David Miller: Toronto's future rides on commitment to transit

[Fresh Start]

Not only that, but his single mother comment was a cheap move. There should be a way for him to describe the mobility problem of Toronto without resorting to Glenn Beck-style histrionics.

My sentiments exactly. Ever since Miller came to power advocates like Mihevic, Giambrone and Steve Munro have promoted LRT almost to the exclusion of everything else yet under their own watch the streetcar system has deteriorated to hit and miss service reliability leading to severe overcrowding during rush hour, overcrowding on the subway all throughout the day, severe cutbacks on bus frequency, fare hikes, strikes, bomb scares, threats to shut down a whole subway line in its infancy, years to renovate NOT build from scratch a streetcar ROW, customer service has gone to the craper while 725 TTC employees make in excess of 100k a year, etc., etc. If Miller and co. cannot fix the service they've got, where does he get off making recommendations about the future? To adopt TC under this political climate will surely see its service quality sink to typical streetcar levels within a relatively short time.

Instead of bifurcations; why not explore multiple options like fare integration, system-wide time-based fares, fare zoning, bus lanes, prepaid fare collection, all-door boarding with the system we've got here today, now? Why are we awaiting 207 $5 million priced light rail vehicles and countless years of road construction before the TTC gets its act together? I will agree with Gweed that having a pro-tansit mayor is a good thing, however that person must have the right intentions for rolling it out besides it being a noted accomplishment in his memoirs. Both Vancouver and Montreal have gone through this debate. If an area has a high enough demand for it (prior to any build-it-and-they'll-come redevelopment schema) and the network's already based on HRT, for the sake of ease of connectivity you expand that network as HRT with buses primarily linking smaller communities to major areas.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Wow, I stopped reading after that first line and Miller's ridiculous statement.

How dare he profess to be so concerned with transit in Toronto when he has been more than happy to sell this city short? I know, I know. Better Transfer Shitty to the exclusion of all else than a kick in the arse and nothing in the way of transit for another 75 years (aka the estimated time of my demise). Right. Living in Toronto might become a bury-your-head-in-the-sand-and-pretend-all-is-well-in-the-world type of affair soon, eh?

 

[waterloowarrior]

Miller, likely Pantalone, and now Giambrone will all be gone in about 6 months.... we may have some different perspectives on transit in the near future

 

[kettal]

My sentiments exactly. Ever since Miller came to power advocates like Mihevic, Giambrone and Steve Munro have promoted LRT almost to the exclusion of everything else yet under their own watch the streetcar system has deteriorated to hit and miss service reliability leading to severe overcrowding during rush hour, overcrowding on the subway all throughout the day, severe cutbacks on bus frequency, fare hikes, strikes, bomb scares, threats to shut down a whole subway line in its infancy, years to renovate NOT build from scratch a streetcar ROW, customer service has gone to the craper while 725 TTC employees make in excess of 100k a year, etc., etc. If Miller and co. cannot fix the service they've got, where does he get off making recommendations about the future? To adopt TC under this political climate will surely see its service quality sink to typical streetcar levels within a relatively short time.

Are you for real? Are you trying to start a TTC Truther movement or what? "Yeah, TTC bomb threats are totally an inside job." Miller's also at fault for subway overcrowding, he made ridership too high with all those fare increases. It's like starbucks coffee, the higher the price, the more patrons come. I also wonder where you get the bus cutbacks idea, as most bus routes have seen frequency increase a lot in the past few years.

 

[nfitz]

Gawd, Miller's delusional.

My god ... pot calling kettle ...

Perhaps when you've spent 7 years as the best mayor in many a year, you'll be in a position to point out the delusions of others!

 

[Fresh Start]

Are you for real? Are you trying to start a TTC Truther movement or what? "Yeah, TTC bomb threats are totally an inside job." Miller's also at fault for subway overcrowding, he made ridership too high with all those fare increases. It's like starbucks coffee, the higher the price, the more patrons come. I also wonder where you get the bus cutbacks idea, as most bus routes have seen frequency increase a lot in the past few years.

Just cataloging the seemingly endless list of screw-ups that have happened in the past five years when the TTC and City Hall have had a very close relationship, perhaps too close. Perhaps if the mayor had stopped making excuses for incompetency, stopped playing into the whims of an all too powerful ATU Local 113 and reminded the TTC and its employees that they like everyone else are not above the rules or reproach; the system would be running better and fares would not have to be raised to fund $82 million per year for workers who nap at the collector booth and take 7 minute coffee breaks while leaving a busload of passengers stranded.

 

[Fresh Start]

My god ... pot calling kettle ...

Perhaps when you've spent 7 years as the best mayor in many a year, you'll be in a position to point out the delusions of others!

At least my delusions are merely those of a harmless online blogger who only wants to see better public services provided for his community. Miller and his ilk meanwhile have political influence and an incorrigible obsession with transforming suburbia into fanciful locales like Rotterdam or Braunschweig in search of developer's patronage by any means necessary, even as local constituents are kicking and screaming in revolt. I could almost excuse it if he weren't so hellbent to screw up rapid transit on the Eglinton corridor which so clearly needs to be built as a metro subway line and put up a LRT blockage preventing any further Sheppard subway expansion eastwards.

Best mayor in many a year? The same one responsible for the TTC strike of '08 and the garbage collector's strike of '09? Seriously? And where did that $100 million disappear to and then magically reappear from? So yeah, maybe Miller isn't the delusional one after all, but rather the sycophants who choose to throw their lot beside him even as he continues to promise a whole lot yet produce very little result. October can't get here soon enough for me.

 

[kettal]

Do you understand why so many people find your posts laughable? Try focus on one thing at a time, not spin a thousand loose tangents out of everything.

 

[Asterix]

I could almost excuse it if he weren't so hellbent to screw up rapid transit on the Eglinton corridor which so clearly needs to be built as a metro subway line

By "clearly needs to be built as a metro subway line", I presume you mean it will need to carry a subway line's worth of riders at peak. Might I ask where you sourced your demand numbers for this "clearly" conclusion?

 

[GraphicMatt]

Miller caused the TTC and City Worker strikes by being too soft on labour! Ridership is at an all-time high and service levels have increased but transit is worse than it ever has been! Up is Down! Black is White!

 

[kEiThZ]

...and here I was thinking Toronto's future rests on building a sustainable fiscal framework that will let us pay for all those transit upgrades...

 

[GraphicMatt]

I do think this whole idea of mayors tying their legacies to specific transit projects needs to stop. It politicizes things far too much, and will always lead to elections where opposing candidates promise to halt forward movement and 'review' the plan. Essentially, new mayors will want to either replace or significantly alter existing transit plans so that they can have their own legacy project.

Transit City would be better off if it wasn't so closely associated with David Miller, just as the Sheppard subway project would have been better off had it not been known as Mel Lastman's project.

 

[kEiThZ]

^ Well, Miller has nobody but himself to blame for that. He chose to chuck all existing transit plans out the window when he got elected and run with Transit City. There is no other mayor but him with fingerprints on this plan. He made it worse by prioritizing routes solely on an ideological basis. Any other reason you can tell me why Sheppard East has the highest priority in the city for a new transit line? Not the SRT replacement. Not the DRL. Not Eglinton Crosstown. But Sheppard East. It's such a priority they are cutting back on the SRT extension to Malvern, that was promised for decades, to keep the SELRT running to the zoo.

Had Miller chosen to work towards sensible projects that could be implemented right away (more bus lanes, integrated fare, more efficient fare schemes) and maybe shome short and sensible network expansion (subway to STC) his legacy would have been protected. Instead, he wanted to roll the dice on a dream of Europeanization of Toronto on a grand scale with euro-trams running on grand avenues in places like Malvern or West Hill.

At this point, I think he's actually worried about his legacy than anything else. He'll be the mayor that did some nice stuff on business taxes, touched on waterfront development, cancelled a bridge in an attempt to stifle a highly successful Toronto based business, and didn't really do much for transit other than build two tram lines in suburbia.

He placed a big bet. He lost. Let him wear it.

 

[Fresh Start]

Do you understand why so many people find your posts laughable? Try focus on one thing at a time, not spin a thousand loose tangents out of everything.

I wasn't aware that anyone other than you find my posts laughable. I'm sure if others had a problem with my argumentative style they would've said something by now. But hey, it's cool man. I'm here to shock and entertain just as much I aim to enlighten and inform those amongst us who are too docile to think for themselves. What did Karl Marx call it again? Oh right, the "false consciousness" of the masses.

 

[Fresh Start]

By "clearly needs to be built as a metro subway line", I presume you mean it will need to carry a subway line's worth of riders at peak. Might I ask where you sourced your demand numbers for this "clearly" conclusion?

Please, please I implore you to turn off the computer, travel to Eglinton Stn during rush hour and ride a bus from there to either Kennedy Stn or Eglinton/Scarlett Rd, then come back and tell me that a subway's level of demand is not there. Also consider that two-thirds of north-of-Bloor inbound commuters aboard buses heading towards Bloor-Danforth would in all likelihood disembark here first.