies are typically stacked with suburban board members that don't always have the core city’s needs at heart. They are usually concocting schemes to extract money or service from the more transit-willing neighborhoods in the region, in order to have some sort of suburb-to-city dream bus or commuter rail line that costs a lot, but really doesn't move the needle on changing mobility in a meaningful way. Either that, or they have to have an election, that includes precincts heavily-opposed to transit, and which sink ballot initiatives that pass in the city proper.
​

Which is why I remain steadfast opposed to Metrolinx taking over any TTC operations.

 

[pman]

Here’s how US regional transit agencies impede the development of public transport

These massive regional transit agencies are typically stacked with suburban board members that don't always have the core city’s needs at heart. They are usually concocting schemes to extract money or service from the more transit-willing neighborhoods in the region, in order to have some sort of suburb-to-city dream bus or commuter rail line that costs a lot, but really doesn't move the needle on changing mobility in a meaningful way. Either that, or they have to have an election, that includes precincts heavily-opposed to transit, and which sink ballot initiatives that pass in the city proper.
​

Which is why I remain steadfast opposed to Metrolinx taking over any TTC operations.

Hey, that sounds like the Spadina and Scarborough subway extensions!

 

[W. K. Lis]

The suburbs want solutions to commuting, but nothing for transporting within their neighourhoods. This means rapid transit stations situated far apart to get to work as fast as possible.

The inner city want solutions to transporting within the neighbourhoods. This means stops situated at work and shops and school and medical offices and...

 

[DSC]

The suburbs want solutions to commuting, but nothing for transporting within their neighourhoods. This means rapid transit stations situated far apart to get to work as fast as possible.

The inner city want solutions to transporting within the neighbourhoods. This means stops situated at work and shops and school and medical offices and...

Actually one needs both and the two 'wants' are not incompatible. Stations should be further apart in the suburbs where density is not so great and closer together in the inner city where density is higher and stations can be closer together. Oh, that's pretty well what we have now!
If the downtown stations were as far apart as those in the suburbs one would need to change twice; a bus to your local station, a subway or LRT to a downtown hub (Union Station?) and then another bus, LRT or streetcar to your final destination. Not everyone coming 'downtown' want to go to Union.

 

[TransitBart]

yup I have almost 80,000 video views and I just added my 514th video yesterday. In April I got a payment from Google for $100 which is the minimum they will pay you for a month or any period unless you make more than it for a particular month.

You get money for posting videos on youtube?

 

[drum118]

You get money for posting videos on youtube?

Yep!!

How much is based on how long viewers watch it, as will the number of hits. Unless you are getting over 200 hits per video, not worth to Monetization it after an X time frame, as it will lower your viewing ratio.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

You get money for posting videos on youtube?

for me I've been monetizing videos for 3 years and been on youtube for about 5. The rules to monetize are you have to have a an account in good standing and not post anything against Youtube's policies. The amount they pay out is fairly low per video view its somewhere around half a cent per view.

 

[ticky]

Experienced something last year I've never had before.

At Union, heading northbound to Downsview, our train took the middle siding/holding track instead of the usual NB track. Didn't see any sign of any work taking place as far as I could tell so not sure what the reason for that would be or how long they were running trains like that.