Province eyes Metrolinx shakeup

[TOareaFan]

I completely fail to understand the mindset of people who think that it is normal to live a 100-km or 1-hr drive from their place of employment.

No one who lives 100km away in this region has a 1 - hour drive. My 44k commute (door to door) takes 1.25 hours most mornings and about 1 hour 5 minutes homeward bound. (it can vary, on the high side, much longer and very slightly on the low side).

 

[DavidH]

No one who lives 100km away in this region has a 1 - hour drive. My 44k commute (door to door) takes 1.25 hours most mornings and about 1 hour 5 minutes homeward bound. (it can vary, on the high side, much longer and very slightly on the low side).

Agreed, although the exact timing depends a lot on time of day and mode. My 40 km trip takes about a half hour on GO bus, plus local time to get to the GO station and such. Even with a daycare dropoff thrown in, I can do it in an hour.

 

[kEiThZ]

GO train from Barrie ain't all that bad. Still not the 100k in an hour standard but fairly close.

 

[TOareaFan]

Agreed, although the exact timing depends a lot on time of day and mode. My 40 km trip takes about a half hour on GO bus, plus local time to get to the GO station and such. Even with a daycare dropoff thrown in, I can do it in an hour.

My intent was not to debate each minute of every commute but to dispell any thought that might be out there that the commuters in this city/region are expecting something like a 1hr/100km route and the necessary roads to provide that.....it is not true now....has not been true for a long, long time (if ever) and is not expected (by anyone) to be true in the future.

 

[DavidH]

My intent was not to debate each minute of every commute but to dispell any thought that might be out there that the commuters in this city/region are expecting something like a 1hr/100km route and the necessary roads to provide that.....it is not true now....has not been true for a long, long time (if ever) and is not expected (by anyone) to be true in the future.

We're in agreement. While there may be downtown residents who would cringe at 40 km commutes, that's reality for a great many and it's not always possible to avoid it, and as you say, even those kinds of commutes can be awful at times.

 

[nfitz]

No one who lives 100km away in this region has a 1 - hour drive. My 44k commute (door to door) takes 1.25 hours most mornings and about 1 hour 5 minutes homeward bound. (it can vary, on the high side, much longer and very slightly on the low side).

Umm - it was an either/or thing.

Though I do a 125-km drive from downtown Toronto to Kitchener every week or two in rush-hour. 70-minutes is pretty normal, 90 is extreme. There are still some commutes where you can drive 100 km in an hour. Toronto to Cambridge - if you leave at 7 AM, you can still get there by 8 AM.

Now I do it every week or two, on business, being paid for my travel time, and mileage. I know a couple people who've chosen to do the same drive EVERY day.

 

[TOareaFan]

Umm - it was an either/or thing.

sorry...my eyes read it as a "and" thing....rereading it now...mine eyes were wrong.

Though I do a 125-km drive from downtown Toronto to Kitchener every week or two in rush-hour. 70-minutes is pretty normal,

If my eyes are not misleading me again....it sounds like you are benefitting from a bit of a reverse commute (ie. you are going west in the morning and east in the evening?)......the benefits of reverse commutes are not what they used to be but it is still slightly advantagous to be going against the flow. I have very little doubt that you could not do those times (in rush hour(s) ) going in the "normal" directions.

 

[nfitz]

If my eyes are not misleading me again....it sounds like you are benefitting from a bit of a reverse commute (ie. you are going west in the morning and east in the evening?)......the benefits of reverse commutes are not what they used to be but it is still slightly advantagous to be going against the flow. I have very little doubt that you could not do those times (in rush hour(s) ) going in the "normal" directions.

Oh, Absolutely a reverse-commute. Normally I try and leave at about 6:50 to get in at 8:00 AM (and if I delay leaving to 7:20, it turns into 80 minutes). Into Toronto it's probably closer to 120 to 150 minutes. On a bad day (good weather, bad traffic), I've had people arriving in our Toronto office at 10 AM who left Kitchener at 6 AM!

If I was coming in the reverse direction, I'd be on the morning VIA train ... I might even be on into Kitchener, if the first arrival of the day didn't get in until lunch-time!

 

[TOareaFan]

I might even be on into Kitchener, if the first arrival of the day didn't get in until lunch-time!

Those are the sort of things (and there are too many examples of them) that make you shake your head and wonder if the people running our transit systems actually live in the same world as we do.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone called and said "why isn't there more service between Toronto and Kitchener" that they would point to the inconvenient service they have now and say "why would we add more, the ones we have are underused"

 

[nfitz]

Well to be fair, there is currently an EA in progress that does call for the introduction of GO service along that route, which even calls for allowing for 2-way commuting between Guelph and Kitchener - and presumably would add at least one morning train from Toronto.

 

[lordmandeep]

well I want to go to Ryerson University which is 40km away from my House in Brampton.

Total cost is roughly oh $8500-9000 total (EVERYTHING INCLUDED)...
Manageable by me and my family.

Now If I live Downtown you can add another $6000 to that rent and easily thousands more of Misc expenses...

I think I suffer the 1hr or so commute, 4 days a week.

 

[afransen]

And that's where the commute/relocate decision can be affected by travel costs. In that situation, though, I think it would take some very substantial tolls indeed to cause you to move downtown.

 

[lordmandeep]

well first of all I take the Go Train and its decent but I would like to see more trains so I could cut my commuter time even more.

I do drive to the Station and costs me about $15 a gas a week to do so.

 

[nfitz]

Yeah, I'm thinking of 1-hour driving here ... 1-hour on GO and a bit of streetcar/subway isn't quite the same ... heck, for a student, it's perfect sleeping/reading/homework time. Best to do on the train, so that when you get home you can spend time with your kids!

 

[TOareaFan]

Interesting (and legitimate) question here for the people who feel that folks should live and work near each other.

What should people do when they get further away (in commute terms) without doing anything.

I will use myself as an example.....I am an old guy...grew up in Brampton, work in the banking industry and all the HO jobs are downtown. When I started my career 25 years ago.......I was a +/- 40 minute drive from work.....I have moved within Brampton but am actually slightly closer King and Bay now than I was then....but my drive takes 1 hour and 15 minutes (typically)....so I am now in that "how can you stand to commute 1 hour a day" crowd....but i have, neither, changed jobs nor moved. it just happened.

In the meantime, I have established roots in the community (well, like I said I grew up here), started a family and have a wife with a career that is based here.

Would the "live where you work" people here think that we should move? I honestly don't think we are that unique in our generation.....the suburbs of Toronto have been big enough long enough now that there are lots of us that grew up there and work all over the GTA.....I actually think we are a fairly typical family of commuters.....we have moved farther from my job without moving an inch.