The TTC - Taking Us All For A Ride
November 30, 2009 - 8:39pm
There has been a great deal of public discussion about a twelve dollar increase to TTC fares that has been approved without any public consultation. Some of the reason for this public unrest most likely has to do with the Red Rocket's idea of service improvements. They are under the misguided impression that expanding frequency or creating new routes to service is the extent of their customer service commitment. The following is a list of twelve ideas to improve the TTC's customer service. One for each dollar that the Metropass will increase come January 2010.
http://www.blackhatmedia.ca/index.php?pr=The_TTC_-_Taking_Us_All_For_A_Ride
BHM, I see that most of your suggestions target TTC employees, even though it is the management that has implemented the fare hikes. If you want improved service in the TTC, wouldn't it be more fruitful to target Federal and Provincial governments for more funding? More funding would reduce fares, and help pay for some of the training you are suggesting. Also, suggestion number ten is a joke, right?
They also serve who only stand and wait.
11. Black Hat Media should have to ride the bus with a TTC operator and be yelled at, asualted, spit on and generally abused just for enforcing a fare that is set by Giambrone and friends.
The vindictive bastards at Queen's Perk and their friends in Ottawa have got to get that Miller and his communist horde cleaned out of Toronto first and foremost. Toronto can then be transformed into Gotham City proper at that point.
Batman said: You'll hunt me. You'll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that's what needs to happen.
Catchfire - I'm surprised that you only think number 10 is a joke. Unfortunately, others would consider the whole list a joke.
Unionist - I'm not sure I understand your comment. Maybe you could enlighten me.
Le T - Seeing as my list went to number 12 you would certainly mean number 13 (not 11). As a maater of fact I would jump at the opportunity to shadow a TTC operator for a shift.
Fidel - Thanks for your feedback as dark as it may be.
I think the TTC needs to bring back those "TTC Heroes" posters. Remember the one about the TTC driver who found a lost girl, and without even thinking of the danger to himself, he called back to his dispatcher and told him? That took guts. Those posters were well worth whatever fare increase was needed to pay for them.
Unfortunately, others would consider the whole list a joke.
I suppose that I would be among that unfortunate bunch. The bulk of this list seems petty and/or impractical.
That is unfortunate. Hopefully, the TTC Riders Union actually gets the support it needs to negotiate with the TTC at some point in the near future.
The TTC riders Union is more concerned with the fare hike. That is a more important issue, along with frequency of service. For these, of course, we need more subsidies from other levels of government, and what would be as good, a tax on car drivers to subsidize the TTC. As is often stated, the TTC pays a higher percentage of its costs out of the fare box than most other systems.
Your points are aimed at the TTC drivers. I don't know how they can drive a bus, or streetcar in TO traffic for a long shift. I'm glad I don't have to do it.
I disagree. The only one I can see that clearly relate to drivers is number 8 - "The TTC should employ a post services form of
payment. TTC riders are tired of being taken for a ride. There needs to be the implication that TTC operators have to earn those
hefty salaries."
Otherwise training in customer service, I.D. badges, route information training, and so on are a matter of management or operational or
budgetary considerations.
mistake
A case could be made for free public transit.
That would be an easy sell to transit users, but how would you sell it to drivers? Everybody needs health care, and everyone could reasonably need police or fire services and so on, but how will you convince non-users of transit that they should help pay for my bus ride?
1. Do you know for a fact that drivers don't recieve customer service training. The bulk of my experiences with drivers have been quite good. Of course this could this could be quite a personal experience based on the fact that I approach drivers with courtesy.
2. Buses alreadly have serial numbers, if you have a complaint about an incident I'm sure a driver can be identified by the bus number and time of the incident. Considering the volume and variety of people that get on the bus every day I'm all for maintaining the drivers' privacy by not giving out unnessary personal information.
3. Again coloured by my personal experience but it seems that most employees have a fairly extensive knowledge of ttc routes. But to be fair, the ttc network is fairly extensive and the drivers are only human, I'd imagine that there's a bit of a learning curve on this. That being said if there isn't an operator that can help you a friendly passenger often can.
4 and 5. I believe that the situation described in 5 was made to address the problem in 4. Drivers still talk directly or use the PA system when the bus is stationary. When the bus is moving I think the use of an automated system is preferable to a hands free PA system as talking still creates an unnessary distraction for the driver.
6. There are times that a bus' display is broken and it is still in service. What's to separate an out of service bus from one that simply has a broken display. Perhaps a well lit sign?
7. Pay phones are still fairly prevalent and you can call 911 for free on them. In service buses that pass stops are typically either full or express buses. Even if there are exceptional cases I'm not sure why the ttc sure inccur additional costs so people can complain whenever they want. Marking the time of the incident and calling the ttc seems to be the reasonable thing to do.
8. And what would the ttc do if you refuse to pay at the end of the ride, refuse to let you off. Given the volume of people that take the ttc this recommendation seems quite problematic.
9. This one I actually like.
10. This one not so much. Standing for an hour or so to get where you're going shouldn't be that much of an inconvience unless you have some sort of a medical condition in which case common courtesy should prevail. Also how would a person who stands for part of the ride and sits for the rest be billed?
11. Good corporate governance is an important to the functioning of any enterprise. At the same time if the budget were to be controled by a group too divorced from the realities of the ttc's funding it could be quite problematic to the quality of service.
12. Seems to be just creating unnessary costs for the ttc. Not really desirable if your goal is to minimise costs to offer the lowest possible fares.
Total score 1.5/12
Everybody needs health care, and everyone could reasonably need police or fire services and so on, but how will you convince non-users of transit that they should help pay for my bus ride?
Because we all breathe the same air: more use of public transit = fewer cars on the road.
And we all pay for roads whether we drive or not.
Well, even if we don't drive on them, ambulances do, the vehicles that deliver our mail, or food, or pretty much everything else do, and so on.
And of course transit is subsidized; it's just not 100% subsidized so as to be free.
For what it's worth, I'm a TTC commuter who doesn't drive. Free transit would save me ~ $100 a month, but I just can't wrap my head around why a driver (or a cyclist) should be fully financing my trip to work. I mean, it's a nice idea. Free 'anything' is usually a nice idea.
Here's my request from the TTC: if a cab driver decided that he didn't want to take me to my destination, and kicked me out so that he could go pick up some other fare somewhere else, I would not expect to have to pay him for a partial ride I didn't ask for. Similarly, I think that when the TTC decides to kick everyone off the streetcar so that that streetcar can suddenly "short turn" and go elsewhere, the driver should be handing out cash refunds at the front. I didn't pay for half a ride, I paid for a full ride.
I actually don't believe in totally free TTC for logistic reasons - for one, because Toronto has so many people on foot, streetcars would have trouble getting through the downtown core because people would be constantly hopping on and off to go one block.
I like your idea about the short-turning streetcars - I live at the end of one streetcar line and there have been many, many times when I was bringing my daughters home from swimming lessons in the middle of winter, and the streetcar gets a call from transit control telling the driver to short-turn after we get on, so we're out in the cold, my daughters' hair wet, waiting for the next streetcar.
I gave a TTC driver a bit of snide flak one time when he short-turned at Bathurst and kicked about forty people out into the pouring rain to stand under one of those mini-shelters made for about 6. Hey, thanks for that, TTC! Tell me again how this is better than being dry??
I always love what the drivers say (same thing as when they're full to the doors): "Theres's another one right behind me".
Really? Duh!! YOU'RE ON RAILS. Of course there's one behind you... somewhere.
I think it's safe to say that the millions of dollars Canadians pay for roads every year is not just for ambulances, fire trucks and pizza delivery. The decision to build and expand roads and highways are a clear ideological decision made by governments (and, of course, drivers) at the expense of expanding public transit. The idea behind true public transit, which is to say, publicly funded and free, is that we create a system where it is preferable to take transit rather than drive. To create a network that Canadians can be proud of. The same way you walk into the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and say, "Now this is a train station!"
And of course, public transit over cars in general, transportation aside, is a public good for the ebivornmental reasons Sineed mentioned. Such a sea change should be encouraged by whatever means necessary.
It's not so far fetched: many Canadian Universities--home of the most insufferable, self-entitled prats in Canada (or those in training)--have bus passes included in student fees. For less than $150 a year per student, everyone can ride the local transit system for free. Seems to me it's not impossible to bring people on board for such a crazy scheme.
I suppose it could be that a municipality could choose to create subways instead of roads, but given that buses need roads, it's not clear to me how we'd expand transit without them. Unless we want a solely rail system.
Not to be too pessimistic, but I think that's the same sort of challenge as creating a system where it is preferable to live in a communal dormitory rather than a private residence.
One thing that has occurred to me sitting in the streetcar and looking out at the cars and vans: I wonder how many people's choice to drive is at least partly influenced by the fact that they can smoke in their car? I doubt it's anyone's primary decision-driver, but I wonder to what degree it makes driving look preferable to the sardine can on rails?
It's not the streetcar operators who decide to short turn. That's done by supervisors to manage the flow of streetcars. More dedicated streetcar lines would probably reduce the number of short turns as the TTC would have less delays.
Millions of dollars are poured into building roads and road maintenance in order to provide "free roads". As noted above, decisions were made years ago by municipal politicians & developers (who knows - the car companies could have been in on it too) to develop sprawl-based, car-dependent urban communities without the proper public transit infrastructure. Where there is higher density, there's often no serious public transit.
When I visit Thornhill, I am blown away by all the new condo construction. For each new building, add another 200, 300 or 400 more cars to already congested neighborhoods. Had the GTA been planned properly, rapid transit infrastructure would have been part of the mix from the get go. Now it's too expensive to catch up. And every new project has got it's NIMBYs who would rather sit in traffic for hours than take a bus.
I would certainly agree that one of the most shortsighted decisions the municipality ever made was to mix streetcars in with traffic, effectively negating what could have been a giant incentive to use the TTC. As it is, I've been stuck on Dundas, between Bay and Yonge, for over five minutes (you could walk it in three) thanks to the fact that a streetcar is just another car (and in fact one that cannot even change lanes if one clears). I assume that buses are similar.
Make the car drivers pay a congestion tax such as in London. They clog the roads, which are provided by all of us, and pollute the air, which affects anyone who breathes. That tax could be used to make public transit free, which takes less space and is less polluting.
Above it was suggested that would mean people would jump on and off for one stop. That might be needed by some mobility challenged people, but doesn't happen much now when a large proportiion of the riders have 'metro' passes which already allow them to do that.
Above it was suggested that would mean people would jump on and off for one stop. That might be needed by some mobility challenged people, but doesn't happen much now when a large proportiion of the riders have 'metro' passes which already allow them to do that.
I see people jumping on and off for one stop all the time - think of the King car, going east from Yonge, and all those George Brown College students crushing on to go one stop. And as a Metropass holder, it's something I do sometimes - just did it yesterday.
Though to be honest, I don't know how much of a problem this would be. Is there any city that has totally free transit we can compare to?
Good question, referencing wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-fare it lists a number of places. All of the cities listed seem to be pretty small suggesting it may be difficult to impliment on a large scale.
Thanks, p-sto. I tried for about 5 minute using google, and didn't use the right tags. Wiki's good for something. Well it's sure more expensive on a large scale. We're so far away from this now, we'll have to go in steps. The first would be to give free passes to the disabled, students, seniors, welfare, etc.
From the Wiki link - Halifax, Nova Scotia - free bus route around the downtown area
Anyone know anything about that one?
I've been there and used it. It's not bad but more of a tourist thing than anything else (if I recall correctly it is in name a tour bus). Great for if you want to get from one end of downtown to the other but if you're going cross town not terribly useful. Plus the pay bus service operates more frequently so if you're in a hurry you won't benefit unless you're lucky. To equate it to Toronto it would be the same as having a free train every half hour from Spadina to Bloor on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.
Found more info here http://www.halifax.ca/metrotransit/fred.html Apparently only runs during the summer. Every 40 minutes and is paid for by the Downtown Halifax Business Commission. Basically paid by stores and restuarants during tourist season to make spending your money easier. Not a bad idea. Don't know how'd well it would sell in Toronto.
Ikea runs a shuttle bus between Leslie station and Ikea. Maybe that's a model to work from. :)