Results tagged “transportation”

Since November 23 the TTC has been running an experiment at Bloor-Yonge station. The goal: to try to increase the subway line's capacity during the morning rush hour (7 to 10 a.m.) by decreasing train dwell times (the amount of time a train sits in the station). During peak hours, passengers transferring from the Bloor line to the Yonge-University-Spadina line tend to cluster at north end of the station’s southbound platform, forming a bottleneck that delays trains. To spread the load, the TTC has erected temporary barriers between the platform and the southbound staircases that link the lines, placed workers in key positions to shift riders to the south end of the platform, and stationed staff at the train doors to direct traffic and ensure that people board in an orderly fashion. We visited Bloor-Yonge station on Thursday and were pleasantly surprised by the system’s efficiency: the setup was simple, the TTC workers were helpful, and overall, the station didn’t feel as congested.

Transit City: the TTC's plan to build a network of light rail, extending dedicated transit infrastructure to many of Toronto's neighbourhoods that lack it, thereby increasing residents' quality of life, reducing our collective environmental footprint, and redressing a major backlog of transit development. Transit Cities: the term applied at a symposium held last week to cities that don't just have transit but integrate it properly into the urban landscape, making good on the promise that transit expansion seems to hold but on which it doesn't always deliver. Designing Transit Cities was its name, and bringing planners, academics, advocates, and the public at large up to speed on the opportunities and pitfalls of transit expansion was its goal.

     

Toronto is getting the first of what are planned to be several new bicycle stations this morning, aimed at making cycling a more comfortable option for commuters. Nestled into the pedestrian underpass on York Street right by Union Station, the station provides secure, monitored storage for bicycles, as well as changing facilities, a repair stand, and a few other thoughtful amenities, like a vending machine that dispenses tubes and lights.

       

There was a movie that played at Hot Docs called Reporter. It was about Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times columnist who globetrots to the sites of the world's worst humanitarian disasters in an effort to provide original reporting that will draw attention to crises of which very few people are aware. Most interestingly, Kristof stays up to date on all the latest psychology literature on the subject of compassion; he is obsessed with crafting stories that will move his readers to action. Anyone can write something that will prompt people to respond "oh, that's a shame" before moving on; it takes a special talent to rouse a readership to demand change or intervention or support. What has been concluded from various experiments is that humans' innate capacity for sympathy is extremely limited: we are more likely to be affected by the suffering of an individual than that of a group. Kristof therefore tends to focus on very particular tales of one person's exceptional affliction.

The first item on the agenda for the April 8th meeting of City Council's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee is headed "City of Toronto Receives the Canadian Motorcycle Association Government Award" [PDF]. As the agenda was released Wednesday, we considered it an April Fools' joke, in the brief moment before we remembered that bureaucrats don't have a sense of humour.

Life in the suburbs can be quite cozy, if you have a car; without one, a task as simple as going to the grocery store can take so long to complete that you question why you even bothered to start.

Photo by sarnya from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

WORDS: This evening at the Bay-Bloor Indigo, join author James McBride and director Spike Lee for a discussion about the film adaptation of McBride's 2003 novel, Miracle at St. Anna. There will be a book signing after, but attendees are asked not to bring additional memorabilia—sadly, collectors will have to hang out in front of five-star hotels this weekend if they want any autographs they can sell on eBay. Indigo (55 Bloor Street West), 7:30 p.m., FREE.

So, your buddy just flew in from his exotic, six-month trek throughout Thailand. You're at work when he lands, so you send your older sister to go pick him up (she owes you a favour, as per usual). She drives to the airport, picks him up, and he returns, full of coconut curry and stories of full-moon parties. He doesn't bring back any drugs, or snakeskin shoes, but on the ride back he buys your sister a coffee to say thanks. He's definitely just done something illegal. Can you spot the crime? We sure don't. And neither does PickupPal.

Following the unveiling of the EcoCab in Toronto last week Torontoist spotted the pedi-cab being presented to councillor Howard Moscoe outside City Hall yesterday. Moscoe, chairman of the Licensing and Standards Committee, turned down the offer of a ride around Nathan Phillips Square, but got a complete tour of the $13,000 vehicle's features as a small but curious crowd gathered.

Sort of just in time for the now-averted TTC strike, Torontonians will finally have the opportunity to further indulge in a mode of transporation that was once reserved almost exclusively for camera-laden tourists and decadent—or at least, unhurried—commuters in pretty much every major city in the world. The incentive this time, however, is that it's free.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

The last time we looked at accessible pedestrian signals (APS), those chirping and cuckooing crossing indicators for the visually-impaired, it was with some surprise at the city's claim that it simply couldn't afford to install APS at more than a handful of intersections each year. Instead of allocating enough money to improve availability of a fairly basic service to visually-impaired residents, the city instead looked for corporate sponsors to pick up some of the considerable slack, resulting in pedestrian signals "funded by IBM" and other organizations dotting the city, a virtual declaration that the city was abdicating its responsibilities.

The CBC is reporting that the provincial government announced an ambitious new project today to revamp Kipling Station and turn it into a major transit hub for Etobicoke and Mississauga. The announcement came from Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield and Environment Minister Laurel Broten early this afternoon.

Photo of XOF1 solar-powered car driving on a frozen Lake Simcoe. It is the first solar vehicle in the world to operate in sub-zero temperatures.

Tucked into the northeast corner of Scarborough near the Zoo, Toronto's only vehicle-carrying suspension bridge straddles the Rouge River. A small handful of other suspension bridges dot the city, but carry only pedestrians and cyclists. Transportation Services was taken by surprise upon our first inquiry and couldn't immediately confirm that this was a true suspension bridge. But John Bryson, Structures and Expressways Manager for the city, verified that it is indeed a "suspension bridge with the side trusses as stabilizers for the deck."

Once upon a time, governments worked together to create ambitious and expensive projects like, say, public transit. Then came the 1990s when funding was summarily cut off. Since then, we've seen funding restored in dribs and drabs, the half-implementation of several ideas (we're looking at you, Sheppard subway!), and the odd difficult move forward (the St. Clair ROW). We've also seen the creation of the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, but since no one seems to know exactly what they are doing or when they might be doing it, we won't dwell on them.

In yet another show of contempt for the residents of Toronto, Transportation Services and "Clean and Beautiful City" staff have opted to put the models of the City’s proposed street furniture on display to the public for one day only; they will be visible in the City Hall rotunda from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, April 4. This is a project that will determine the look and feel of all of Toronto streets from this September through August 31, 2027 — and you're being given an eleven-and-a-half-hour window to glimpse the possible outcomes.

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week.

Several major GTA transit projects have been sitting in limbo awaiting federal funding for so long that if you weren't directly involved you might have forgotten they were ever announced.

It's not Toronto news, but everyone's talking about it: Anna Nicole Smith is dead. We were fascinated with her train wreck of a life while she was in it, and doubly so now that she's gone. Was it drugs, or cholesterol? Did she have a will? Who gets the money? When will my subscription to People Magazine start if I sign up today?

Thousands of college and university students rally across Canada for lower tuition fees and greater education funding. FUN FACT:This is approximately the 17th or so national day of rallies for lower tuition fees and greater education that I have seen, and interestingly, tuition fees have never actually gone down during that time, but instead gone up steadily!

Drivers planning a trip along the QEW or the 401 or any of a number of other highways in Southern Ontario should have a look at the Ministry of Transportation’s COMPASS traffic cameras. Updated every 5 to 8 minutes, the cameras can help commuters and casual car users choose alternative routes and ease congestion. Of course, people could always share cars, carpool or take a bus to ease congestion, but that would be a silly idea, wouldn’t it?

Ok everyone, vote wisely. Your new city council will actually have the powers to do things without turning to the province, thanks to the new City of Toronto Act. Oh, and they'll be in power for the next four years too.

Watching the battle between the city and the Toronto Port Authority is like being stuck in a bad horror flick. Just when you think the stake has been driven into the necrotic heart of the Island Airport expansion plans, the undead issue rises from the grave to terrorize citizens yet again.

Maybe they're just tired of Howard Moscoe but the TTC committee unanimously voted to approve the Bombardier deal. The $499 million deal still has to go through council where we're sure there'll be an acrominous but ultimately futile debate.

A shooting near Front and Jarvis yesterday left a 20-year old man clinging to life. Some 16 shots were fired and witnesses claimed they saw three men run off. The shooting and a search by police afterwards locked down two nearby elementary schools.

Union Station is getting a $100 million facelift. Commuters will not just be getting wider platforms but a whole new one when engineers and construction workers finish moving a sewer by 2008.