Public transit is not a left-wing conspiracy

Transit is quickly becoming the main issue in this mayoral election.

 

A few weeks back Rob Ford presented his transportation policy. 

 

If you thought Rocco Rossi’s recent announcement takes this city back decades, Rob Ford’s plan goes just as far back and is just as inept.

 

I live in North York. I like lower taxes and for City Hall to set an example when it comes to spending. I used to live in the 905 and used to drive everywhere. I should be Rob Ford’s core constituent! 

 

But, when I read his transit plan I knew right then and there he lost my vote. He had me up until he unveiled his transit policy. I can’t help but think he doesn’t get transportation in Toronto.

 

I may not be an expert in the subject either but my Toronto includes streetcars. 

 

Ultimately, all the hypothetical money saved at City Hall isn’t going to matter if people have to drive to work and won’t embrace public transit. It also won’t help address the overcrowding on our subways and streetcar routes.

 

Someone should tell Rob Ford there isn’t some hippie, lefty or downtown conspiracy here when it comes to public transit. Transit is the most effective way to move a large amount of people at one time.

 

Rob Ford is someone who has resided in City Hall for a decade and I, frankly, expected more from him in regards to transit.

 

Because his ward is closer to downtown Brampton than downtown Toronto I also thought he’d embrace all types of transit that reached the farthest corners of the city and the people that need it the most.

 

Before I moved to Toronto I had an idea that transit, and the TTC, was important to all residents but it wasn’t until I actually started living here and saw first-hand, day in and day out, how vital it is in moving people across the city.

 

Toronto, at this point, because of decades of neglect, needs all kinds of transit to move people. Commuting is not getting any easier in the city. We cannot pick and choose what we want.

This is why Transit City, perceived warts and all, works. It moves people across the city. More importantly, it also reaches out to neglected parts of the city that are dependent on cars and used to long commutes. I wish the other candidates, besides the deputy mayor, would embrace the project.

In a city the size of Toronto we sometimes need to compromise. Unless we had an unlimited amount of money coming in this compromising includes transit.

The reality in this city and region is that we cannot build subways everywhere. We have to be strategic with where and when we build them.

Policies like the one Mr. Ford brings forward, along with the recent announcements from Mr. Rossi, threaten to bring Toronto back to the past when we should be moving forward.

We can’t keep coming back to the same old arguments of the 1970s and 1980s. These old arguments are just that - old. They should stay in the past. They do nothing for us today in 2010. 

 

We need to start embracing new ideas and new technology to get people moving in this city.

 

All we should ask for in a Mayor is to run the city effectively, understand the needs of its citizens and act accordingly.

 

Saving money and cleaning up City Hall is important but if Rob Ford cannot, unfortunately, wrap his head around transit, the single most important need and challenging issue facing Torontonians in the short and long-term, what else will he not be able to understand? 

 

This is why I cannot vote for Rob Ford. I suspect I’m not alone.

 

About Robert Kirsic

Comments

[Harry Kielty]

I have visited Toronto from Scotland 3 or 4 times in the last 4 years. I think the TTC is a really good system. It seems fast and frequent.
We have nothing as integrated over here, so we do not have much choice but to use our cars. It was so easy for us to get from Etobicoke to the City centre using the bus, or street car and underground, and all with one token! I wish we had that here.
Once here I had to travel 100 miles by train to catch a bus to my final destination, another 50 miles away. The train and buses shared same station, but bus left 1 minute before train arrival, and next bus was 4 hours later!
What I would comment on is that often I noticed neither drivers or passengers acknowledged each other on entering or leaving buses. Come on...smile.

[Kar Owner]

I too agree with the writer, transit is & has been our cities number one issue for a long time, and a real plan has taken FAR too long. I originally had a hard time with the Transit City model of LRV instead of subways, due to perceived traffic concerns namely during construction and having an above ground network instead of underground etc. But the reality is we need something and we need it fast & efficiently, a few subway lines are not going to meet our needs of the TO of 10+ years from now, had they done it back in the '80's would be different but to only consider a few lines today just to keep them underground is not practical, we need a multi-line network to connect the city and the going population TODAY, so waiting 6-9yrs of cost efficient spending is the only next solution, so the errors of poor planning in the '70's - '80's will not plague us for the years to come. So having said that Ford and many of the other hopeful mayors need to reconsider their transit ideas since they really do not know what the city needs today or where the city is going, such hopefuls should not become a mayor of this city at this time.
Ford and the others have lost my vote, until otherwise....

From a downtown Toronto car owner who sees the future of this city

[Jada]

We need to expand transit at a phenomenal rate as the roads are quickly reaching critical mass. With another 100,000 people or so entering the GTA every single year, we NEED to figure something out fast, something that can work well and handle future capacity, not just current capacity and work across ALL of Toronto. With that, I propose the following solution:

-Dig the Eglinton crosstown SUBWAY, instead of LRT, all the way from Scarborough to Pearson Airport.
-Continue with Pearson-Union link (electrified).
-Connect Sheppard, westbound to Downsview.
-Continue the Sheppard line by digging from Don Mills station on the Sheppard line, south along Don Mills to connect to the Danforth, with a connection at the new Eglinton line (LRT will continue eastbound to Kennedy).
-Continue this line south to Queen, run along Queen and connect up to the Bloor line around Dufferin or Keele, continue with a connection to new Eglinton line. This completes the DRL, however with extra extensions up to Eg on one side and Sheppard on the other, taking much pressure of Yonge and Spadina up north as well.
-Convert Scarborough RT to full subway extension of Bloor-Danforth.
-Continue with Spadina extension to York Region.
-Upgrade Bloor-Yonge station to handle extra capacity.
-Extend Yonge line into Richmond hill.

-Complete the rest of Transit City and allow LRT to fill the rest of the city in, where subway does not make sense.

-Allow the province to seemlessly integrate the rest of Move Ontario 2020, including Presto cards, but consider allowing both Presto and open fare systems.

This will all likely cost about $20-30 billion and take a decade to build, but would truly revolutionize transit in Toronto. To pay for this we would need several measures, many of which outlined in the plan by the Toronto Board of Trade. People cannot be afraid of tolls/taxes, because this HAS TO BE DONE and needs to be paid for somehow.
We should study a congestion tax similar to London and implement if it makes sense, as well the PROVINCE should immediately implement a Transit Tax, where all money collected goes DIRECTLY into a fully seperated account used ONLY for transit projects province wide (yes 905 too, lol). Legislation should make using the money for non-transit projects illegal.

Implement all of this and we will have fixed transit CITY WIDE! Failure to do so will mean virtually useless roads, packed with traffic all day long within about 10-15 years, and without a transit system to compensate.

[a]

we need to get rid of the streetcars and add more buses. Plus in the downtown core there should be no parking during rush hour in the morning and afternoon on all major routes. tag and tow...like how they do in Philly. Expand all the subway systems. We should be able to get on the subway and get to anywhere in toronto. Plus they need to expand the subway system all the way to newmarket. Plus they should offer a monthly pass that would cover any transit no matter what you take or where.

[americo ferdinand]

I think it was the Star who reported this but it was that the mayor of Portland, Oregon was jealous of Toronto because we kept our streetcars and they are re-embracing them over there after years of their absence. An interesting statistic is that the population of Portland is relatively young in their 30s and 40s making up the largest demographic. If the leadership there is young and full of fresh ideas then surely we're going pack to the past settling with stale ideas such as replacing the streetcars. We do need more subways instead of SOME TransitCity ideas but we don't need that in areas such as Newmarket where it's absolutely not viable. Bus Rapid Transit should be sufficient and efficient. While I don't endorse Joe and see problems with anyone else but him I wish that Rob would keep TransitCity and let the TTC run itself.

[J. MacMillan]

Right. Let's just have a look at replacing streetcars with buses. It takes about 3 buses to hold the same number of passengers. Maybe 4, but let's be conservative. At around $600-$700k per bus, that would cost roughly 2 million dollars. But then, they last about 12-15 years max, half the life of a streetcar, so double that cost. Then you need to hire another 2 drivers. Let's assume $60-70k/year plus benefits. And let's not forget the amount of space that an additional 2 buses would take on the road. And then you have a few additional costs, like adapting the Bloor/Spadina tunnel for buses. Hmmm..

[Nizar Hussein Premji]

Hello Folks, I am a TTC Employee completing 8 Yrs. of service. I arrived in this city back in 1975. At that time the city's transit system was an envy for the rest of the world's cities. Today in the 21st century, we are the laughing stock of the entire world, simply because the governments stopped funding the system decade ago. Despite the lack of funds and wrong decisions, the TTC has provided service far superior and with the least amount of fares for the riders for decades than many other world class cities. It is now imperative that the newly elected mayor understands the pathetic problems of TTC and act accordingly. We do not need subways, what we do need is a city full of LRT, covering the city's remote areas. Also, we don't need private shareholders. This will compound the problems already at hand and will create another overhead. i.e. shareholders profits. As for the love and hate of the riders and the TTC, employees, it is the duty of the big medias to teach the public from the perspective of TTC employees. The public and the medias are totally ignorant when it comes to the actual day-to-day duties of the front line TTC employees.

[Another mother]

When I look at a map of Toronto, I see subways and LRT's reaching into Etobicoke, North York and well into Scarborough. They also have GO transit. Peel has only GO transit. The transit that is available is incredibly time consuming. 20 minutes by car vs 1.5 to 2 hours by transit is NOT reasonable especially for an older established neighbourhood. Zum and MiWay don't help with this and I don't see anything in the plans that will be improving this.

People will keep taking their cars while their cars cut their commute time in half or more. I don't have to have a car. But I'm not going to spend hours more time every day commuting.