Fare hike, and Support Our Troops decals

Instead of cutting bus routes in order to meet budget constraints, the TTC has decided to raise fares by 15 cents instead. Apparently they can afford those moronic "support our troops" decals, though.

I support the fare hike over the service cuts. It's better to raise the price slightly than to cut routes. I know that sounds weird coming from me, when I go on and on about free public transit. But if you have to make a choice between cutting service or raising fares a little bit, you have to raise fares.

I'm still unhappy, though. A lot of people can't afford even a 15 cent increase. This is not good for people living in poverty.

I'm also extremely unhappy that TTC might wind up bending to this whole idiotic "Support Our Troops" decal thing. (Just wondering where they're going to get the money to pay for a bunch of magnets when they're raising fares.)

Write to the TTC commissioners and tell them what a stupid idea this is. This is a campaign spearheaded by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War.

For those who think "support our troops" is a neutral phrase - it's not. It's like "pro-life". Sure, we're all for "life". But "pro-life" is a right-wing slogan that means being against abortion. Same with "support our troops". It is a right-wing slogan that means supporting the mission. (Wish I could take credit for that analogy, but I can't. It's a great one to use when writing letters on this, though!) It's a partisan message and it doesn't belong on our vehicles. I think most Torontonians do NOT support war, and we shouldn't have such labels on public vehicles of any kind, but especially not ones that we're forced to ride ourselves.

Vote for MMP! Volunteer for the campaign!

If you don't know anything about proportional representation, and you live in Ontario, now's the time to find out more.

On October 10th, there will be a province-wide referendum in Ontario at the same time as our provincial election, where we will be voting on whether or not to change our voting system from our current one, where parties who get 40% of the vote can get 60% of the seats and 100% of the power - or change to a proportional system, Mixed Member Proportional, where every vote counts, even if you live in a "safe riding" where someone from the party you never vote for always wins.

Here's a web site where you can learn about why MMP is a much better system than the one we have currently. No matter what party you support, this system is better for you and for all of us.

What does this have to do with transit? :) Not much, although as a volunteer for the Vote MMP campaign, I am organizing some information events in the Davenport and High Park ridings of Toronto, and we'll be handing out leaflets at various subway stations during morning and evening rush hours over the next few weeks leading up to the campaign.

The first information leafleting will take place this Wednesday, August 22 at 7:30 a.m. at Dufferin Station, on the sidewalk on the west side of the street.

Please feel free to join me and the other volunteers in our two ridings if you're available and want to help out.

If you live in another riding, whether in Toronto or anywhere else across Ontario, if you'd like to volunteer, you can connect with the people in your area here.

Let's make some political history! :)

Sexual harassment on public transit

An interesting study done on sexual harassment and assault on New York City transit.

According to this study, 63% of respondents have been sexually harassed, and 10% of respondents have been sexually assaulted on NYC transit.

I wonder what a study like that would find on the Toronto subways. I've heard lots of stories from friends about having been groped, grabbed, or just intimidated by people putting the move on them on the subways and streetcars. I've never personally been assaulted, but a couple of times when I was in my early 20's I've felt intimidated by complete strangers trying to get me to tell them all sorts of personal information, like where I live, what's my phone number, do I have a boyfriend, etc. I was pretty naive at the time and didn't have the courage to tell them to buzz off (even nicely), so I got off the train early those times and waited for the next one.

I don't get why some guys do stuff like that. Does it ever actually work? I don't know anyone who has ever given her phone number to some pushy creep on the train. Where's the payoff?

TTC drivers have to call all stops

It's not like this is such a big hardship. Many TTC drivers do it anyhow. Some TTC drivers don't bother to call any stops, even major ones.

So it's about time they made it mandatory.

Being required to call all stops would present a hardship and potential safety risk when drivers are navigating busy routes, argued the TTC lawyer.

But the tribunal heard that drivers are already under orders to call all stops when their transit vehicle is extremely crowded or bad weather makes it difficult for everyone to see out the windows.

"By giving these instructions it is clear that the TTC is prepared to accommodate sighted people who have some difficulties" but not blind people with "severe difficulties," wrote Rosenberg.

The TTC will not appeal the decision, said commission chair Adam Giambrone, who put the legal costs to fight the second Lepofsky case at between $100,000 and $200,000.

And it's not even just about blind people. It's about the fact that we're crowded into buses and street cars like a bunch of sardines much of the time, and we can't see out the window to know where our stop is.

Many of the drivers on the Dufferin route are really good about calling out stops, but it's still hit and miss. Every bus driver on every route should be calling out every stop. I'm sorry if it's a hardship, but you know, that's just part of the job that they're being paid very well to do. Call the damn stops already.

Target cuts to wards who voted to defer tax increases

I phoned my councillor and the Mayor's office today with my suggestion for finding cost savings in the TTC budget as well as other services in the city: target the cuts to the wards of councillors who voted to defer the tax increases.

The message would be clear: if you're not in favour of raising taxes to pay for services, then clearly services are not a priority in your ward. Those wards where services are valued and people are willing to pay for them through their taxes will keep their services.

Here is a list of councillors who voted for and against the deferral. I'm sure we should be able to find some bus routes in their wards that really don't need such frequent service (or any weekend service at all). I'm sure they won't mind if their community centres are cut back, and library hours are reduced. Cancel their summer camps, change their waste pick-up to once every other week instead of weekly. Remove snow from their streets last (if at all) come winter. I'm sure they won't mind picking up a shovel if it means saving a few bucks in taxes.

Progressive councillors don't deserve to take flack for reduced services and overcrowded buses and streetcars from their constituents. Their constituents, having voted for progressive candidates, don't deserve the cutbacks.

Let the councillors who voted against funding our services listen to their constituents scream. It'll look good on them. And the people who voted for them.

"This is a horrible day" for Toronto transit

Unbelivable. Our fares are going up, a subway line is being shut down, and we're losing 21 bus routes. I'm so pissed off at those stupid frigging idiots on city council that I could just spit.

The Toronto Transit Commission is planning to close the Sheppard subway, drop 21 bus routes and raise fares because of city funding shortages, chairman Adam Giambrone said Thursday.

An emergency meeting of the commission board is scheduled for Friday to formalize the cuts, he told reporters.

Infuriating. I hope Torontonians give their councillors shit for this. And we should be giving our MPPs an earful, too. This is intolerable. The system is already overcrowded and can't meet the demand.

What NOT to do if you drop something on the subway track

Surprisingly enough, despite my qualification for a Murphy's Law award when it comes to always choosing the route with a delay, I wasn't on the Spadina line when this happened:

A TTC passenger who dropped his umbrella on the tracks at the Spadina subway station delayed thousands of riders on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

After dropping his umbrella around 8:30 a.m., the unidentified man jumped down on the tracks to retrieve it, according to TTC spokesperson Marilyn Bolton.

Seeing the umbrella man on the tracks, another passenger pulled the emergency power switch, bringing trains to a halt.

It took 10 minutes for TTC officials to investigate and restore the power, Bolton said.

In the meantime, the TTC was forced to turn trains back from Union Station to service the Yonge line, said Bolton.

I find it interesting that they don't tell you in the article, as kind of a public service announcement, what you SHOULD do if you drop something like an umbrella on the subway tracks. I'd worry about it possibly doing some kind of damage to the train, or shorting something out when it got run over or something.

So, I thought I'd give the TTC a call and see what they had to say. According to the customer service rep I talked to, you should go to the ticket-taker right away and they'll send someone along to retrieve your stuff. I asked whether it was safe for the train for something like an umbrella to be on the track and she said that it likely wouldn't be a problem for the train - it would just crush it if it didn't fall between the tracks (where it wouldn't be touched by the train at all). And apparently it happens all the time, people dropping cell phones and stuff like that on the tracks.

Makes sense to me. I can't imagine jumping onto the tracks to retrieve something I dropped! Unless it was my kid or something. Anyhow, I guess all's well that ends well.

Unfortunately, across the city, things didn't end well at all at this bus shelter at Lawrence and Warden.

A woman was crushed to death while her toddler was pulled to safety from a stroller when an out-of-control semi-trailer smashed into a bus shelter during yesterday's rush hour.

The family of four was standing in the shelter when the rig lunged toward them at about 4 p.m. at Warden and Lawrence Aves.

The father yanked the toddler and the other child to safety but the woman was struck and dragged along with the stroller.

What a horror. I can't even imagine what that father and children must be feeling right now.