How often have you been waiting for a bus or streetcar for what seems like an eternity? More and more people join you in wait and still there is no transit vehicle in site. Has something gone amiss? Should you stay or should you look for an alternate route. You have no idea, so you wait. The TTC is going to change all of this.
By 2010 the TTC will be providing next vehicle arrival information on streetcar and bus platforms thanks to a new $5.2 million GPS-based screen system. Inside stations LCD displays will post the times that the next vehicles are due to arrive in addition to showing a map pinpointing the locations of the other streetcars and buses on the route. LED screens will be utilized to publish next vehicle arrival information on platforms.
Towards the end of 2009 LED screens at approximately 350 outdoor transit shelters will be displaying next vehicle arrival times. Although 6,000 TTC surface stops have transit shelters, new shelters that are wired with LED signs will have to be installed. The locations of the new shelters have not yet been made public although it is expected that the shelters at high traffic major intersections will be selected. There is no word yet on how many transit shelters will be wired for LED displays after the initial 350 are completed.
Until there is system wide access to next vehicle arrival information on platforms and on transit shelters, in 2009 riders will be able to receive this information for more than 10,000 bus and streetcar stops in the city via text messaging. There will be a number posted at each stop that riders can use to access next vehicle arrival information. The TTC is also planning to launch new service that will help riders map and time a route anywhere in the system. There are also plans to upgrade the TTC website and make all of the information available online.
At long last someone in the city has begun to investigate Toronto’s taxis. An investigation was launched in January 2008 and was specific to the Union Station area taxi drivers in response to many complaints over a sustained period of time. But, unfortunately there are taxi drivers all over Toronto that are rude, aggressive, illegal soliciting cab fares, refusing to accept the first fare, unlicensed drivers and taxis, and many taxis are dirty and in poor condition. There was not even an honourable mention of taxis drivers who have their cell phone glued to their ear for the entire ride. The investigation was carried out by 15 city bylaw enforcement officers and Union Station security officers and the result was that 147 tickets were issued for a variety of infractions.
Gus Michaels, the manager of the Investigation Services, Licensing Enforcement Unit believes that this unacceptable behavior is limited to a very small percentage of Toronto taxi drivers. But, I beg to differ. Either Mr. Michaels doesn’t use taxis or he has his head in the sand. Most people that I know would rather avoid Toronto taxis at all costs. The drivers all over the city exhibit the same behavior as that which was noted in the Union Station area. Have you ever had any dealings with Toronto taxi drivers on hospital row - University Avenue from College to Dundas? The drivers are extremely aggressive and are in constant altercations with motorists. They will not confine themselves to the well defined taxi areas and park in all of the legal parking spaces or double park in the street causing more congestion than already exists. They aggressively solicit fares and argue among themselves.
When will there be a full scale investigation of Toronto’s taxis? The problem is not limited to the Union Station area. That is merely the tip of the iceberg.
If you sell products, shop online, or engage in Forex trading, you may be looking for a handy tool that will show you a real time currency exchange rates. I have just stumbled upon just such an online currency converter widget that shows real time foreign currency exchange rates.
This tool has three functions:
1- It shows Pound, Euro, US dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollars and Japanese Yen exchange rates at a glance.
2- It works as a currency converter, allowing you to convert from American dollars to Canadian, Euros to Canadian dollars and much more (you can easily convert all the major currencies to each other’s)
3- It shows current oil prices, appended by the latest change in the oil prices.
So if you are a site that sells products and services to people outside your own currency, or if you’re a Forex or currency trader, or you own a blog or website about Forex, money and currency, you can easily place this widget on your site in a matter of sconds. It will add real value for your visitors. The best part … its completely FREE.
How to install the currency exchange rates on your blog, website or favourite social media site:
1. Click on the “Copy Me” button (upper right hand corner of the tool … mouseover to see)
2. Click on the + sign to embed in your website or click on the logo of your favourite social media website (Facebook, Hi5, Igoogle, Blogger, Myspace, Vista side bar and more) and follow directions to embed in those.
Disseminating transit information to an eager and waiting public should go a long way to easing anxiety and calming frazzled nerves. It will also hopefully put an end to people charging closing doors and overcrowded cars if they know that the next train in only one minute away. The new TTC “NEXT-TRAIN-ARRIVAL” system was put in place at Dundas Station as a three-month pilot project to test the waters and see exactly what information the traveling public wants before the program goes into wide release and is put in place in all 69 subway stations by the end of 2009.
At the bottom of the electronic screens there are notices that say “NEXT TRAIN COMING” followed by a countdown clock. If there is a delay for any reason, details about the delay and when you can expect the next car will be posted. The pilot project at Dundas Station will cost $300,000 to implement. And this is only the beginning. In the not too distant future the TTC will be offering email updates on delays of service and an ecommerce system that will allow you to plan your route and buy your fares online.
However, before the email and ecommerce systems are implemented the “NEXT BUS SYSTEM” will be deployed. Beginning sometime this year and continuing into next year GPS technology will be employed to let bus and streetcar passengers know when the next bus or streetcar will be arriving. Knowing about delays and service interruptions will give riders the option of changing routes instead of languishing at the stop. Grey Island Systems was awarded the almost $10 million contract.
These new systems sound great! Now can the TTC do something about the fares?
The very well paid TTC employees brought this all on themselves when they walked off the job with no notice in April stranding thousands of Torontonians very late on a Friday night with no means of returning home. No union has the right to cripple a city of over 4 million people. Approximately 1.5 million residents of Toronto rely on the TTC daily. Police and firefighters are essential services and cannot strike. Although the TTC doesn’t protect the public or save lives, it does keep the city functioning – logistically and economically.
The debate about whether or not the TTC is an essential service has raged on since the April strike. Mayor Miller and the Toronto Executive Committee requested a report on whether or not the TTC should be declared an essential service and they will be meeting in September to hopefully make a determination based on what is best for the city of Toronto. To no one’s surprise, the TTC union and the management are both against the idea. The powerful and militant union has no desire to be stripped of its ability to bring the city of Toronto to its knees at will.
The TTC union is talking out of both sides of its mouth. The strikes are all about money and power yet one of the reasons that the TTC is saying that they don’t want to be declared an essential service is that it could potentially result in higher wages for the employees if an arbitrator splits the difference between what the union is being offered and what the union is asking for. Does anyone out there actually believe that the union doesn’t want their right to strike removed because they can potentially be paid more money? If the union could actually realize more money during contract negotiations with an arbitrator, then they would request that their right to strike be removed on their own.
Once and for all the TTC union must be kept under control and their right to strike removed. Only then will Torontonians have a reliable, functioning transit system every day, even when contracts are being negotiated.
There has been talk for years about tearing down the Gardiner. It seems like it’s an annual event and it’s that time again. However, this time there is more than talking going on and the prevailing winds are saying that a section of the Gardiner is going to come down. Full demolition would be too costly to even be a consideration. As a first step City Council has voted to spend $11 million on an environmental assessment, which will take up to 4 years to complete. They also voted to spend $30 million to redesign the York/Bay/Yonge exit loop from the eastbound Gardiner.
The costs for demolishing a section the Gardiner and replacing it with an 8-lane boulevard are estimated between $200 million and $400 million. The fear aside from the financial ramifications of taking down the 2.5 km stretch of the Gardiner between Jarvis and the Don Valley Parkway is traffic gridlock. There were estimates done that are not detailed and can not be taken as fact that replacing the Gardiner with an 8-lane boulevard would only add one to two minutes to a commute time. This doesn’t seem very likely. Still on the table is talk of the 1.5 km Front Street extension west of Bathurst which many feel would do a lot more than replacing the section of the Gardiner.
For now it seems like the only thing that is going to happen is that we are dishing out $11 million for a study. Are you in favour of spending between $200 million and $400 million to demolish a section of the Gardiner and replacing it with an 8-lane boulevard? If they are so concerned with traffic gridlock I think that they should invest that money into expanding our subway and GO train systems.
Have you been issued a $30.00 Toronto parking ticket and requested a court date in order to contest? If so, chances are that you never heard back from Toronto court services with a date and you feel like you’ve won the lottery. In fact this is not a random isolated incident and you are not alone.
According to Toronto court services:
• since January 2006 it accepted 250,000 requests from drivers to contest a $30.00 parking ticket
• to date only 4,300 trial dates were issued
• since January 2008 it has accepted 37,000 requests from drivers to contest a $30.00 parking ticket
• to date 0 trial dates have been issued
• 600,000 charges are heard annually in the city courts that include everything from municipal bylaw infractions, workplace safety violations, and speeding tickets
• there are a shortage of courtrooms
• there are a shortage of justices of the peace who preside over the parking ticket trials
A $30.00 Toronto parking ticket is usually issued for overtime parking and in the grand scheme of things it is a very low priority in terms of scheduling trial dates. Parking tickets are very lucrative for the city of Toronto. Last year alone the city collected $79 million from parking tickets. From purely a dollar and cents perspective it has been suggested that would cost the city more money to issue the trial dates and proceed with each one than to stop holding trials for $30.00 parking tickets. Chances are that if you are issued a $30.00 Toronto parking tickets and you request a trail date, you will never have to pay the ticket. However that is not a certainty and your requests will remain in the system and could come back to haunt you at a later date. Are you waiting for a trail date for your $30.00 parking ticket? Did you know that you had a good chance of not having to pay before you requested your trial date?
The TTC wants to replace all adult tickets with tokens by the end of September. Apparently since the last fare hike there has been an increase in counterfeited tickets and replacing them with tokens seems to be the only option. If the TTC proposal is accepted:
• adult tickets will no longer be accepted as of September 28th
• in mid-September you will be able to exchange your adult tickets for tokens at the Yonge-Bloor subway station or at TTC headquarters at Yonge and Davisville
• student and senior tickets will not be effected and will remain in use
The TTC reports that the loss of revenue due to counterfeiting is now 1.5% which translates to between $300,000 and $400,000 per month. Quite frankly that boggles my mind and I wouldn’t mind seeing a little proof of these figures. However if these figures are correct the projected revenue losses for 2008 at $5 million. In 2007 65 million adult tickets or 15% of TTC fares were used. In order to replace this many tickets the TTC will have to ramp up its production of tokens to the tune of $2 million.
There are a lot of counterfeit tickets currently in circulation. And although I recognize that this is a problem I am loathe to change from tickets to tokens. Perhaps it is a function of age, but the tokens blend in too easily with other coins and frequently appear to disappear while my old standby tickets are easy to find. Are you a ticket person, a token person, or is it all the same for you?
The high price of gas seems to be permeating every part of our lives and driving prices up across the board. It has been estimated that the increase in the prices at the pump is costing taxi drivers an extra $20.00 to $30.00 per day. In order to offset the increase in gas prices, an increase in taxi fares should be approved by city council in the next few weeks and it is substantial. The starting price (drop rate) on the meter is going up by $1.00 – increasing from $3.00 - $4.00 and the mileage charge will be increasing by $0.15. A 5 kilometre ride would increase from $10.00 to $11.75, a 10 kilometre ride would increase from $17.50 to $20.00 and a 25 kilometre ride would increase from $39.50 to $44.00. This is the first rate hike since 2005 and it should be in effect by mid-July. However if some changes aren’t made, and quickly, there will be more to come.
One of the proposed changes is that taxi drivers should be permitted to use smaller cars and hybrid vehicles that burn less fuel. At the moment hybrid vehicles are only permitted to remain in service for 5 years. It is also proposed that they be allowed to be on the road for a longer period of time. Some taxi drivers suggested that the drop rate be increased by $2.00 in lieu of increasing the mileage charge. They are worried that the public will note tolerate the increase in the drop rate and the mileage rate and use the TTC more frequently.
I’m sure that there will be people that take the TTC more often. But I would suggest that if taxi drivers would change their attitudes – be pleasant to your fares, don’t talk on your cell phones incessantly when you have passengers in the car, and don’t drive like crazed lunatics – the public would be less inclined to jump ship, even with a rate hike.
It appears that Bob Kinnear, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 and union vice-president Kevin Morton can’t play nicely together. Kevin Morton and his supporters, the militant maintenance workers, clearly didn’t give a hoot about the 1.5 million Torontonians who use the TTC daily when they voting against the deal that Kinnear negotiated and supported in an attempt to force Kinnear out. And I thought that coups only happened in third world countries, but it happened right here in the GTA.
This behaviour is unconscionable and not acceptable in a civilized society. It is exactly this behaviour that makes the general public so anti-union that many are now calling for the TTC to be declared an essential service or to privatize it altogether. It seems that these 2 options are the only way that we will be liberated permanently for union bully tactics and a complete disregard for the people of Toronto. The maintenance workers are nothing more than cowards. The drivers are on the front line every day facing the public. The maintenance workers get to wreak havoc in the city and hide safely away from the angry residents of the city.
Stranding people with no warning so that you can try and overthrow your union boss should be a punishable offense. The pathetic part of all of this is that if the TTC had accepted the contract offer it would have put them near the top of transit wage earners in North America. The only transit maintenance workers in Canada who would have been higher paid were those who worked for Calgary Transit. There has to be a better way to get rid of Bob Kinnear that to have a TTC strike. The union is not at all apologetic. Adam Giambrone on the other hand did issue an apology to the people of Toronto and has stated that they will now look at scaling back some of the offers made in the tentative agreement. Wouldn’t it be poetic justice if at the end of the day the union walked away with less than they turned down?
How often have you been waiting for a bus or streetcar for what seems like an eternity? More and more people join you in wait and still there is no transit vehicle in site. Has something gone amiss? Should you stay or should you look for an alternate route. You have no idea, so you wait. The TTC is going to change all of this.
The very well paid TTC employees brought this all on themselves when they walked off the job with no notice in April stranding thousands of Torontonians very late on a Friday night with no means of returning home. No union has the right to cripple a city of over 4 million people. Approximately 1.5 million residents of Toronto rely on the TTC daily. Police and firefighters are essential services and cannot strike. Although the TTC doesn’t protect the public or save lives, it does keep the city functioning – logistically and economically.