News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 8.9K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 5.1K     0 

Brilliant strategy to entice choice riders like myself back to the TTC!

Yeah you're missing out on all the fun! Today myself and everyone else in the subway car this afternoon was called an effin a-hole by this crazy lady,I don't care what you call me, but there was young children on board, that had to listen to this crazy woman's vile language.
 
News we don't like to hear. "Subway is shutdown due to ....... shuttle buses are in use."

This maybe because of construction, fire, track incident, etc.. However, whatever the case, the shuttle buses are not "rapid transit". Especially in mixed traffic.

We should have a way to make those shuttle buses "rapid", even if only temporary. This means making the curb lanes "reserved right-of-ways" for the shuttle buses. Maybe using temporary bollards separating the curb lane from the other lanes? With cops, special constables, security guards, whatever at each intersection to direct traffic away from the curb lane? No "local" shuttle bus service. The shuttle buses only stopping adjacent to the stations. With REAL transit signal priority for the buses, so they can get green lights most of the way.

201408-071131.jpg
From link.
Maybe have retractable holes in the pavement for quick insertion and extraction.

That's only if we make public transit the #3 (#1 being emergency vehicles and #2 being pedestrians) priority in this city. Single occupant autos and SUVs should get last priority.
 
News we don't like to hear. "Subway is shutdown due to ....... shuttle buses are in use."

This maybe because of construction, fire, track incident, etc.. However, whatever the case, the shuttle buses are not "rapid transit". Especially in mixed traffic.

We should have a way to make those shuttle buses "rapid", even if only temporary. This means making the curb lanes "reserved right-of-ways" for the shuttle buses. Maybe using temporary bollards separating the curb lane from the other lanes? With cops, special constables, security guards, whatever at each intersection to direct traffic away from the curb lane? No "local" shuttle bus service. The shuttle buses only stopping adjacent to the stations. With REAL transit signal priority for the buses, so they can get green lights most of the way.

201408-071131.jpg
From link.
Maybe have retractable holes in the pavement for quick insertion and extraction.

That's only if we make public transit the #3 (#1 being emergency vehicles and #2 being pedestrians) priority in this city. Single occupant autos and SUVs should get last priority.
Most of Bloor Street is one lane, I don’t see how you can shoehorn in a lane for the shuttle bus.
 
Uh, what?

There are a ton of corridors with lots of local demand - the downtown streetcar network has a ton of commercial streets with a ton of demand for quick trips to run quick errands. Why would the minimum travel be 30 minutes to go a few blocks? From where are you grabbing your data?

The only possible way it could take 30 minutes to travel a few blocks is if there is a massive service disruption. This isn't an indicator of how the TTC was built.

I have to wonder if people here i) live downtown and ii) even take the TTC. To go from King and Sherbourne to King and Spadina can easily take 30 minutes. You spend anywhere from 5-10 waiting for it and then it can take from 18-25 to crosstown depending on traffic and right now traffic is defined as backed-up streetcars or streetcars slowing down every block because of their silly restrictions.

Unless you live on the subway line and are only going somewhere on the subway line, you'll be looking at 30 minutes to get anywhere minimum.
 
I have to wonder if people here i) live downtown and ii) even take the TTC. To go from King and Sherbourne to King and Spadina can easily take 30 minutes. You spend anywhere from 5-10 waiting for it and then it can take from 18-25 to crosstown depending on traffic and right now traffic is defined as backed-up streetcars or streetcars slowing down every block because of their silly restrictions.

There certainly has been no evidence thus far in any of your posts that you

a) Live in Toronto
b) Have ever taken the TTC

That said, I do regularly.

The trip time for the exact journey you quoted should range from 15M-22M depending on time of day,.

That includes vehicle wait time; though one can concede the TTC's headway management problem does mean waits may sometimes be longer.

1673063917734.png


Note that the travel time below is re-set to rush-hour next Monday and is actually shorter than the current trip time.

1673064016307.png
 
He's not wrong, I live in Scarborough and to go literally 3km would take me 40 mins by bus or about 4 mins by car.
Google maps times weren't realistic in my experience because I'd need to walk to the stop and leave 5 or 6 mins per bus to make sure it didn't come early, then I'd have to climb the stairs at warden and hope the next bus came around the same time.
Even if you don't have a subway transfer like I did, you generally need to take 2 routes and what are the chances they line up? How long will you wait in the cold in the winter?

The system is meant to shuttle people to the core (for the most part)
View attachment 448866View attachment 448867

I'm not going to suggest these are wrong.........(they aren't)

But worth saying, I just did the same search via google:

1673065086102.png


1673065150591.png


So it obviously varies by time of day and luck of the draw a bit.
 
Danforth is wider. If you eliminate parking, there's room for a bus lane.

There will not be any dedicated bus lanes on sections of road that have no bus service during subway hours. No chance.

If the parking comes out, in whole, or in part, it will go to wider sidewalks/parklets/patios and the like.

There is likely a justification to go the bus lane route east of Main Street where Danforth sports 3 all-day bus routes (Danforth 113, Cliffside 20 and Dawes 23)

****

In a shuttle bus scenario, ideally, the police, traffic wardens and TTC Supervisors/Special Constables should scramble to effect emergency road closures and friendly tows, as required, particularly around loading/offloading locations. How practical that is, is a different question.

That should certainly be the strategy, however, for scheduled closures.
 
There will not be any dedicated bus lanes on sections of road that have no bus service during subway hours. No chance.
The discussion was about shuttle buses for when the subway was shut down - the original example given was Bloor.

Either way though - it's no chance.
 
Danforth is wider. If you eliminate parking, there's room for a bus lane.
Get rid of street parking along transit routes (including bus, streetcar, subway, and light rail routes). People can walk, cycle, or use public transit in the city. Out of towners can use GO. Provide delivery zones on the side streets, better yet truck delivery zones on adjacent Green P lots and garages. Make public transit a higher priority than the single-occupant automobile.

The City of Toronto needs to change its policy ratings. Currently, the single-occupant automobile gets #1 priority. That should change to…

#1 priority—emergency vehicles
#2 priority—the pedestrians
#3 priority—public transit
#4 priority—cycling
#5 priority—delivery and contractor trucks
#6 priority—automobiles with more than one person
#7 priority—single-occupant automobiles
#8 priority— personal trucks or large SUVs not used for delivery
 
Last edited:
In some ways these service cuts are an adjustment to realities, granted, but those are realities on paper. The realities of waiting for transit in this city is that it is increasingly "luck be a lady" that your vehicle will show up with any consistency. And this will likely just make that even worse, especially without some complete rethink of route management and transit priority.
 
Last edited:
In some ways these service cuts are an adjustment to realities, granted, but those are realities on paper. The realities of waiting for transit in this city is that it is increasingly "luck be a lady" that your vehicle will show up with any consistency. And this will likely just make that even worse, especially without some completely rethought of route management and transit priority.
Agree with you completely, it MAY be acceptable to have some reduction in service due to decreasing ridership BUT only if the TTC finally gets their act together and MANAGES headways. The saving grace now is that there is (maybe) sometimes too much service but that sort of compensates for the total lack of management!
 
There certainly has been no evidence thus far in any of your posts that you

a) Live in Toronto
b) Have ever taken the TTC

That said, I do regularly.

The trip time for the exact journey you quoted should range from 15M-22M depending on time of day,.

That includes vehicle wait time; though one can concede the TTC's headway management problem does mean waits may sometimes be longer.

View attachment 448948

Note that the travel time below is re-set to rush-hour next Monday and is actually shorter than the current trip time.

View attachment 448949


My good sir, to provide you sense of my habits and behaviours, I am indeed a Torotonian. I have watched the condos rise in St Lawrence and do bruncheth on weekends in the west end.

Anyways, you can see here from Steve's post here on actual travel times: https://stevemunro.ca/2022/04/22/504-king-core-area-travel-times-20192022/ between Bathurst and Jarvis during mornings and evenings are between 15-20m with unreliable spikes on certain days from 30-40 minutes. Add wait times from 5 - 10 minutes with delays and you need 30-40 minute buffer to be on time.

But going back to Sherbourne to Spadina:

Even on a Saturday night, right now you can see:

IMG_3116.jpeg


One can either leave in 7 minutes for a 15 minute ride (23 minutes) total or leave in 2 for walk to Queen for a 24 minute ride (25 minutes). Give or take the missing of the lights, as the trams slow down due to oncoming streetcars, a minimum 30 minute trip should be expected, which was my original point.

Take this from someone who lives on King. Though maybe I'll have to send you a piece of mail soon so I can give you more data on my Torontoness :)
 
In some ways these service cuts are an adjustment to realities, granted, but those are realities on paper. The realities of waiting for transit in this city is that it is increasingly "luck be a lady" that your vehicle will show up with any consistency. And this will likely just make that even worse, especially without some completely rethought of route management and transit priority.

Careful JasonParis, you don't have any DATA to support that POV.
 

Back
Top