AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
No doubt we have numerous obstructions creating 'turbulence'. Then the variables like the wayward tourist or those with mobility issues. Some of this is "bad station design", or perhaps stations that are inherently too small and were never designed for such loads as we're seeing today. With Union though I like how they have an open gate. It's oftentimes an honour system, seeing that many can walk through without any fare (I've walked past four transit officers and a fare collector without even attempting to pay). I have zero qualms with removing turnstyles. However I do wonder if the fare gate takes 0.25-0.5 sec longer to accept/compute/open, could that cause unnecessary bottlenecks? And/or can the machines be accelerated or be designed to stay open during peak periods?
Sure they should have a decently fast fare gate system (the ones I have experienced so far are certainly superior to turnstyle, so no reason why the TTC ones can't match that experience), but I don't think they are the problem relative to the other listed issues - nor are open gates the solution (esp. considering the issue of fare evasion) - in the case of Union, the existing turnstyles don't even reach 50% utilization at rush - people are using the open gate just because it is there, and I don't think that's a practice that should be encouraged.
AoD