News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 9.6K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 41K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 5.4K     0 

Some people have a real problem with the idea of letting go of car use for even some of the time. They point to things like shopping for large items or deliveries to business and say 'How are things gonna get to stores without trucks? On a bike?'. Or 'How are you gonna get a couch/fridge/big screen TV home on a bus, herp derp?'. As if you buy things like that every single week and delivery doesn't exist.
Uh hang on ... I've got a car, and it's never crossed my mind not to have the appliance store deliver the fridge, washer, dryer, couch, and wardrobes. Saves trying to carry it up/down the stairs as well ...

I'll tell you what the car IS useful for. Groceries. After that, I have my doubts. We ditched one car after I started using transit mostly ... I wish we could ditch the second ... maybe if there weren't so many elderly relatives to visit who live in the country ...
 
Uh hang on ... I've got a car, and it's never crossed my mind not to have the appliance store deliver the fridge, washer, dryer, couch, and wardrobes. Saves trying to carry it up/down the stairs as well ...

I'll tell you what the car IS useful for. Groceries. After that, I have my doubts. We ditched one car after I started using transit mostly ... I wish we could ditch the second ... maybe if there weren't so many elderly relatives to visit who live in the country ...

Yeah, the only furniture I've ever put in the car has been either small or unassembled.

We've been doing groceries more at local stores within walking distance (including supermarkets) instead of doing one long trip to one or two stores farther away. Not really a problem except for bulk items. And yes, visits to out-of-town relatives ... I suppose car-share would work. Right now the car is almost exclusively used on the weekend.
 
the lemur, where did you come up with that name? I went to high school with someone at Don Mills who happened to have the same odd choice of nickname... coincidence?
 
the lemur, where did you come up with that name? I went to high school with someone at Don Mills who happened to have the same odd choice of nickname... coincidence?

Just a coincidence. I like lemurs and I based this username on one I had on a blogging/social media site over a decade ago. Never had it as a nickname in IRL, never lived in Don Mills!
 
Why wait for a bus? You see when it's coming, and get there just before it.

Oh, like I can just drive anywhere in Toronto when I want to ... except when there's traffic everywhere, highways close for car racing, etc.

If that happens frequently, then one has some unusual circumstances. I've got kids ... never once took them to the hospital (no stitches yet, knock on wood). Though those kind of things don't happen at night. Even with a car, I use a taxi to get back and forth to the hospital, if transit isn't an option ... it's generally cheaper than parking for who knows how long ... and if the kid is in the car bleeding everywhere ... do you really want to strap them in, and let them alone in the back seat?

But hang on ... they say they use taxis AND car sharing as well. The whole point is that you save money ... not that you never use a car!

Lots of car sharing options near Yonge/Queen! And taxis are everywhere.

My point was in places like Brampton, not having a car would be quite inconvenient. It is of course possible - a friend of mine who lived in Los Angeles for 6 years with a car.

With respect to car sharing, I enrolled and seldom used it. It is simply too expensive. For example, if I want to visit my friend at Finch/Kennedy for lunch, I would need to drive the car for 30 minutes, park it somewhere and pay for the entire time. If I come back at 11pm like I often do, I am likely pay over $100 for driving it for an hour RT. Car sharing is only useful when you need to make a quick trip somewhere and return right away. Otherwise, it makes no financial sense.
 
...
It's not too much to ask for a TTC commissioner to use the TTC some of the time, is it?

If a TTC commissioner actually experiences the delays or waits (forever) for a bus on a freezing cold day (like today), then they would know how cutting or increasing services affects them and others. Better than getting an e-mail from someone if you yourself actually has the experience of taking public transit.
 
Ugh, that bus is horrible; it has one of the worst on-time ratings of any bus route (32%) and is only scheduled to run at best every 20 minutes, while in reality there is no schedule adherence whatsoever in anything but perfect conditions thanks to traffic on Adelaide and the DVP.

You guys also know that council meetings usually run late into the evening, right? The last run of the night for the 144 is at 7ish.

The city should create a bus/HOV lane on the DVP, Richmond and Adelaide if they are serious about running more of those express buses, but of course they are money losers so there's not much interest.

There are HOV lanes on the DVP, but they are for GO buses only.
 
My point was in places like Brampton, not having a car would be quite inconvenient. It is of course possible - a friend of mine who lived in Los Angeles for 6 years with a car.

With respect to car sharing, I enrolled and seldom used it. It is simply too expensive. For example, if I want to visit my friend at Finch/Kennedy for lunch, I would need to drive the car for 30 minutes, park it somewhere and pay for the entire time. If I come back at 11pm like I often do, I am likely pay over $100 for driving it for an hour RT. Car sharing is only useful when you need to make a quick trip somewhere and return right away. Otherwise, it makes no financial sense.
Oh, it's expensive. But it's still cheaper than owning a car! With a small compact car I reckon the depreciation is about $2,000 a year. Then about $1,000 a year for insurance. And maybe $1,000 a year for maintenance, tires, etc. It varies of course, as depreciation goes down, maintenance goes up.

So before you get to gas, your over $400 a month.

I'm not sure how you come back from 11 pm for lunch ... but for 3 hours, Autoshare is about $31. About $80 a day.

For $400, you can use several times in a month.

If you need a car for several days, all day, your probably better off renting, where you can rent for under $50 a day. So that's 8 days a month rental for the cost of a car.

Obviously, if you need a car for more than 8 days a month ... buy a car. Personally, there are times I use mine 2-3 times a week ... and others it sits there for 6 weeks without me touching it. If my wife didn't use it more frequently (she tends to do the groceries with the kids, and her parents are elderly in 905), I'd ditch it right now!
 
A car-free existence is quite possible, although living within walking distance of the very edge of TTC service helps a lot. Any long-distance trips, we hire a car, and we then use the car to do a run for any large/bulky items (large beer run, IKEA, etc). I figure we could easily rent a car for a month in total, depending on the size, both have transit passes and still come out way ahead of car ownership and attendant costs. We are considered quite the oddballs in our neighbourhood. Our driveway hasn't been shovelled in two weeks. No need.
 
So the TAs at UofT just voted to strike. That assumes they'll be picketing the DT campus, UTM, and UTSC.

I know when York went on strike during 2008-2009 (and potentially will come Monday night), buses didn't enter campus out of union solidarity. Does this apply to UT St. George, or is it unlikely the 94 is going to divert?

I figure transit to UTSC will divert onto Ellesmere/Military Trail since it's a suburban campus that's not quite embedded into an urban fabric.
 
So the TAs at UofT just voted to strike. That assumes they'll be picketing the DT campus, UTM, and UTSC.

I know when York went on strike during 2008-2009 (and potentially will come Monday night), buses didn't enter campus out of union solidarity. Does this apply to UT St. George, or is it unlikely the 94 is going to divert?

I figure transit to UTSC will divert onto Ellesmere/Military Trail since it's a suburban campus that's not quite embedded into an urban fabric.
Since the 94 does not run on U of T roadways (and picketers cannot legally be on city roads) I doubt that it will divert.
 
It looks as if TTC went with Nova for the extra 50 Buses. So I guess whatever deal NFI was trying to get with TTC didn't work out. Now it comes down to a temporary bus garage, or stick with MicNicoll Garage
 
It looks as if TTC went with Nova for the extra 50 Buses. So I guess whatever deal NFI was trying to get with TTC didn't work out. Now it comes down to a temporary bus garage, or stick with MicNicoll Garage

They definitely have. The details were in the board report from last week: www.ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Commission_reports_and_information/Commission_meetings/2015/February_25/Supplementary_Reports/Procurement_Authorization_Amendment_Purchase_50_Buses.pdf

The report details the negotiations with NFI, which fell apart for various reasons, included a reduced warranty period and the refusal of NFI to provide a cross vendor parts reference list. Perhaps more importantly, NFI was more expensive than Nova, and Nova was able to accelerate the current 55-vehicle order and provide all 105 vehicles in 10 months.
 
It made more sense to go with a manufacturer that already meets the requirements anyways. I'm not sure why TTC wasted there time, almost starting the process over again just to cut the process short anyways. They wasted their own time. But they did make a good point, which is probably why they did what they did for the extra buses, and that's to stimulate competition. At least they're thinking straight. As for why the deal fell apart, those reasons for for the first 55 buses, not the extra 50 buses. I think you maybe getting the two confused. TTC didn't have time to evaluate the NFI product for the extra 50 buses, and thought that will take up time from the delivery process for this year. But yes NFI did have more of an expensive product. But that shouldn't be the sole reason.
 
Last edited:
As for why the deal fell apart, those reasons for for the first 55 buses, not the extra 50 buses. I think you maybe getting the two confused. TTC didn't have time to evaluate the NFI product for the extra 50 buses, and thought that will take up time from the delivery process for this year.
I was paraphrasing the TTC report issued last week, where TTC reviewed the NFI proposal of November 28, 2014. I think you are getting this confused with the proposal NFI submitted on November 12, 2013, which the TTC also rejected in April 2014 for similar reasons.
 

Back
Top