I think we can all agree that we need a better transit system in the GTHA – no one is debating the need for a grand vision. But, there has been a lot of passionate debate about specific projects and how they should be constructed. Over the past few weeks, three specific issues have stood out in particular:

1. What should we do with the Sheppard corridor? Should the original subway vision or the new light rail vision be fullfilled?
2. What should we do with the Scarborough RT corridor? Should it be refurbished with Skytrain or conventional cars, or should it be replaced with a subway?
3. What should we do in the Mississauga City Centre? Should the future light rail line run to the terminal, or should the terminal move to meet the future light rail line?

There have been very vocal arguments on both sides, and I don’t see a reason why Metronaunts can’t host some of that spirited debate. Since it’s not in the spirit of the community to descend into a flame-war, I’d like to try to guide the discussion by laying out some relevant facts and asking community members to answer a question (keeping those facts in mind, of course). In a way, it reminds me of an academic examination – hence the “discuss with examples.”

So here we go: (more…)

Have you heard the ongoing story of PickupPal yet? PickupPal is a Google Maps-based networking site with about 15,000 registered users in Ontario that helps people find carpool buddies. Sounds pretty useful, right? Only problem is… most of the carpooling going on at PickupPal is illegal. You see, in Ontario it is illegal to carpool or rideshare with someone unless you meet ALL of the following criteria:

• You can only travel from home to work  (no rides to schools, hospitals, daycare, etc.)
• You cannot cross municipal boundaries (no driving to the adjacent municipality for a GO station, TTC subway, airport, etc.)
• You must ride with the same driver each day (no exceptions, sorry).
• You must pay the driver weekly only (bring a calculator).

Ergo, if you arrange to have your boyfriend pick up your cousin Louis at the airport — you have broken the law. If you travel with a friend and give her $5 for gas money — you have broken the law.

Here’s an excerpt of the current law, off the “Save PickupPal” blog: “No person shall arrange or offer to arrange transportation of passengers by means of a public vehicle operated by another person unless that other person is the holder of an operating licence authorizing that other person to perform the transportation.”

This little jewel has essentially allowed the claim to be made that allowing money to change hands between consenting individuals for inter-municipal trips makes the site illegal — in essence, that it makes PickupPal a bus service. On Oct 15, PickupPal had their day in court and presented their case to the OHTB. Now, we all await the verdict. Hopefully, the OHTB will see the light, and a more reasonable carpooling policy will arise as a result.

But in the meantime, no wonder those “carpool” lanes on the 403/404 are mostly empty. You practically have to break the law to use them.

Update, Nov 23, 2008: The OHTB made their ruling several weeks ago, in which PickupPal was charged and fined for facilitating a ride from Toronto to Montreal for $60. Although PickupPal was not involved in any financial transaction involving the incident, they were fined $11,336.07 for facilitating it. (This fine does not include the cost of legal fees.) Due to public outcry over this matter, the Ontario Government has started a legislative process to introduce changes to the Public Vehicles Act, although it is uncertain how long it will be before these changes to allow practical ridesharing are made law.

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Metrolinx: Design your own transportation system, a consultation interface

The TransitCamp community and later Metronauts have used technology and open source thinking in many interesting ways to engage citizens in transportation policy.

Over the next few months, I plan to create content for the Metronauts site and carry out research simultaneously.  I will do this by sitting down and carrying out interviews and making some movies of Metronauts using maps.  By Metronauts  I mean any interested bloggers, participants at the ‘unconference’ bar camp events, and readers of this site.  I hope that some of you will be willing to let me screencast or videotape you as you tell me about particular transit routes in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas while using Metrolinx’s ‘Design your own transportation system’ interface.  If you participate, you can choose if the materials get used for research only or if they can be used here on metronauts.ca or in other places.

As a PhD student in the Faculty of Information and Knowledge Media
Design Institute, at the University of Toronto, I am broadly interested in how new media tools can be used within policy consultation and participation processes.

If you are interested in participating in this content creation and research opportunity please contact me:

Email:
Campus phone number: 416.946.5366 (shared line)

Further information including formal documents about my research are available at my site.

(Click image above for hi-res version)

As some of you already know, I have had the honour of sitting on Metrolinx’s Regional Transportation Plan Advisory Committee – a group of community representatives committed to providing the Metrolinx board with advice on the direction of the plan and analysis of the comments received by the public. In addition, we are committed to ensuring that the regional transportation plan public consultation process reaches everyone who has something to say. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for keeping the discussion alive, and I encourage all to continue offering ideas to make this plan the best it can be. There is are plenty of ways to get your voices heard, including the online portal, formal open houses to come this fall, and, of course, Metronauts events and the blog. Keep your eyes and ears open, as we’re about to enter a very exciting phase of the process.

Before I talk about the subject of this post, please keep in mind the following:

As I write this post (on thursday night), the draft plan has not yet been approved by the Metrolinx board of directors. As we saw with the white papers, the board could decide to delay the release to make modifications. I will be sure to update this post to reflect the formal decision of the board on Friday September 26th.

So here we go:

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source: Conservative Party of Canada

As everyone all probably knows already, Canada is again in full election mode with our trip to the ballot box scheduled for October 14th. Over the next four weeks, we will see the four main parties duke it out for our votes. Considering the dependency of infrastructure investment on upper levels of government, what we choose next month will have an impact on the shape of our future transportation. Therefore, I will focus my articles over the next while on how each party will deal with the transportation challenges in not only the GTA, but cities all across Canada.

Today, I will review what the Conservative government has done (or not done) for transit in the GTA since being elected in 2006.

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Above are aerial photos of six GO train stations on the Lakeshore Line. Can you identify which station is which? Even for someone like me, who is fairly familiar with the system, I had a difficult time putting a name to each one. There are no obvious distinguishing features to make identification easy — instead, there is a typical GO Station recipe: platform, station building, parking lot, and arterial roadway access. For a transit system to be truly visible and integrated into our urban fabric, these stations should not be placeless, featureless landscapes. The above photos show just how far we still have to go. The identity of each of these stations and more discussion, after the jump.

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There’s one thing you notice in downtown Toronto whether you’re a pedestrian, bike rider, driver, or transit passenger: there are too many cars on the road.

A typical trip down Yonge Street reveals broken traffic laws, high tempers, and an inability to get anywhere fast. So how do you fix that?

London’s idea to keep some cars off the streets in their core is a congestion charge.

The premise is simple: if you drive into the congestion charge zone between 7am and 6pm, you pay the city a tidy sum of £8. Any surplus revenue generated by the charge goes to improve London’s transport infrastructure — which, essentially means that people driving into the city are subsidizing things like public transit and road repairs.

Certain vehicles — like alternative fuel cars, buses, and motorcycles — are exempt from the charge in an effort to promote more sustainable ways of traveling in the core.

The system, which launched in 2003 with tons of controversy, is now an everyday part of London life. The system is monitored by CCTV cameras and automatic number plate recognition, and drivers can pay their charges online or purchase cards that allow them multiple entries over designated amounts of time.

This then begs the question: is it time for Toronto to institute its own congestion charge for cars driving in to the city core?

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To some people who have spent their whole lives downtown the 905 might seem like something out of M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Village.’ Stray too close to Steeles and the monsters in their SUVs will jump out and grab you…

In a recent discussion board thread about improving transit in Mississauga, one opinion about the improvements already in place was that “unfortunately, the political response has been with absurdities like creating HOV lanes on the 403 (taking away an active traffic lane from an already-congested highway), dedicated diamond lanes, giving consideration to bicycles and other such nonsense.” While this might not represent the opinion of the average 905er, my 15 year experience in the suburbs suggests that sustainable transportation, as a culture, may not be the default frame of mind.

The 905 isn’t the most sustainable place to live. It’s not the most walkable or transit-friendly place to live either. But, it is a place where many people have chosen to live, and many more will continue to make that choice. It’s not going away, and if we want to transform this region into a place where sustainable mobility is the first and best choice, then we have to work within the confines of the low-density, car-oriented suburb. (more…)