For a "Toronto-based collection of art geeks, design wonks, and new-urbanist cheerleaders inspired by the very streets, stations, and structures that make up the urban landscape," newborn local design collective Walloper could not have picked a much better way to debut than by unveiling a small fleet of TTC decals. A week after co-founders Derek Watson and Mike Warning added photos of their prototypes to Flickr and the TRIBE message board, and a few......

Reader Cy Goldsbie sent us this tale of a bus ride to remember: Boarded the southbound Leslie bus at Leslie subway station as usual at 7:30 on a Tuesday morning earlier this month and, as is my habit, continued reading my book. As we're about to pull out of the station, the driver stops, looks around, and casually asks if anyone knows which way he's supposed to turn. The half dozen riders look up,......

So Bob Kinnear successfully negotiates a contract for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113. The transit-using public breathes a sigh of relief, believing the threat of a transit strike to be past. A few days later, the union membership rejects the contract and surprises everyone by striking later that night. Sound familiar? Sure it does, but this time it's York Region's Viva instead of the TTC. Kinnear seems to be making a career of negotiating contracts......

Photo by sarnya from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Yesterday, Metrolinx released their draft Regional Transportation Plan or RTP [PDF], their much-anticipated proposal for systematically tackling transit issues in the GTHA (the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area). Many of the key goals are ones we've heard before, though they've rarely been presented as part of a comprehensive package such as this: create an effective and efficient rapid transit system; build an integrated "active transportation" network......

Photo by Marc Lostracco from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. When Paris opened the Vélib bike sharing program, it changed the mentality of drivers overnight when they were forced to adjust to an additional 10,000 bikes suddenly sharing the road. Likewise, non-cyclists could now see cycling as safe enough to be a viable mass transit option, and the huge number of available bikes and station-hubs densely dotting the city ensured there would always be a......

The TTC will not subject their employees to random drug testing after all; under a new policy, testing will only be done if there is "reasonable cause" for it—that includes, says Adam Giambrone, tests "pre-employment" and "post-incident." Bob Kinnear, who is somehow still the president of the union representing TTC employees, still isn't totally happy, but that guy never is.......

FESTIVAL: Ladyfest kicks off their highly anticipated music series tonight, as the week-long festival continues. Tonight, come out to the Boat for performances from electronic soul group Lal, alternative crooner Emma McKenna, and experimental pop band Miau Miau. Also starting today is "Ooh-La-La," the female-identifying art exhibit at Beaver Hall Gallery (rescheduled from Sunday), which will run until September 27. The Boat (158 Augusta Avenue), 9 p.m., $5–$10. TRANSIT: This evening, join the TTC......

Photo of the T3 Tramway from *** Fanch The System !!! ***. On Friday evening at City Hall, two representatives of the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP)—Vice-President Philippe Martin and Director of Open Spaces and Heritage Remi Feredj—gave a public presentation on Paris's T3 LRT system to share lessons for Toronto to learn from. Their appearance seemed perfectly timed to reignite the debate over subways versus light rapid transit, most notably along the......

Torontoist's European bureau decamped this past weekend to the French Riviera. And you can rest assured that—between enjoying the beaches and drinking on sunny patios—we took time to consider the public transportation system. Nice has a good (and not over-infrastructured) blend of transit modes: trams on dedicated lines along the most-travelled stretches, buses that blanket the city, and affordable intercity coaches. A 25-minute ride to a medieval village for one euro ($1.50)? Sounds good......

The TTC management and its workers' union have agreed that the TTC is not an essential service. However, they are saying this not because they are saying, "Yes, we are useless," but because they both want to avoid contract arbitration. However, since management wants to pay workers less than they would receive through contract arbitration, and the union wants workers to get more than they would receive through contract arbitration, one side or the......

Sitting proudly at the intersection of King and York Streets is one of Astral Media's new transit shelters. The only problem is the street name displayed on the shelter is "University Ave"—which is the previous stop, a block west. Photos by Miles Storey/Torontoist. Thanks to John Gemmell for the tip.......

Why travel? Especially in a city like Toronto, where we can experience so many cultures just by walking through any of the dozens of ethnically-diverse neighbourhoods? What, at its essence, makes traveling to Italy different than drinking prosecco in Little Italy? What’s the difference, really, between hanging with the Dutch and eating Dutch chocolate ice cream? We travel, of course, so that we can experience the subtleties of a culture and immerse ourselves in......

Impatience is not a virtue Patience is a virtue I don't have What have you got? If you take the TTC regularly, you've probably been stuck at a stop long enough to strike up a conversation with a fellow citizen about how freakishly long the bus is taking to arrive. But what do you do if no one's around to share your frustration? Why, you can strike up a conversation anyway, as two people......

Overheard by reader Kate Bowen on the 501 Queen streetcar. Little Girl, looking out the window: Is a giraffe taller than that tree? Mom: Yes. Little Girl: Is a giraffe taller than you? Mom: Yes. Little Girl: Is a giraffe taller than the CN Tower? Mom: No. Little Girl: Is a baby giraffe taller than you? (No response.) Little Girl: Are all frogs girls? Mom: What? Who told you that? Hear something? Send it to......

As the R Month Rule suggests, July is a bad month for at least one type of oyster. "Oyster" is the name of the smartcard for public transit in London, England. Passengers pre-load cards on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis, and enjoy substantial discounts (generally 50-75%) over cash or paper tickets. Last Friday, the system failed for reasons unknown, letting millions of passengers travel for free, as reported on Londonist. Last Monday, a Dutch court......

The TTC has a new website: MyTTC.ca! It's got a functional trip planner, a stats section with the neat map/video above ("each burst represents a bus departing from the stop in that location"), pages for each route that can be edited by the site's users, more features like SMS/IM integration and an interface designed for smart phones and PDAs coming soon, and is—surprise—not affiliated with the transit organization in any way, shape, or form.......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. * BY CL-S......

These photos, of a garden constructed atop a bus shelter on Greenwood Avenue between Gerrard and Dundas, were recently uploaded to one of the Facebook groups of the Toronto Public Space Committee's Guerrilla Gardeners. More after the fold.......

The TTC has "cancelled the Request for Proposal process to purchase 204 new low-floor streetcars." Says their release: "The TTC received two submissions for the $1.25 billion project. TRAM Power Ltd. and Bombardier Transportation submitted bids, but upon review TRAM Power failed to pass step one of the bid review process as it was not commercially compliant. Bombardier Transportation failed on step two—a technical evaluation that required a pass/fail on key criteria related to negotiating......

Longtime Canadian Autoworkers Union head Buzz Hargrove will join other famous Buzzes, including Aldrin and Lightyear, in retirement this year. Reportedly Hargrove feels that his legacy has been cemented with this year's twin triumphs of the Order of Canada and the collapse of the Canadian automotive industry. The number of criminal charges laid in relation to incidents on the TTC was up substantially from 2006 to 2007, with TTC officials citing increased ridership and......

It's really hot outside! One of the best ways to tell if it is really hot outside is to check on any elephants who live near you. If it's too hot for them, it's too hot for you. Madonna House, a Catholic organization whose founder won the Order of Canada, is returning their medal in protest of Henry Morgentaler's appointment to the Order. One of the House's directors told the Globe that: "We value......

The third annual Toronto Independent Game Development Jam ran from the 9th to the 11th of May this year with over 125 developers managing to produce 34 different games across the intense three day period, and their pain is now our pleasure as all of the successfully completed games have been released online. As if trying to produce a full game in three days wasn't hard enough, developers were asked that their game relate......

...and it's rather unfortunate. Spacing reports that the TTC has begun to update its subway route map in subway cars—with a much uglier font, slightly more clutter, and a messy new treatment of addresses. To wit on the latter point:...visual clutter is increased by the new addresses on the maps. The TTC did away with just displaying the approximate address numbers along Yonge, Bloor, Danforth and Sheppard (only printing the street name where the subway......

From Ryan Feeley comes a neat timelapse video of a three-kilometre westbound trip on the 501 Queen streetcar in the east end of the city condensed into fifty-five seconds. Now, we just need someone who can do the same thing with the whole length of the route. [Tip from Joe Clark, who, incidentally, has some things to say about Christian Lander and Hockey Night in Canada.]......

It took them two days and thirteen hours, but Nancy Situ and her friends have joined the Every Station Club in style—with brilliant photos of themselves posing on the platforms of every one of the city's sixty-nine subway stations. The project, Situ wrote when she posted the entire set of shots to the Toronto LiveJournal Community last night, was done "out of curiosity and sheer boredom." On September 1 last year, Situ, Marcela Slinin,......

Residents near the Broadview subway station are used to inconvenience in the name of progress. The station reconstruction project that added elevators, a second streetcar platform, more room for buses, and extra subway exits dragged on for five long years before finally wrapping up in the closing weeks of 2007. For most of that time, the parkette on the north side of the station had been surrounded by construction hoarding and used by crews......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. All yaked out & Man and woman on the subway BY TAYLOR ZHOU......

The new TTC ad campaign is doubly noble of purpose—it doesn't just encourage us to keep the system tidy, but engages in a little social engineering by depicting workers and riders marching hand in hand towards a glorious trash-free future, emotionally unhindered by grudges or memories of the late unpleasantness. In the ad above, the passenger is doing her duty, placing her newspaper carefully in her purse until a suitable receptacle for disposal can......

Every Wednesday, Torontoist receives transmissions from the travel log of Gleebax, the alien Urbanaut, as he explores the foreign land of Toronto.......

Photo of Adam Giambrone at Thursday's meeting by David Topping. It's not the better way just yet, but it might be soon. Earlier today, the TTC gave the media a sneak peek at the first beta preview version of its new website, just before unveiling it to the public a few minutes after 3 p.m. And, in the words of Chief Marketing Office Alice Smith, who gave the TTC's presentation of the new website,......