TTC Meeting - Cab companies and Wheel Trans

Here's an issue I hadn't heard about at all before yesterday's TTC meeting that I attended.

Apparently, the TTC contracts out Wheel Trans service to cab companies that have accessible cabs. A couple of drivers from one for-profit company claimed that they make about $8.40 per hour, and that this isn't fair considering that the TTC are their defacto employers. They say a case can be made for this position because they are directly supervised by Wheel Trans, they are inspected at will by Wheel Trans, and they are given their schedules and routes by Wheel Trans. They say that they are subsidizing the TTC's labour and equipment costs, and I can't say they didn't have a point.

Anyhow...apparently the Commission is putting a progressive policy into place when it comes to cab company subcontractors. They're only accepting applications from co-ops and non-profit organizations to fill the contracts for Wheel Trans so that drivers (who own the company if they're a co-op) will be fairly compensated for their labour. I was amazed and thrilled to hear this.

A representative from Beck Taxi, who addressed the Commission, was not so thrilled, and said so. She basically spouted the usual free-market line, claimed that their drivers were thrilled to death with their working conditions and wages, and that their main consideration should be efficiency, and that it's unfair to only accept bids from co-ops and non-profits.

My take on it is this: the TTC should have all their labour in-house and as part of the transit union, using TTC vehicles and TTC property. The TTC shouldn't contract out at all. But...if they do, then of course they should contract out to co-ops first and foremost. And this is the beauty of having the politicians we have at the moment in Toronto. They're not perfect. As I said in an earlier post, it ain't the revolution yet. They're still contracting out, and I have a problem with doing that instead of building their own service infrastructure. But at least they're not caving in to big, corporate, for-profit companies which will take public money, cut as many corners as possible in order to squeeze as much profit out for the owners and shareholders as possible, and have drivers who are getting paid squat for doing extremely important work with valuable members of our society who deserve proper service.

TTC meeting - U Passes

I'm taking a course on local politics, and one of our assignments is to attend a meeting of a municipal decision-making political body (whether city council, or one of their boards). So, of course, I decided to go to the TTC meeting, the timing of which just so happened to coordinate well with my procrastination technique of studying and writing essays. (It's due in three days - lots of time!)

Two councillors (among others) really impressed me today, and I've never heard of them before: Glenn De Baeremaeker and Michael Thompson really stood out with their progressive thinking and their insightful comments. I love living in a lefty city! It isn't perfect, but it's not half bad this side of the revolution. ;)

There were three issues at the meeting that I think might be interesting to discuss here. The first one was the possibility of having a U-Pass or discounted fares for post-secondary students. The second one is the outsourcing to cab companies of Wheel Trans work. The third is the density zoning along transit traffic corridors such as the Spadina subway expansion to York.

Obviously this is all too much to tackle all in one post without putting people to sleep, so I think I'll do these issues separately over the next day or two, taking on the U-Pass now.

I went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario for a few years, and while Kingston public transit leaves a lot to be desired, at least they had U-passes for university and college students. All students paid in their fees, and everyone used their student card as their bus pass all year.

I was pretty amazed when I came to Toronto (having grown up in Kingston) to discover that Toronto has no such plan and that postsecondary students pay adult fares. Proposals were made today, particularly by De Baeremaeker, to give postsecondary students the same discounted rate that seniors and secondary students get. A U-Pass was also discussed as an option, where the universities and colleges would guarantee a block of income to the TTC from non-opt-outable student fees, and each student would then get a bus pass for the school year. This is how it's done in Kingston. If they can do it there, surely we can do it here!

Sure would be nice if postsecondary students in Toronto didn't have to line up in their student unions every month to save a few bucks on their metropass. (I just passed such a lineup today at Ryerson's student union today.)

Lower Bay Station

If you're from Toronto, you probably already know this. But underneath Bay-Yorkville subway station is another station called Lower Bay Station.

Well, this weekend, because of the subway diversion I was describing in the post just before this one, trains were diverted through Lower Bay. It was a real treat, because no one gets to see that station usually unless you're doing a film or commercial shoot in there.

So - I videotaped it on my trusty little digital camera as we were going through! Here's the video.

Trippin'

Yesterday, my son and I went downtown. (My home is near Dufferin station and we were going to Yonge and Gerrard.) We were in a hurry, because my son had a swimming lesson near my place and then we had to be at an event half an hour after he dried off and got dressed.

So we took the bus south to Dufferin Station, and I made the fatal decision to get off there and take the subway instead of going further and taking the College streetcar as I normally would.

What I didn't know is that I was going to run into this. They had closed one of the subway stations along my route and we got diverted to another subway line! And they didn't explain properly what we were supposed to do, so I thought we couldn't continue east, so I went up to street level to catch a cab.

Then I realized I had absolutely no cash on me because I forgot to go to my credit union on Friday at work. So we walked for a couple of blocks (on the swanky part of Bloor West near Yorkville which didn't seem to have a convenience store anywhere). I was so peeved. By the time we found a bank machine, caught a cab and rushed to the event (which was part of my work), we were about 20 minutes late.

You can bet I was muttering bitter things about taking The Better Way. I cannot confirm that there were no obscenities involved in said muttering.

And since I'm already grumbling...I've been seeing flyers with this slogan on all the buses lately. It makes me a little bitter to be standing on a bus, glancing at a flyer that says, "We're serious about your safety!" and hanging on for dear life while the driver of the bus is jamming on the brakes and accelerating with a lead foot at every bus stop for no reason, with 30 people standing in the aisles during rush hour. It seems that every other driver on the TTC lately drives like this. Perhaps it's a passive-aggressive thing, a way for drivers to let off steam from having to put up with passengers who argue over paying fares, try to use expired transfers, refuse to move back, etc. All I know is, I'm kind of tired of being treated like inanimate cargo. Dudes and dudettes, you're not driving delivery trucks!

A couple of links about free public transit

See? It's not just some crazy leftist pipe-dream.

Both of these cities put Toronto to shame in this regard. Toronto didn't even offer free public transit on New Year's Eve this year, which is pretty shabby.

The Bay Area of San Francisco offers free public transit on heavy smog days, and Portland, Oregon offers free public transit all the time in their entire downtown area!

Regional transit - a hopeless cause?

I hope not! Because I depend on it every weekend when I take Mississauga Transit and the GO. I'll write more about my observations of GO and Mississauga Transit later.

In the meantime, here is an excellent if older article by Gord Perks about what he thinks it would take to have good regional transit. (Incidentally, I voted for Perks when he ran for the NDP in my riding. He didn't win, of course, because you could run a fruitfly under the Liberal banner and they'd win in this riding. So it was lovely to see him win a City Council seat in the last election.)

Subdivisions were built for cars. The twisting spaghetti of suburban streets was designed specifically to keep through traffic out, but buses are through traffic by definition. Wide, fast arterial roads like Major Mackenzie are downright hostile to pedestrians on their way to a bus stop. The arterials are also miles apart, when transit needs to be right around the corner: downtown, if the King streetcar's too far, you can always walk to Queen.

Even if those urban-planning barriers were removed, there simply aren't enough people in low-density sprawl to justify really good transit. This gives transit planners a Hobson's choice: fewer buses equals infrequent service equals inconvenience equals no riders; frequent service means paying a bundle to run near-empty buses.

Big transit in 905 is the wrong answer because it answers the wrong question.

So what is the answer? Among others:

We need to take a good look at places like Unionville, Streetsville, Hamilton and old Brampton and see if they can be built up with main streets, mixed uses and decent local transit linked by GO's regional rail network. Our current practice of surrounding GO stations with parking lots is admitting defeat.

Give the article a read. It's not too long and it's really quite good. And still timely four years later.

Unfare

So, why don't I just start out with something controversial right away. Here's my proposal: do away with transit fares completely. Yes, I'm serious, and after doing a quick google search, I see I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Jim Stanford, economist for the Canadian Auto Workers has the right idea.

If we really want to reward Canadians who take the time and trouble to ride the bus, let’s go further. Let’s make public transit free.

We already ask transit riders to “pay”: infrequent service, crowds, longer commutes. Their actions benefit us all. They shouldn’t have to pay again at the token booth. Instead, we should fund this public service outright. That would provide a more immediate and powerful incentive to take the bus, compared to a far-off and iffy tax credit. The icing on the cake: a direct boost to the disposable incomes of existing transit users, most of whom (young people, immigrants, seniors) really need one.

This policy would be surprisingly easy to fund. Public transit systems currently take in about $2.5-billion in passenger revenues each year — equivalent to about two-thirds of the excise taxes Ottawa now collects on gasoline sales. Transit operators could take resources currently dedicated to collecting and policing fares, and invest in improving service.

I don't think it would cost more than it does now to make transit free in the Greater Toronto Area. A lot of resources and person hours and bureaucracy go into fare collection, which could be diverted to more frequent service and improved infrastructure.

But you know what? Even if it does cost more, it would be well worth it. Pollution and smog would decrease as more and more people leave their cars at home. We all know that we're going to have to pay for having let the environmental crisis go this far. So, instead of spending money on half-assed programs that won't reduce pollution enough, spend money on free public transit instead (all over Canada, not just the Toronto area!), and not only will you have fantastic transit systems, but you'll also reduce pollution and give people an affordable and reliable way of getting where they're going.

I love public transit.

Honest, I do! (I figure my opening post had better be positive, considering the name I chose for this blog.)

But I do suffer from transit rage on occasion. My transit rage is sometimes about petty passenger, driver and other vehicle stuff, but it's just as often about non-petty, political stuff. Like lack of proper funding. Like lack of vision. Like route cutbacks and overcrowding. Stuff like that.

I'm a Torontonian who lives and works downtown. I take the TTC to work every day. I don't have a car, nor do I want one. I also take GO Transit and Mississauga Transit every weekend. I spend a lot of time on public transit. And while I'm on public transit, I think a lot about public transit.

So, this blog will be personal and political: observation, experience, and maybe even a little research once in a while when I feel up to it.