Bone-Headed Move By Toronto City Hall – What Else Is New?

Local politicians sometimes – correction – often – act first then deal with the consequences of their thoughtless acts later.

Take city officials in Canada’s largest city as a case in point. Yesterday, City of Toronto council voted in a new controversial anti-idling bylaw, which will now cost the city thousands of dollars to enforce on its own city-run transit system.

Toronto has had an anti-idling bylaw for years, prohibiting drivers from letting their vehicles idle for more than three-minutes, else they get a hefty fine.

The new anti-idling bylaw is stricter, prohibiting drivers from letting their vehicles idle for more than one minute – sixty-seconds – else they get a hefty fine of $125CDN.

Cutting the legal time limit down to a mere minute for idling won’t green the planet any more – well maintained vehicles spew most of their toxins on start-up. So forcing drivers to stop and then re-start their engines may actually cause carbon dioxide levels to go up, instead of down in the long run, especially on short stops.

Though restricting idle times will discourage motorists from letting their vehicles sit for long periods of time – which is a good thing.

Where things get sticky for the City of Toronto is for its transit system. Prior to the new anti-idling law, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was fine with the three-minute anti-idling regulations. But under the new minute policy, they could face fines and/or mechanic bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Today, TTC spokesman Brad Ross explained why the city’s bus drivers can’t comply with the city’s new law.

"Heavy diesel engines such as buses, (and) tractor-trailers need at least three-minutes to cool down before we shut a bus off. If we don't do that it will damage the engine, particularly the turbos within the engine, and when you damage those you're looking at about $8,000CDN per engine," Ross explained.

Ross says the TTC asked for an exemption from the new bylaw, but council declined that, because of complaints they received from residents about idling buses.

So what happens when the new bylaw is implemented?

Will TTC bus drivers get ticketed? If they do, chances are the City of Toronto itself will have to pay those tickets, which seems like the cat feeding the rat.

Or will TTC bus drivers obey the new bylaw, and in the process kill their bus, at a cost of $8,000CDN to fix?

Just another act now deal with it later bone-headed plan by politicians that failed to think things through.

If City of Toronto politicians really wanted to do some environmental good, they’d create policies and laws which discourage vehicle use during peak rush hour times in the city – like London, England has done.

In the United Kingdom, aside from emergency vehicles, buses, taxis and delivery vans, you can’t drive in London’s downtown. This curbs traffic congestion, by forcing people to take more environmentally-friendly options for urban travel – such as walking, cycling or taking public transit.

Now that plan really does clean the air.

So how about it Toronto – do you really want to make the world a better place?

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Public Transits Canadian Iron Curtain

It’s been almost 23-years since American President Ronald Reagan’s famous foretelling words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” yet an Iron Curtains till abounds. President Reagan was speaking in front of the Berlin Wall, in an address targeted towards Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in an attempt to end Communism.

With the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union collapsed and so did many of the Communistic societies that were once part of that regime.

However, after witnessing a so-called public meeting to discuss public transit in Canada’s largest city, one may think the Iron Curtain is still very much alive.

Toronto’s transit system has taken much bad press the past several months. A YouTube video of a Toronto transit subway taker sleeping on the job was followed not too long after by another video of a bus operator taking an unscheduled stop at a local donut shop. Numerous events since have further eroded the public’s view of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) which operates and manages public transit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The most recent event occurred last week, when a TTC bus driver attacked a young adult over what appears to be a fare dispute. Allegedly, the bus driver tossed the young man so hard against the bus, a bus window was shattered.

To alleviate the bad press, the TTC’s union, Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing the bus, subway, streetcar, wheel transit operators and support staff, has been holding public town hall style meetings throughout Toronto.

The notion of these town halls is to provide an opportunity for the public to voice their comments, concerns and questions to the TTC’s union.

However, it was clear from the very start of yesterday’s town hall that this was anything but a public meeting.

Oh the public was there, seated in the auditorium of Stephen Leacock Collegiate. And a microphone was paraded around, allowing people to stand up and have their say.

But the answers were obviously spun to send one message and one message only to the TTC’s management – we need more public funding.

Although the TTC needs more public funding – all transit systems require public funding, and the amount of this funding in Canada over the years continues to drop -- the point of the town hall was to provide an opportunity for public voices to be heard. Not for the union to use the public to bolster its position against management.

But that’s exactly what happened. Every question from the public was used to forward the unions specific concerns with management – they never really acknowledged or accepted responsibility for anything, placing most blame on management’s shoulders.

It wasn’t until the very end, where one of the TTC’s operators on stage publicly apologized on behalf of her fellow bus drivers, for the physical assault of the young man by one of her colleagues. Not that this incident is a representation of her, or her co-workers typical behavior – it is a rare occurrence -- but instead of spending time addressing the causes which may have lead to this incident, those representing the union on stage kept sweeping the blame onto management’s shoulders.

Wait a sec . . . isn’t it the union which represents bus drivers – like the bus driver that attacked a young man over a bus fare?

SLAM went the Iron Curtain of the TTC’s union. All the TTC’s problems smeared across the globe via the mass media and social networking sites like YouTube come down to a lack of government funding.

Or at least that’s what they want you to believe. And they have been holding public meetings to use you to get that message out.

Pretty sneaky. Maybe they got Gorbachev to teach them how to run these things?

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Canada’s Largest Transit System Continues to Suffer a PR Nightmare

Why does Canada’s largest public transit system have a constant customer relations problem?

Is it because the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) chair was tossed out of the mayor’s race during a very public love triangle which went wrong?

Is it because of consistent fare hikes, making it one of the most expensive public transit systems in the world?

Is it because a rider caught a TTC ticket taker sleeping on the job?

No – it is none of those – and all of those reasons in a sense.

The problem is the TTC fails to listen to their customers – and like all companies that lose touch with the people paying for its products and services, eventually that’s going to cost it.

The TTC even announced it was paying thousands of dollars to hire third-party consultants to improve customer relations – showing that at least the TTC isn’t completely unaware of the problem.

Recent polls on several local news organization’s websites sum up the current problems with the TTC. The transit authority recently said it will invest billions of dollars to put up suicide prevention barriers on its subway platforms. They made this decision based on a report which says there were 18 subway suicide attempts last year. At a cost of $10 million per station for the cash strapped transit operator, we’re talking more fare increases, and possible route and service cuts to pay for a handful of crazy people that will probably find some other way to end their lives.

Not that suicide should be taken lightly – anytime a person is in danger of taking their own life, we as a society are obligated to act to prevent such a travesty. However, putting up barriers isn’t going to do anything but cost more money than we have.

Anyone willing to jump in front of an oncoming subway train will simply find another means to end their life. The answer to suicide prevention isn’t removing all possible ways to end one’s life – otherwise we’d all live in plastic bubbles. The way to prevent suicides is through education, communication, therapy, and if need be, hospitalization.

Most people that attempt suicide don’t really want to end their lives, they use it as a wakeup call to those around them that they need help. The few that actually do intend to go through with it are past the point of no return, and there really is nothing we can do for these individuals – regardless of all the barriers we toss in front of them, they will just find another way to harm themselves.

So it should come as no surprise that the surveys on the local news websites show an overwhelming majority of respondents opposed to the TTC spending billions of dollars on suicide prevention barriers.

And in typical TTC fashion, the TTC continues to muddle along its own path, completely oblivious to their customer’s concerns.

Which is why the TTC has an image problem – they just don’t listen.
Maybe the thousands of dollars the transit authority paid for third-party consultants won’t be all for nothing – if those consultants are worth the big bucks they are being paid, they should simply recommend the TTC listen to their customers and act accordingly.

But if the TTC doesn’t listen to its customers, they probably won’t listen to their consultants either. And so their customer relations problems will continue, ridership will decline, and there could be more violence on the locally called “rocket.”

All because Canada’s largest transit system just doesn’t listen.

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City Employee Endangers and Embarrasses the Residents

A city employee responsible for the lives of hundreds has been caught drunk on the job. The city employee – a bus driver.

A bus driver? Responsible for hundreds of lives? Bus drivers can carry about 50 people on the average city bus, and when you consider all they do all day is drive up and down their route, picking up and dropping off passengers, even if they just drive up and down their route once, they could have already transported a 100 people.

Though the real issue here that the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) employee – the public transit service in the city of Toronto, Canada – was drunk on the job, or at least had enough alcohol in her system that police seized her license.

Last Friday a passenger on the bus called 9-1-1 complaining that the driver was all over the road. Police stopped the bus in the city’s east-end and had the driver take a breathalyzer – she blew between .05 and .08. That’s not high enough for an impaired driving charge, but is enough to warrant a 72-hour driving suspension due to her blood alcohol level.

The 40-year-old driver is currently on suspension without pay pending investigations by both the TTC and her union.

Drinking and driving is not acceptable under any circumstances for anyone period. But when a city employee who interacts with and is responsible for the lives of numerous public lives is caught drunk on the job, it is far worse.

Not only did this bus driver potentially endanger the lives of her passengers, she put the lives of other drivers, their passengers, and pedestrians on the sidewalks around her vehicle at grave risk.

A city bus isn’t a Tonka Toy – have you ever seen one in an accident?

When a bus collides with a car usually the car is crushed like a tin can, while there is barely a scratch on the bus – even at low speeds. Buses are massive solid metal rolling structures. Driving one takes special training, and requires a special license in most metropolitan areas around the globe.

Although buses tend to be slow moving vehicles, if one gets out of control, it could wreak havoc – killing innocent people on the sidewalk, on the bus, or in other vehicles.

Not to mention that a city’s bus drivers are often the first and only contact visitors to a city have with city employees – having one driving drunk all over the road certainly doesn’t give Canada’s largest city the best public image.

The TTC should have – if they don’t already – a zero tolerance policy for being under the influence of non-prescribed drugs or alcohol while working. Anyone found to be working a regularly scheduled shift while drunk or drugged should be immediately fired, without hesitation.

Anything less is irresponsible for the safety and well being of the public, and the image of the city.

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Canada’s Largest City’s Public Ambassador – A Thug?

Bus drivers in Canada’s largest city are pissed off, and they aren’t going to take it anymore. Problem is, much of what upsets them is caused by their own immature unruly behavior.

Over the past couple of weeks, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) which operates 150 bus and streetcar routes, three subway lines and the above-the-ground Scarborough Light Rail Train (LRT) has faced some very public gaffes.

A couple of weeks ago, a person took video of a TTC subway collector clearly sleeping in his collection booth – when he should have been collecting fares from passengers. The video made international headlines, thanks to the ‘viral’ media of the web, when it was posted on YouTube, and not only was an embarrassment to the transit operator but also the city.

Transit employees are often the first point of contact visitors to a big urban jungle like Toronto encounter, and so they represent not just their employer, but in a sense, the entire city.

Though you wouldn’t want to meet some of our city’s bus driver’s in a dark alley. Last week, a bus driver got off the bus in the middle of his route to make an unscheduled stop at a local donut shop. He left the door open on his midnight-run route, leaving passengers unprotected from both the elements and the world. Passengers complained they were cold, though in the wee hours of the morning, they could have easily been mugged, robbed, or worse.

Upon returning to the bus, a passenger confronted the driver, asking him not to delay the already late bus any further. The driver just snarled back his employee and bus route numbers and said go ahead and file a complaint “my union will protect me.”

Are labor unions in the business of protecting thugs and low-lifes now too? This bus driver certainly displayed thug-like behavior, threatening the passenger with “his transit badge” as a force to be reckoned with.

Testing this force, the passenger snapped some photos of the driverless bus while the person who should have been behind the wheel doing his job wasn’t, and these photos also ended up on the Internet for the world to see.

Media attention quickly narrowed in on the TTC and the city, as the largest public transit operator in Canada – and one of the largest in the world – was quickly gaining a bad reputation on the international stage.

TTC management issued a letter to all their drivers, reminding them that they are front-line employees, and customer service is of the utmost importance. In his letter to his drivers, TTC General Manager Gary Webster says he knows the recent problems are from a minority, most provide excellent customer service. However, he – rightly – points out that all it takes is for the minority slackers to create real public relations and customer relations issues for everyone else – which is what happened.

Not a harsh letter by any means, it was balanced with praise as well as condemnation. It wasn’t threatening, nor was it an angry letter. It was what it should have been – a communication from management to praise employees for their hard work, while providing some feedback and a solution to the recent public gaffes. Webster indicates that they are looking into resolving these issues, and he does mention that those caught doing things they shouldn’t on the job will be held accountable.

However, “the union will protect me” mentality runs deep at the TTC. The letter was sent out on Saturday, and today there are rumors about TTC operators working-to-rule in protest. The TTC’s union is stepping away publicly from the work-to-rule job action some drivers are claiming to be engaged in. The union has not mandated any public protest, so it would be wrong to work-to-rule.

Though the real issue isn’t working-to-rule (a work slowdown by union members used as a negotiation tactic to get what they want) or the content of the letter for that matter. The real issue which Toronto residents should be concerned with is the thug-like behavior of their unionized transit operators.

Yes, every time the city’s transit system goes on strike, Canada’s largest city practically shuts down. For many the TTC is their lifeline to the world – without it, millions of people are unable to get to work to make money to pay for their food, clothing and shelter.

However, instead of taking their importance with a sense of pride, TTC workers use it as a tool to hold the city hostage whenever they don’t like something about their jobs. Be it salary, back-pay, benefits, or most recently -- getting caught misbehaving on the job -- unionized TTC employees use their union and their importance in keeping the city functioning to get what they want.

Wish I was able to do that – like most people, if I don’t like something about my job, my only choices are either to quit or just deal with it.

And we aren’t exactly talking about life or death needs either – sleeping on the job or grabbing a donut in the middle of work aren’t serious enough to warrant the driver’s thug-like behavior.

Nobody wants to be made a fool of, especially in this era of cell phones with cameras, and high traffic websites to upload those images too such as YouTube.
But because of cell phone cameras and globally popular websites like YouTube, anyone can be made to look good or bad, anywhere, anytime and viewed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And if the TTC’s bus, streetcar, subway and light rail operators continue to act like thugs, bullying their customers, then they will constantly be under the media microscope from around the globe.

And worse than just a bit of bad press, as the tension grows between the city’s thugs – I mean bus drivers – and their customers, their non-unionized bosses and the city, potential visitors to Canada may stay away, because our city’s most visible public face isn’t one you’d want to meet in a dark alley – or even in a donut shop.

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Canadian Transit System Doesn’t Listen – Spends Thousands Instead

Canada’s largest transit system – always begging and pleading with governments for funding – is about to drop tens of thousands of dollars for no good reason.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is turning to third-party private consultants to investigate and solve its customer service problems. Last year, the TTC says it received about 31,000 complaints, an increase of 15 percent from the year before that. Fare increases, delays, rude employees and restrictions on token purchases are among the top complaints according to the transit operator.

However the biggest problem with Canada’s largest transit system won’t be resolved by spending the estimated tens of thousands of dollars on these private consultants.

A world-class city, such as Toronto, can afford to spend the big bucks to bring in only the best of the best to listen, consult and then advise the TTC on how to improve their customer service.

And when you pay the big bucks, you usually get what you pay for – exceptional advice.

But that’s just the problem with the TTC – they don’t listen to, or act on the advice from their customers. So spending tens of thousands of dollars they don’t have – they probably will raise fares to cover this expense – is money in, money out, and money gone without any result.

Many companies hire consultants to research, investigate, and resolve their various issues and concerns. But it is up to the company to implement the solutions their consultants suggested. And there are infinite examples of companies spending mega-bucks on high-priced consultants, only to ignore those consultants, try their own fixes, or worse, just continue doing business as they always have been.

Now no one can predict the future, so maybe – just maybe – the TTC will actually take their consultants word as the new way to win back customers.

But stop and think for a second, according to the TTC, they admit to receiving over 31,000 complaints from their customers. Not every complaint comes with a solution, and many of those complaints may be unjustified, or unfair. We all have bad days, and sometimes all it takes is that one last straw to break, and we’ll go off venting our rage, digging into whoever or whatever happens to be around at the time.

Though when you get about 31,000 complaints, some of them are bound to be valid, and many of those valid complaints may even have solutions impeded within them.

And that is the real cause for all the fuss – a serious lack of listening.

Canada’s largest public transit operator just doesn’t listen to its customers. You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on complete strangers to figure out what is wrong with the system, and how to fix it.

If even just a handful of people call in to complain about a bus route which never follows the posted schedule, do you really need to spend thousands of dollars to figure out what to do? The solutions are simple – ride with the drivers on that route to figure out if the schedule is out of whack with reality, change it, and post the new schedule so that passengers know it.

If a number of people complain that a specific bus driver on a specific bus route is always rude, drives dangerously, and freaks out the passengers with sudden stops, running red lights and other pleasantries, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to solve this problem. Replace the bus driver – simple – done and it didn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars in consultation fees.

Companies which listen to their customers – their complaints, concerns and kudos – succeed. They are the ones that know their customers, and know what they are doing right and wrong, so they can continue to do the right things, while working to improve the things which their customers can’t stand.

If anyone at the TTC is listening – which would be a pleasant surprise – don’t spend money on consultants to tell you what you already know or have access too. Just take the time to listen to your customers, and do what you can to make things right with them.

The Politics of Pettiness

Canada’s largest transit system continues to bungle a boondoggle of a mess, stranding riders all to save a buck.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) announced earlier this month they were going to raise fares by a quarter. These fare increases are nothing new, Canada’s largest public transit system continually is ignored by all three levels of government.

The fare increase of a mere quarter may not seem like much to those of us sitting in our luxury SUVs,

Image by TransferPoint via Flickr

but means a great deal to the lower class, working poor, which comprises the majority of the TTC’s over 460 million passengers annually (last year the service set an annual record, with just over 466 million riders.)

For most of those regular riders, the TTC is their only method of travel, so they depend on the service to do life’s basic necessities – such as going to the grocery store to buy food, going the drugstore to get much needed medicines, and going to work to earn an income to pay for it all.

But, in a boneheaded move which still has many of Toronto’s transit riders – and even some of us who don’t take the service – shaking our heads in bewilderment, the TTC has made it almost impossible for many riders to take the service, all in attempt to prevent lost fare revenues.

Just prior to fare increases, the metal tokens passengers use to pay for the service normally sold in abundant supplies are limited. This is done to prevent hoarding of tokens, so that those taking the service don’t stock up at the old price.

But this year, the TTC announced they weren’t selling tokens at all, until the new higher fare took effect in the New Year. Instead, they’d be issuing temporary tickets which would become invalid immediately in January.

Problem though, some TTC riders were left stranded where they

Image by TransferPoint via Flickr

were, simply because they didn’t have any tokens left, and these temporary tickets were nowhere to be found. The TTC claims they printed enough of these temporary tickets to meet demand, but admits they supplied their subway collectors first, and that many retailers had called in complaining they were out of stock.

So, if you happened to be within walking distance of a subway station, no problem, you could make the hike to get these new tickets – which incidentally were introduced in a period of less than 24-hours, even the media didn’t know about this new scheme until the night before. But if you weren’t within walking distance of one of the 69 subway stations, you were out of luck.

The TTC’s excuse? It estimates it could lose about $13 million in fare revenues by people buying tokens in bulk prior to the fare increase, so they cut off the token supply. But in so doing, they also cut off access to the system for their riders – which in effect would cost them fare revenues because people couldn’t get onto the system.

Usually tickets are sold without any limits, because newer tickets are printed when the new higher fare takes effect, so collectors and drivers can tell when someone is attempting to use an older, outdated ticket. The tokens on the other hand, are continually re-used.

But in past years, to beat the fare increases, or even to ride for free, some creative-types were able to duplicate the paper tickets, essentially creating their own exact copies.

Image by Canon Fodder XT via Flickr

So, earlier this year, the TTC stopped selling tickets altogether, only issuing either tokens or passes. This only compounds the problems once the TTC stopped selling tokens – which was a really bad idea period.

Who’s brain-dead idea was it to suddenly, and without any warning, stop selling the primary payment method most of the over 460 million annual riders use to take the transit service? That’s like your bank suddenly telling you they no longer accept cash.

As per usual with Canada’s largest transit system, time will pass and eventually cooler heads will prevail, as people forget the current fiasco. Though if the suits and ties that drive to their offices in their own personal vehicles, instead of taking the actual service they manage, actually cared about the service they provide – or in this case failed to provide – heads would roll.

In any other company, a marketing, public relations and customer service blunder as big as this would cost those responsible for the mess their jobs.

Not Canada’s largest transit system – it just plows on through as if nothing went wrong. And that perhaps is even worse than the mistake in the first place. We all make mistakes, but the TTC’s top brass is too arrogant to own up to their mistakes.

Not that they didn’t learn anything from this whole mess – but learning from one’s mistakes is only part of the resolution. One also has to be willing to take ownership and acceptance of the initial mistake to make a real difference in the lives of those affected.

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The Fall of Great Cities

Urban Planning Gone Wrong
Last week, over 300,000 commuters in Canada’s largest city were suddenly displaced, when the city’s subway system was suddenly out of service.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) shut down a portion of one of the city’s three subway routes, due to a construction mishap during the afternoon rush hour.

Almost immediately, hundreds of thousands of people had no way to get home. The TTC did add extra buses on surface routes, but a bus holding about 35-45 people is no substitute for a subway train which can carry several times that many.

Image via Wikipedia

Quickly the shuttle buses filled up – actually overfilled would be more like it – to the point where bus drivers were only stopping to allow people lucky enough to hitch a ride off.

This meant an estimated 300,000 people had no way of getting home during one of the busiest times for the ailing transit system.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, just a few months ago during the summer, the whole line had to be shut down during the afternoon rush hour, again leaving hundreds of thousands of transit riders without a method to get home.

Drivers weren’t any better off, in both instances, major north-south roads were closed to all but shuttle buses by police, causing traffic chaos for those of us in our own personal vehicles. Thousands of cars lined the downtown core, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of angry pedestrians, being forced to walk – all because of Toronto’s failing public transit system. If this were a scene from a big block buster Hollywood movie, it might be a cool – but this horror was no movie.

Extra police – some in riot gear – were on scene, to ensure frustrated motorists, pedestrians and just anyone else in the center of Canada’s largest city, didn’t misbehave during this example of urban planning gone horribly wrong. T

Image via Wikipedia

hese made one of the wealthiest first nation countries on the planet resemble a war zone.

Traffic in most cities around the world is constantly getting worse, as more people move to areas outside of the cities to live, but continue to work within those cities. This has forced interdependence upon personal vehicles – you need a car to go from your home in the suburbs to work in the city and back again.

With this urban sprawl, you’d figure the largest cities in the world would listen to the warnings and heed the advice of urban planners like legendary planning guru Jane Jacobs. Jacobs (best known for her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities), a native of the States, in her later years moved to Toronto, Canada where she was very vocal about the decay of North American cities. She predicted how Canada’s cities would follow the same dreadful path to self-destruction, if infrastructure improvements didn’t keep pace with population increases, and if our cities didn’t become centers to live AND work in, instead of what they have become – just places to work in.

That’s how poor ghettos are formed, surrounded by wealthy suburbs.

Jacobs passed away in her 80’s a few years ago, but many urban planners, academics and other braniacs that study these things have continued to sound the alarm on the dire state our most heavily populated places poor planning.

Basic infrastructures have continued to be maintained – sewage and solid waste systems, electrical power grids, even natural gas lines in some areas have all expanded north of our cities, fostering new neighborhoods. But no new major highways have been built to accommodate all those extra cars and trucks going back and forth from the city to the suburbs.

Mass public transit systems (like subways, light rail systems, or even bus lanes) have also not been put into the equation. Meaning the few highways in and out of our major urban centers become disaster zones during the morning, afternoon and weekend rush hours.

Our cities become corrupt, dirty, dangerous and desperate areas, as those living in them are the working poor that can’t afford the luxury of a personal vehicle, so they are stuck in areas serviced by public transit.

As the poor get poorer, and the rich get richer – something which has been occurring now for the past two-decades by many accounts – our cities continue to become urban slums – ghettos for the poor.

As politicians cater to the rich and powerful that support their election campaigns, funding continues to be diverted to services for many who don’t even live in the city – the rich and the powerful living in the posh suburbs.

Cover via Amazon

This ignorance of the very people within the city limits harms us all – roads don’t get built, transit systems continue to be underfunded, both of which collide into a fatal head-on collision during peak travel times.

Ironic as it is, that’s the sad fate of our urban centers, thanks to greedy inept politicians and poor urban planning which doesn’t meet the needs of the majority of the city’s population.

Once safe, friendly and prosperous cities become more crime-ridden, places of danger and despair, as poor planning causes economic disparity. A disproportionate spread of educated, middle class continue to leave the city, to call the suburbs home – though all the jobs remain in the city.

This is because it is easier for companies to find cheap, unskilled labor off major public transit lines, so the poorer city residents continue to live and work in our cities. While the higher-paid skilled workers also work in the city, but they live anywhere but the city.

Politicians, thinking they are scratching the backs of those who will help them win their jobs back in the next election, pump money into expansion of city-run sewers, electrical systems, and other support systems from the city to the suburbs.

This encourages new neighborhoods for the suburbs, but they don’t create any new major highways or transit system expansions from these neighborhoods to the city.

The politicians know no one wants a major highway running through their backyard, so instead of doing the right thing, the do what is politically correct – and least likely to alienate the very people who can elect that person back into office.

So the new urban sprawl continues, traffic congestion gets worse as the middle class and up shifts from the city to the ‘burbs’ leaving the poorer lower classes in our cities, and in the end, our once wonderful cities become victims of their own demise.

Just ask the over 300,000 people who were stuck without a way to get home during last week’s subway shut-down – that’s almost a half-million people. And that doesn’t include the thousands of people in their cars and trucks, trying to get out of the city, to their suburban home.

Poor Jane Jacobs, she must be rolling over in her grave, shaking her fist, as she says: “I told you so.”

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Greater Toronto Area’s Transit Troubles Continue

Canada’s largest metropolitan area has the worst public transit system in North America – if you go by value for money.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) on average costs more to take, yet the service isn’t nearly as efficient, effective or widespread as other major metropolitan areas when compared to similar-sized North American cities – and certainly nowhere near many European ones.

In London, UK, you can ride the Underground throughout the entire city, north, south, east, west, north-west, south-west, north-east, south-east, south-south-east . . . In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, the subway only runs in the center of the city north and southbound, or east and westbound. And you have to hop on a connecting bus or streetcar to go most places not right in the center of the city.

Over the past two-decades, while many other major urban centers have expanded their transit systems several dozen times, Toronto remained fairly stagnate, with less-than a handful of noteworthy expansions.

There was the expansion of the Yonge/University line northbound by the creation of the Downsview subway station in the 1990’s, and then the opening of the Sheppard line in 2002

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, which is really just a micro-subway line (it only has five stops, took eight-years to build, and cost just under $1 billion).

Incidentally, the Downsview subway station was built in anticipation of the Sheppard line being built – the two were supposed to connect originally, but because of bungled transit budgets, the Sheppard line was only built to Yonge Street in the west, and Don Mills in the east (it was originally going to stretch to Scarborough Town Centre, several more kilometers east).

Still, the biggest barrier to accessible, affordable, environmentally-friendly public transit in the GTA is ironically – the transit operators themselves.

In many parts of North America, one ticket will take you from your job in the downtown core, to your suburban home. Not in the GTA – thanks to the Amalgamated Transit Workers union, Toronto’s public transit system -- Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) -- will only take you in and around the city of Toronto.
Even if you live just five-minutes in any direction outside of Toronto, you STILL have to pay an extra fare – and often have to hop onto another bus.

Back in the early 1990’s, the provincial minister of transportation at t

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he time, Al Paladini, boasted that one day, there would be a single fare which would take you from Pickering to the east of Toronto, all the way to Mississauga to the west of Toronto.

Paladini didn’t take into consideration the enormous mafia-thug-like behavior of the TTC’s union, threatening to walk out at just the mere mention of such a transit-friendly idea. The union has never been comfortable with such a concept, and continues to hold the city, the province, and most of all, the very people that ride their buses, streetcars and subways hostage over this.

That said, security for the driver has been increased on most TTC vehicles.
Security cameras and bullet-proof booths surround the driver as if they were hauling prisoners to and from a maximum security prison.

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Though most newer TTC buses do have a fire suppression system, just in case one of the passengers spontaneously ignites. When was the last time you saw that happen?

I suppose the anti-theft system on many of the newer buses on Toronto’s TTC routes are in place in case someone can’t find a nice sports car to steal too?

It isn’t all bad from Canada’s largest transit system – the TTC recently increased the number of buses on most of their routes, cutting down wait times for passengers. Though the bus which runs up and down my street is almost always empty – maybe next time the TTC attempts to improve service, it should take a look at the routes which have the most use first?

Still, the two biggest problems facing the GTA’s public transit commuters are the very same problems which have plagued the system for the past 20-years – cost and efficiency.

GTA transit riders pay more than anywhere else in North America, and don’t enjoy the efficiency of the lower priced systems elsewhere.

For example, to go from a downtown Toronto home to work in Markham (a suburb just north-east of Toronto) one-way takes on average about an hour-and-a -half, and costs $6.00 ($2.75 TTC fare, and $3.25 York Region Zone One Fare).

A similar distanced ride in New York City takes just over an hour, and costs only $2.25 (one fare, using transfers freely provided with initial ride purchase).

Here in Canada’s largest city, it takes more time and money to go r

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oughly the same distance when compared to America’s largest city.

And soon, it will cost even more – this week the TTC began floating the idea of a fare hike of about a quarter, to raise an additional $45 million. Someone has to pay for those fire suppression systems.

I tell ya, I’m really glad they are investing in something practical. I’d hate to be next to someone that suddenly catches fire, and not have that fire suppression system in place.

Does your car have a fire alarm and sprinkler system? Probably not – vehicle fires account for less than one percent of traffic related fatalities. The most common causes of traffic-related fatalities are excessive speeding, alcohol and/or drug use, even falling asleep at the wheel – but fire is the lowest.

Politicians always talk about funding and promoting public transit, to reduce traffic commute times, and cut greenhouse gases. They often present over-sized cheques in front of hoards of reporters to transit authorities, claiming the funds will be used to better the system, take more cars off the roads, and green the planet.

The politicians are full of hot air.

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When Public Employees Do Wrong

Environmentalists and urban planners (many of whom are environmentalists) urge us constantly to find alternatives to gas hogging automobiles, in our daily commuting lives. For millions of people around the world, that alternative is public transit - local run buses, streetcars, subways, trains, and in some places mule and cart.

When we take public transit, we’re putting out lives into the hands of the persons responsible for making the system work - the ticket takers, drivers, even the janitors.

So when news broke about a Canadian bus driver being arrested for drinking and driving while on the job, it quickly spread throughout the city, the province, and the country.

Yesterday, Brian Lyons, 54, was charged with impaired driving, after a passenger on the Mississauga Transit Bus he was driving complained that something was medically wrong with the driv

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er to police. Turns out, Lyons wasn’t ill, he was toasted - having three-times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Lyons isn’t new, he’s been a bus driver for over 25-years - though even if he were a recent hire, he should have known that drinking and driving isn’t just plain dumb and dangerous, but it is also quite illegal.

No one was hurt, this time - though if one driver is working drunk, who knows how many more are - and one day, one of those public employee

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s could kill themselves, a passenger, or a helpless victim that just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This isn’t the first-time a public transit worker in the Greater Toronto Area - Mississauga is a city to the west of Toronto - has been caught drinking on the job. A couple of years ago a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) bus driver was charged and later convicted of having more than the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, while he was driving the bus.

There have also been incidents in other North American cities and towns, where public transit workers have been charged and convicted of driving their public transit vehicles while under the influence of a controlled substance.

What is the world coming to when those public employees whom we lay our precious lives out for respect and keep safe during our travels, go on a bender not just before work, but during?

How many more public transit workers must be charged and convicted of putting their passenger’s lives in harm’s way, before something is done? How many passengers must die before public transit operators take steps to ensure those who depend on these methods of travel are treated with no less respect, dignity and above all else, safety, as any other person in our society?

Steps have been taken in recent years to protect the operators of our transit systems. Closed Circuit Cameras have been installed on all the buses and streetcars in the TTC, and most other transit vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area - and on other systems around the world. They have even begun installing secure doors on TTC buses, so that the driver is behind a Plexiglas shield, protecting him or her from passengers.

Although the safety of the driver is never at question - he or she shoul

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d be able to work in a safe and comfortable professional environment, just as anyone else - what is being done to protect passengers from civic employees that are operating under the influence of a controlled substance - such as alcohol?

Without such protections, getting onto a public transit vehicle of any kind maybe better for the environment, but not necessarily for you.

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