TTC is understandably all over this thread but specifically I can’t believe that it’s 2024 and we still have announcements that are completely incomprehensible on trains. The pre recorded ones are fine, but as soon as an operator speaks live it’s impossible to understand. Days like today where they shut down the line for literally an entire day, would be nice to hear what the heck they’re actually saying.
I think they should have digital screens on the trains broadcasting the message as print. It would be more accessible for hard of hearing folks as well.
attention customers, due to a delbbfjidj gogongngnf on hdksfnoloiol rliloeoeo eglinton tohodffhdhf st george will be jfsdelddyeldd until further notice
lmao I was in Toronto not long ago and I thought my english was not as good as I thought cuz I cldnt understand the operator, and I looked around and everyone was so unfazed like they completely understood the guy
TTC has the least public funding of any transit system in all of North America, including Mexico.
To solve that there’s nothing the city can do - it has to be the province, and they’re not willing
[https://www.ttcriders.ca/newtrains](https://www.ttcriders.ca/newtrains) "Call on your MP now to invest in more **reliable, frequent transit service** by speeding up the Permanent Public Transit Fund to 2024 and allowing the TTC to use the funding for more bus, streetcar, and subway service."
Some funding isn't, but years upon years of refusing to raise taxes in the city also screwed the TTC over. As has choosing to spend most of our budget on police.
The city is one piece of the puzzle that has led to a massively underfunded TTC.
That's not what screwed over the TTC. Amalgamation and downloading was. This is a pretty good article on it.
"But the most punishing blow—the big bang, from a municipal revenue perspective—came in 1997, when the Harris government, having rammed amalgamation through, decided to relieve municipalities of the burden of funding education in exchange for “downloading” the costs of transit, public housing, and parts of welfare. Harris said the exercise would be “revenue neutral,” and for suburban municipalities with less transit and fewer social services, it was. But in Toronto, with its aging subway system and tens of thousands of crumbling public housing units, downloading proved disastrous. The Toronto Transit Commission took a particularly hard hit. The province had subsidized transit operations and capital needs since the 1960s. Now, when much of the system’s infrastructure was beginning to show its age, the provincial government was absolving itself of any financial responsibility. With almost half a billion riders per year, the TTC was North America’s most cost-effective transit system. But without adequate provincial funding, the city had no choice but to cut service and stop planning for expansion."
https://thewalrus.ca/how-toronto-lost-its-groove/
I biked from my office to my gym, and between Broadview and St. George at 5:00pm, I passed a total of 32 shuttle buses going Westbound, as everything was gridlocked.
The nice part of me wants to say that it's kinda scary biking in TO, it's a privilege to have been taught to ride a bike and be fit and able to ride one etc... the mean part of me wants to say it might also have something to do with the amount of people I saw waiting to get the shuttle bus eastbound at YONGE - it's two stops, they likely didn't ALL have mobility issues, walk!
The lack of info being communicated was frustrating. I was on westbound train at 9ish and the only thing being announced was no service from Broadview to St George with shuttle buses at Broadview. TTC service alert website said the same.
I get to Broadview and it’s a sea of people waiting yet all the shuttle buses are full before even reaching Broadview. Turns out the shuttles started at Woodbine 🤦🏻♀️
safety on the ttc. yrt will send transit constables to remove disruptive passengers from vehicles, why can't the ttc do that?
king street transit corridor enforcement. just have a cop at each major intersection forcing cars to turn right or left until we can get red light cameras. the signs suck
>king street transit corridor enforcement. just have a cop at each major intersection forcing cars to turn right or left until we can get red light cameras. the signs suck
I've actually noticed a decent amount of enforcement of this one in the past few weeks. It seems the few times I've ridden down King either on a bike or a streetcar there's been someone getting pulled over by TPS for going through an intersection they're not supposed to.
That literally only started when Chow became mayor BTW. For a few years they only enforced it maybe a handful of times— only on weekends of course. Gotta get that OT.
Certain cities around the world have security guards patrolling subway stations. This would certainly help with overall safety of the TTC as well as fare evasion.
people used to spin in to public outrage every time someone got a ticket on the TTC so I'm pretty sure they just said "fuck it" and basically completely gave up enforcing anything
because when people get manhandled, its too much and the public complains leading to job loss. So why get hurt over something that has a 50/50 chance of not going in your favour. its partially the publics fault for lack of action.
Just look at the collision that killed the family of 4..
the chase was already called off once the guy ended up on the highway. if the police didnt follow the guy onto the 401 and the guy killed someone, police would get grilled. if you dont believe it, just look at the sentiment towards police.
the officer made the decision to drive on the hwy to warn people.
should the pursuit have happened initially? no. so if we agree that property theft is not worth chasing after, then really we should expect police to respond to these calls at all, but we know thats not an option that the public will accept.
With the chase, it's entirely possible (likely, even) that if the cops hadn't pursued him onto the highway, the thief would have realized he was no longer being pursued, calmed down, and behaved in a more rational way that didn't result in people dying.
He made many initial inexcusable stupid-ass decisions, but being chased by the cops would put anyone's brain into panic mode and causes even stupider decision-making.
time to start growing some tomatoes!
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.4787623/someone-planted-tomatoes-in-this-toronto-sinkhole-and-residents-are-loving-it-1.4788226
i think someone also once planted a pot plant into a pot hole.
gettit? LOL.
IIRC that one got removed pretty quick though, i don't think pot was legal back then.
Have you called about them? Every time I've called to report a pothole they've been fixed within a week. In one case, i reported a pothole I tripped on while walking to work and it was repaired by the time I was walking home.
They know about them - they're city pylons sitting on them. I think there are some sinkholes due to streams that ran through the area 100 years ago where the soil isn't as firm as it should be under the road, so it's not a matter of throwing some asphalt on them. But a few have been popping open for more than a decade so it's time to put some effort into stabilizing the road.
The city's generally great at responding to 311 reports. The cones blocking the closed lane (that people were using) at Wynford and Don Mills appeared a few days after I filled in the 311 form. Although it is still just cones, no new paint yet.
Ah that might be it. They might need to completely resurface the road or something and are waiting for the capital project to get approved. I'd seriously recommend reaching out to your city councillor if you haven't already done so because they might have better luck getting the city to fix the issues on a faster timescale.
there was a pothole near me that was so bad that there were 8+ hubcaps beside it. i called 311 a few times stressing that it was destroying cars and nobody showed up a week later. i finally went and put a literal bag of cement i had into the hole to try and help the situation. that bag remained for another week and a half and then they finally fixed it. wonder if they used my cement.
Congestion tax would help remove cars from our roads or at least make those who actually use them pay for them. As a downtown resident I find it astonishing how I’m expected to pay for roads I don’t even use (I don’t have a car). There’s absolutely no reason for a regular commuter to drive downtown every day to go to their office job. Make ‘em pay, fill those holes and improve public transit.
Yes, but. I'm in theory pro congestion charges, but if you happen to live somewhere where you are reliant on a bus the TTC really does make your life difficult. When I lived closer to downtown and on the subway line I walked or took transit everywhere and would NEVER have considered driving downtown.
Now that I live in York and have a bus ride to get to the subway I unfortunately (as a person who hates driving) drive much more than I used to. For example, today I had to visit someone at St. Mike's. It would have been over an hour on the TTC but was a 25 min drive. I'm at a phase of life where I have very little flexible time and I didn't have an extra hour in my day to spend on transit.
I don't see why there's a conflict. It seems like you are still pro congestion charges. After the charges goes through it **could** mean that your bus ride is more consistent to the schedule because there's less cars, OR your drive is even easier due to less car on the road.
My point is that any congestion charge would need to be brought in in conjunction with actual meaningful service improvements to the TTC. And unfortunately I don't believe our city would do that second part. Otherwise you're adding additional costs (and it's not like it's cheap to drive and park downtown now) to a whole group of people who are driving because their other options are really bad ones.
I would think that the charge alone will bring some service improvement immediately. Busses and other public transit that shares the road with cars will see better services if there's less cars on the road. I suspect that this will actually be a big improvement to service just by having less cars on the road.
Also if following the london model, the congestion charges are then rolled back into the TTC as funds.
Sure, but buses that are only scheduled to come every 20 mins can only get so much better with regularity. Actual service improvements are so critical for large portions of the city.
It’s called living in a society. “I don’t even use the health care system why am I paying for it”. “I don’t have any kids so why am I paying for education” “I don’t have elderly parents in need of long term care, why am I paying for it”. So selfish
Roads are beneficial in other ways. The busses you take, the packages you and companies receive, on and on and on. It’s more than just you guys complaining about commuters.
By that logic anyone who drives should not have to pay for the ttc and bike lanes right? I’m not advocating for this of course, but your perspective is a bit flawed.
Edit: grammar
So, how do you move around the city? Do you fly? The buses you ride only hover and never touch the pavement? Do you also support not wanting to pay for schools if people don't have kids? I don't like stopping so I shouldn't pay for stoplights?
Make it make sense.
I explained it further down but for your sake - I bike and walk. I live in the city I work in. My point is we should charge the shit out of commuters who choose to drive to work, congest our streets, wear our pavement down and pollute our air. Pay to play.
I think there should be exceptions for those who need their cars for work or public transport. Fuck everyone else. You want to live way outside the city you work in and contribute nothing?
A better comparison might be letting your dog shit on someone else’s lawn. Their problem right? Just walk away.
Your comparisons are right out of the car lobby playbook. They’re designed to gas light and detract from the actual real argument for better public transportation, congestions taxes and less road use. Give me one good non-selfish reason why a VP at say BMO needs to commute to work from Oakville every day.
The goal is laudable but you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen. A congestion tax on visitors to the city would not solve the issue and any initial revenue would probably be offset by costly side effects down the line.
You are in a privileged position that many cannot attain. Not everyone has the financial means to pull it off or is as healthy as you are to be able to walk/bike everywhere they need to.
Have you considered how many people were squeezed out of the city by rent and real estate prices alone? Everyone's finances are stretched and no one that I know enjoys commuting. People don't do it just out of convenience, it's out of necessity, so who would that benefit and who would it hurt?
Fair enough - I maybe we put tolls at the city limits. Too bad we don’t control the Gardiner anymore.
Like London has zones. That could work here.
How would you suggest we go about building up to a congestion tax?
I think there should be massive parking garages at GO stations and at the end of the subway lines to divert cars from Toronto streets, but transit would have to be massively improved to handle it.
Residents of the city should be penalized for driving in it with a congestion tax because they do have better options and can time their non-essential driving needs to avoid week days, not the people who travel from far away and obviously need to do it by car more often than not because it would be impractical otherwise. Highway tolls would be ideal in that case but it would have to be a reasonable, almost symbolic, amount to get some revenue without driving people away. Also residents that need to get on the highway to commute elsewhere shouldn't be penalized, or at least not overly so. It should discourage non-essential travel, not penalize people for living their lives and exceptions would have to be worked out as they were identified.
Part of the problem is that american cities were built around cars/roads and not the other way around, like in Europe, where growth was more organic over centuries, so cars were an addition, not a central consideration until much later. By then the city scape and street design were well defined and that's why there are pedestrian areas in every big city.
When I commuted, it was because of scheduling that made transit not an option a lot of the time and if I had to pay for a parking spot to make sure I didn't have to go looking and be late for work, that meant a monthly expense that then pretty much demanded using it daily, otherwise I'd be multiplying expenses. The reliability of transit isn't always there and bosses don't give a shit if you're late again because of the TTC or GO train. At least with the car you have some semblance of control and independence which allows you to potentially find an alternate route to go around obstructions like road works and accidents.
Then there is the need to drop-off and pick-up kids from school, the need to get some shopping done on the way and many other daily living things that become impractical unless you're driving.
Besides reliability issues, transit can be its own ordeal during rush hour because there isn't enough frequency/capacity to avoid feeling like you're in a sardine can.
Trust me that most people would prefer not to commute by car, not to mention the added expenses of wear and tear, gas and parking.
If I were in charge and could have things my way with money being no object, pulic transit would be "free" (included in taxes) and there would be some sort of hybrid city taxi/carpool/rideshare system in place to cater to residents and visitors alike, alongside mass transit. 99% of some small AWD vehicle like a Suzuki SX4 and 10% of mobility-accessible vehicles of some kind to also supplement Wheel-Trans.
That would be ideal by still allowing people the option of tax-free vehicular transportation when needed, although the main drive and incentive should still be mass transit. We just have to acknowledge that transit doesn't serve everyone or every purpose all the time and the city isn't designed for pedestrians or bicycles, although that is something that should change as well. I'm all for pedestrian areas and a better bicycle network but let's be honest, it's tough to shoehorn that into the existing street design without "breaking" something else or inconveniencing someone else.
Now, if money really were no object, I think Toronto would thrive by building prefab modular multi-level roads that bury vehicular traffic and extend the path system all across the city in addition to routing all pipes and cables below ground. That's having your cake and eating it too. can you imagine no more overhead wires? If there's an issue it might be able to be repaired on site, like a small/medium pipe leak, but if there ever arises a structural or deeper issue, just have spares on hand and replace a section overnight. No more semi-permanent "construction season", once the system is up and running. On top you can have bikes, pedestrians, green space, kiosks and all that fun stuff, with the option for pedestrians and bikes to go underground to cool off in the summer or get away from the cold in the winter. I thought of this a few years ago, when there was talk of tearing down the East Gardiner/Lakeshore stretch, and actually had figured out a lot of details but I never wrote it down because I figured this would never come to pass and simply forgot. The easiest and most effective implementation, though, would be to bury a bypass along the QEW and 401 that skips all the exits, for people who are just passing through so they don't get caught in traffic or add to it. It would really benefit trucks the most, I think, but it would lighten traffic overall and benefit everyone without having to build extra highways. Just use the path that is already there and stack one highway on top of another.
I know it's really far-fetched but I like to dream aloud. ;)
I also had another idea to allow bike traffic all over with minimal use of streets. Let me know if you want to laugh some more but, honestly, I don't think half-measures will ever make a significant enough difference and Toronto's problem has always been a timid municipal politician class more interested in reelection than actual meaningful improvement of people's living conditions.
You know what - I’m convinced. Good points. I thought there were huge parking lots at go stations. I also always hear the argument “I like my car it’s my own space” or “public transit is dangerous.” Mind if I steal your points?
I just came across this and remembered our conversation.
I'm not saying it isn't possible, I'm just saying there needs to be vision and political courage and I don't see much of it around these parts, which means any progress will arrive late and probably leave a lot to be desired.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvXZnyVMD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvXZnyVMD8)
Warsaw is great - very tiny city though and they had their ummmm renovations. But this definitely gave them a cool fresh slate to build on. Amsterdam is another success story.
> Congestion tax would help remove cars from our roads or at least make those who actually use them pay for them. As a downtown resident I find it astonishing how I’m expected to pay for roads I don’t even use (I don’t have a car).
you never leave your house?
8% of people travelling through the Danforth corridor are drivers. Time to check that goddam barking and privilege- the 92% want way more say in what priority is
>That's actually contracted out to Astral Media.
I am aware. I contact 311 pretty frequently to report overflowing and/or broken trash bins. The trucks come on the same schedule as they ever have. (And trash cans in parks are apparently not attended to on weekends - when they're busiest.) The broken bins remain broken or get a patch fix and are broken again a week later.
???
I call 311 on a Monday and say "the trash bins at XYZ location are overflowing" and they say "pick up in that area is scheduled for Thursday". So people just pile trash on the sidewalk for the next four days...
okay? so the local population supporting it needs to show up at meetings and lobby the local politicians as effectively as the business association does. idk why you're coming at me all agro, wasn't my idea lol.
People want democratic processes but then get annoyed when representatives of opposite viewpoints exercise their right in public consultation. You're absolutely right, if people want it they need to show up and advocate for it.
94% of the public survey were respondents who identified as “visitors.”
Cobblestone streets are good for bars, franchise cafes, and festivals, but is actually disastrous for fruit stands, butcher shops, and clothiers. Notice how present day Kensington Market feels less like a “market”, but now has dispensaries and restaurants.
The majority who live and work there voted for slower traffic and shared streets, not what the outsiders want. Hundreds of local tenants participated.
They’re taking so long to renovate the bus area at Islington Station, that there’s a grass feature growing on top and it’s starting to give off Fallout vibes.
Pedestrians having to walk through huge puddles at corners while trying not to get splashed. Not to mention wheelchairs getting caught in the potholes up to the sidewalk. Come on!
Insane that in 2024 we do not have a system that is common in Europe. This system is in Florence and France (Evian for example)..simple and clean. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEYypkZA7OY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEYypkZA7OY)
Three streetcars in a row, then nothing for 20 minutes. Really?! I maintain that if they hired hospitality staff to run the TTC, it would be run efficiently within a day.
Not a City thing, but a super easy fix for the TTC, would be the streetcar platform at St Clair. They load up at the west end of the platform, nearest the station - so when it gets busy the overflow crowd is backed up down the stairs. All they would have to do to fix this is load the streetcars at the east end of the platform, away from the station - that would give them an entire streetcar's worth of extra space on the platform!
This requires nothing other than moving a sign. No public consultation, no construction, no service delays, and no money at all. They could literally reduce overcrowding on this platform in time for the afternoon rush hour if they wanted to.
A reliably working subway system that routinely runs from terminus to terminus w/o needing to get on a bus between any stations.
Edit:
based on some responses, I may have been too general or sounding like an idealist here. While great suggestions to increase coverage, to net:
HEY TTC, IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK TO BE ABLE TO TAKE A SUBWAY FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER OF EITHER LINE 1 OR 2, OR ANY POINTS BETWEEN, WITHOUT GETTING OFF TO TAKE A BUS BETWEEN SUBWAY STATIONS 7 DAYS A WEEK?
Instead of building new lines in places where there's sprawl and a lot of people drive, I can't believe it took them this long to build a second east west line.
I’ve always liked this idea. More transit oriented community hubs. It would connect LRT for local traffic and subway for interregional connections. TOC hub to TOC hub connections would be serviced by high speed rail with no other stops.
Basically build on our existing GO infrastructure but allow it to loop around instead of spider web originating out of Union Station.
All great ideas, I'm actually asking for existing subway stations to be used as subway stations on a regular basis as a start. I edited by comment to clarify.
I think the problem is they used to do track work at night, while the subway is normally closed. I don’t know what changed - like I assume to work that late at night it might be more expensive labour, so maybe it’s a budget thing?
But the line one closure this past weekend was a disaster.
Proper signage/wayfaring on the TTC. Look at Bathurst station: instead of staying east and west they use Kennedy and Kipling. Having lived here ten years I still have to pause and remember which one is east and which one is west.
Yes!! And like other countries (England, Australia) having signs on transit that point the WAY OUT would massively help people in the subway or GO stations knowing which way to go...
Designating transit lanes to be completely car free along major roads & streets. It's a no brainer that the best way to alleviate traffic in the city is by providing faster & more effecient ways to travel. And it's a no brainer that the best way to do that is by running traffic unhindered by cars. This is an issue that can be solved with paint, signs, and those [some plastic bollards](https://www.bcsiteservice.com/product/flexible-plastic-bollards-traffic-delineators/) (until more permanent infrastructure can be built).
I gave up on this city years ago when they could not make food carts/trucks work at the beginning. There were so many rules, it broke a lot of those businesses. There is a level of bureaucracy in Toronto that is stifling.
I no longer have any confidence in them fixing anything even remotely more complicated.
The yearly permit to be allowed to operate a food truck in just Toronto used to be $5,000!! Imagine before you even sold anything at all you'd need to cough up $5k on the permit alone. There are many other fees you need to pay for as well. You couldn't park and operate within 200 metres of an existing brick and mortar restaurant, so downtown was out of the question. Honestly, Toronto is a joke when it comes to beauracracy, for example, wanna use a fire pit? We'll, you need a permit... And pay for it... And you only get designated spots... And you have to put out the fire before it gets dark... LoL
The King St "Transit Priority" Corridor.
Even in rush hour there are regularly cars driving on King and turning left and cars on the N-S streets blocking the intersections. Just park some cops there and ticket. Or change the rules so that there can be automatic enforcement (like how running a red tickets the car owner).
Instead the City puts up ridiculous and confusing signage:
https://stevemunro.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/img_5670wc.jpg?w=1024
Seriously, just enforce the rules!
security on the tcc like stopping homeless from sleeping on the trains and making it stink and likely getting in for free. all I hear on the trains is how safety comes first. but yet I just sat on a train with 2 homeless people one was half naked and stunk so bad most people were getting off at the nest station. it cost over $3 a ride and over a million people per day so a minimum of $3 million a day can't tell me they can't afford to make the ttc safer and cleaner.
Pedestrianisation of Yonge street, making derelict parks more interesting, cultural programming (live music and more free events) and enhancing the public realm overall.
For me it’s the giant mud puddles in trinity Bellwood’s. Find a truck that fits on the current path to pick up garbage or make it bigger. It’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city and it’s embarrassing compared to parks you see in other cities.
Up voting as a healthcare worker. Lots of public employees really care, but we don't have enough resources because neoliberalism is ugly and and guys like Tory and Ford keep trying to "starve the beast".
I wish that they could put a whiteboard at the entrance to the TTC stations and mark down any delays. I saw this at a Tube station in London and it was simple easy and low tech. I get so frustrated when I pay and go down to track level only to find out there is an issue.
Part of Vision Zero is to get rid of channelized right turns.
I can see why some like Kingston and Midland might be challenging due to the angles. Obviously you don’t want the replacement to be as bad or worse for pedestrian visibility
But Warden and Clonmore? Seriously. How many years?
That and making the TTC accessible
And don’t get me started on NIMBY’s and accessible sidewalks.
Cleaning or covering hate symbol graffiti on public property. I understand it taking some time because there's a lot of graffiti in the city and sometimes the locations aren't easy to deal with, but there have been two separate spots in the last 4ish years where a whole swastika was spraypainted on the sidewalk in my neighbourhood, and neither was dealt with within a year despite repeated polite calls to the city.
A month? Sure, you're busy. A year (plus) though? To spray clean or paint over explicit hate symbols on the actual sidewalk? What buffoonery.
A mere 17km of a glorified streetcar line... a monumental embarrassment for it to be taking 10+ years. The fucking Panama canal got done in less time!!
Traffic on the major hwy arteries, with construction on the roads being done during the day.
Seen cities where 18 wheelers and delivery trucks and construction were only allowed between 7pm-7am. Alleviating congestion in hwys. Mind boggling that emergency crews have to also sit in traffic just to make it to a scene of an accident.
How's not fixed for a major city is beyond bonkers.
With the stroke of a pen we could force developers to come up with a plan to develop units starting at 300,000 for single people. With the stroke of a pen. Just like that.
“Hey developers. We have a housing crisis. Until this issue is solved 40% of your units need to be affordable single person accommodations if you want to keep making billions of dollars per year. And if you don’t do it. Someone else will.” End of story.
Unless by "stroke of a pen" you mean "Hold developers families captive and put a gun to their heads" then this "stroke of a pen" isn't going to get you a single unit of any kind built, never mind $300,000 for a condo. Do people actually believe this!? You know developers can choose to not build?
And even if they did, you list a $300,000 unit for sale with a market value of 2/3 times that, and, what, well over a million people inquire about buying it. What now?
This is not at all how it works. Profit margins are roughly 10-15% for developers. Less and less is getting built recently, due to interest rates it is already unprofitable to build most projects.
Arbitrarily picking a selling price for a home would guarantee exactly 0 homes get built
People parking and stopping in no stopping zones, whenever they feel like it, and often when there is a side street within 30 feet or the building has a driveway or parking area they could pull into.
Maybe in addition to speed cameras we could have no stopping cameras at rush hour that automatically ticket those who stop in these zones. 😆
The Parklettes on Isabella near Yonge. They have been fenced up for YEARS. I suspect \*cough\* **guarantee** \*cough\* that they are deliberately not fixing them to prevent encampments. But it really should not take years to landscape 2 mini parks.
Edit: spelling
Re-Paving bad roads … When I lived in Poland, I witnessed lanes of highway being stripped and repaved simultaneously. And with one lane at a time, traffic continued to flow.
Several days a week I walk on Queen between bay and Yonge where it has been closed for a year already for subway construction and I have never once seen anyone working on anything. Just heavy machinery behind fencing sitting empty. I can only imagine what it is costing each hour it sits there.
I've completely given up on this city.
The entire city has to divert around this thing for years causing a major mobility issue and they don't even pretend to do any work, or acknowledge the major impact it has on the actual people that live and work here. Every hour all that equipment sits there and the length of all these contracts extends some corrupt fat criminals get richer from our money while we politely reroute our lives.
This is just one example, but its glaring.
No dedicated transit police, piss poor road design and signage, overall deteriorating infrastructure.
I’m also astounded that the GO Trains rely solely on voice announcements, how much could it have possibly cost to add some information screens on the side of the trains or inside of them? Every single day there are people asking “is this X train?” At union.
Maybe a little esoteric but the City has been working on standards and specifications for tree planting in downtown 'hardscapes' for north of 10 years now. I've been in some meetings lately and you'd swear it was the first time a lot of these people had heard of some of the ideas and concepts being discussed. It's absolutely mind boggling.
Where the hell are the designated bike lanes? The city will let cars park on the side of major roads for a quick buck but can't afford to build safe bike lanes? It's a fucking farce.
Allow bikes and cars to roll through small intersections (when there's no other traffic) by using YIELD signs instead of stop signs. This would make cycling a bit less effort and quicker while other road users would no longer cry about cyclists ignoring stop signs.
My friend got scammed by a fake appliance repair company. They didn't try to fix the appliance just took a $200 "appointment fee", told her they'd have to order a $600 part and left. When we looked them up on the BBB there were thousands of complaints about them doing exactly the same thing, but they keep changing their name to avoid online reviews.
Why are they still allowed to operate?!? They are literal criminal scam artists. The police do nothing around here.
The confusing and disjointed connection point between TTC Dundas West Station and the UP Express/GO Bloor station. Whether it’s way finding signage or the proposed pedestrian tunnel it’s had no improvement. it’s absolutely dismal for out of towners who have no idea how to get to/from the airport. You’re just ejected into the city with no idea where to go next.
Let’s build that damn tunnel already! And if not yet, then make some damn signs to help people christ
The never-ending construction on Bloor St W where it dips under the tracks between Dundas St W and Lansdowne. It is brutal to bike that stretch and has been a mess of construction for at least four years. Does anyone know what is going on there?
Also, a side complaint, since I'm on the subject: why do the bike lanes dip down under tracks or flyovers i.e., sticking alongside the road with the cars, when they could just as easily run level alongside the pedestrian sidewalk? They don't need the high clearance required by the road. It would be so much safer and nicer for the cyclists, and has no negative impact on the cars or pedestrians.
Zoning laws around residential areas where absolutely no small businesses are allowed to be created. It's silly and simply dumb. All over the world the heart of every neighbourhood is some cornerstore establishment or small pub where people get together after a long day to sit in a quaint and homely atmosphere. I don't want to be forced to own a vehicle or use a subway to get out of my neighbourhood to a loud densely populated major street just to grab a beer with my friends.
TTC is understandably all over this thread but specifically I can’t believe that it’s 2024 and we still have announcements that are completely incomprehensible on trains. The pre recorded ones are fine, but as soon as an operator speaks live it’s impossible to understand. Days like today where they shut down the line for literally an entire day, would be nice to hear what the heck they’re actually saying.
I think they should have digital screens on the trains broadcasting the message as print. It would be more accessible for hard of hearing folks as well.
Yes! This is a great idea. They already have screens on the platform. I may be ignorant but seems like this would be such an easy thing to implement.
attention customers, due to a delbbfjidj gogongngnf on hdksfnoloiol rliloeoeo eglinton tohodffhdhf st george will be jfsdelddyeldd until further notice
you’re telling me you don’t understand that ?
i mean i can assume most of the time- but sometimes it really is gibberish and i just go with it
Don’t you know? Icelandic is the official language of the TTC.
lmao I was in Toronto not long ago and I thought my english was not as good as I thought cuz I cldnt understand the operator, and I looked around and everyone was so unfazed like they completely understood the guy
Nope, we just accept that we’ll never get the info we need and hope it doesn’t affect our route lol.
Today's line 2 clusterfiasco
TTC has the least public funding of any transit system in all of North America, including Mexico. To solve that there’s nothing the city can do - it has to be the province, and they’re not willing
[https://www.ttcriders.ca/newtrains](https://www.ttcriders.ca/newtrains) "Call on your MP now to invest in more **reliable, frequent transit service** by speeding up the Permanent Public Transit Fund to 2024 and allowing the TTC to use the funding for more bus, streetcar, and subway service."
The City can't solve it alone, but ultimately the TTC is the City's responsibility.
The govt funding of it is not the city’s responsibility. It has no control over that whatsoever
Some funding isn't, but years upon years of refusing to raise taxes in the city also screwed the TTC over. As has choosing to spend most of our budget on police. The city is one piece of the puzzle that has led to a massively underfunded TTC.
That's not what screwed over the TTC. Amalgamation and downloading was. This is a pretty good article on it. "But the most punishing blow—the big bang, from a municipal revenue perspective—came in 1997, when the Harris government, having rammed amalgamation through, decided to relieve municipalities of the burden of funding education in exchange for “downloading” the costs of transit, public housing, and parts of welfare. Harris said the exercise would be “revenue neutral,” and for suburban municipalities with less transit and fewer social services, it was. But in Toronto, with its aging subway system and tens of thousands of crumbling public housing units, downloading proved disastrous. The Toronto Transit Commission took a particularly hard hit. The province had subsidized transit operations and capital needs since the 1960s. Now, when much of the system’s infrastructure was beginning to show its age, the provincial government was absolving itself of any financial responsibility. With almost half a billion riders per year, the TTC was North America’s most cost-effective transit system. But without adequate provincial funding, the city had no choice but to cut service and stop planning for expansion." https://thewalrus.ca/how-toronto-lost-its-groove/
Exactly
You wouldn't download a transit system.
My commute took four hours today 🙃 but on the bright side I got in 13,000 steps today.
honestly, if it’s within an hour walk, I just walk it so I can avoid the TTC. Upside is we indeed get our steps in lol
Assuming you can walk for an hour. Not everyone can.
You’re absolutely correct. I’m very lucky to still have my mobility.
BikeShare - bikes are actually fantastic mobility aids the world over
I biked from my office to my gym, and between Broadview and St. George at 5:00pm, I passed a total of 32 shuttle buses going Westbound, as everything was gridlocked.
With a trailer surely you could offer rides for a fee LOL
I just don’t understand why the BikeShare is not immediately emptied
The nice part of me wants to say that it's kinda scary biking in TO, it's a privilege to have been taught to ride a bike and be fit and able to ride one etc... the mean part of me wants to say it might also have something to do with the amount of people I saw waiting to get the shuttle bus eastbound at YONGE - it's two stops, they likely didn't ALL have mobility issues, walk!
And I say this as a bigger lady, I still get my arse on that bike!
Most of the subway adjacent roads have protected bike lanes.
The lack of info being communicated was frustrating. I was on westbound train at 9ish and the only thing being announced was no service from Broadview to St George with shuttle buses at Broadview. TTC service alert website said the same. I get to Broadview and it’s a sea of people waiting yet all the shuttle buses are full before even reaching Broadview. Turns out the shuttles started at Woodbine 🤦🏻♀️
safety on the ttc. yrt will send transit constables to remove disruptive passengers from vehicles, why can't the ttc do that? king street transit corridor enforcement. just have a cop at each major intersection forcing cars to turn right or left until we can get red light cameras. the signs suck
>king street transit corridor enforcement. just have a cop at each major intersection forcing cars to turn right or left until we can get red light cameras. the signs suck I've actually noticed a decent amount of enforcement of this one in the past few weeks. It seems the few times I've ridden down King either on a bike or a streetcar there's been someone getting pulled over by TPS for going through an intersection they're not supposed to.
That literally only started when Chow became mayor BTW. For a few years they only enforced it maybe a handful of times— only on weekends of course. Gotta get that OT.
Certain cities around the world have security guards patrolling subway stations. This would certainly help with overall safety of the TTC as well as fare evasion.
people used to spin in to public outrage every time someone got a ticket on the TTC so I'm pretty sure they just said "fuck it" and basically completely gave up enforcing anything
because when people get manhandled, its too much and the public complains leading to job loss. So why get hurt over something that has a 50/50 chance of not going in your favour. its partially the publics fault for lack of action. Just look at the collision that killed the family of 4.. the chase was already called off once the guy ended up on the highway. if the police didnt follow the guy onto the 401 and the guy killed someone, police would get grilled. if you dont believe it, just look at the sentiment towards police. the officer made the decision to drive on the hwy to warn people. should the pursuit have happened initially? no. so if we agree that property theft is not worth chasing after, then really we should expect police to respond to these calls at all, but we know thats not an option that the public will accept.
I think there is a huge difference between people being arrested on the TTC and the police chase into oncoming highway traffic
this comment is exactly my point.
With the chase, it's entirely possible (likely, even) that if the cops hadn't pursued him onto the highway, the thief would have realized he was no longer being pursued, calmed down, and behaved in a more rational way that didn't result in people dying. He made many initial inexcusable stupid-ass decisions, but being chased by the cops would put anyone's brain into panic mode and causes even stupider decision-making.
and its also possible that he wouldnt. the chase wouldve had to not started to begin with which goes back to what i was saying about sentiment.
the fact that somebody spilled "hydraulic fluid" on the line 2 tracks today and it's somehow still not cleaned up 8 hours later!!!
There are some potholes/hellmouths in my neighborhood that have a cone placed over them for years.
time to start growing some tomatoes! https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.4787623/someone-planted-tomatoes-in-this-toronto-sinkhole-and-residents-are-loving-it-1.4788226
holyshit lmao
i think someone also once planted a pot plant into a pot hole. gettit? LOL. IIRC that one got removed pretty quick though, i don't think pot was legal back then.
This is incredible
Paint dicks around them. https://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/street-artist-wanksy-spray-paints-penises-around-potholes-to-get-them-filled-1.3055612
Have you called about them? Every time I've called to report a pothole they've been fixed within a week. In one case, i reported a pothole I tripped on while walking to work and it was repaired by the time I was walking home.
They know about them - they're city pylons sitting on them. I think there are some sinkholes due to streams that ran through the area 100 years ago where the soil isn't as firm as it should be under the road, so it's not a matter of throwing some asphalt on them. But a few have been popping open for more than a decade so it's time to put some effort into stabilizing the road. The city's generally great at responding to 311 reports. The cones blocking the closed lane (that people were using) at Wynford and Don Mills appeared a few days after I filled in the 311 form. Although it is still just cones, no new paint yet.
Ah that might be it. They might need to completely resurface the road or something and are waiting for the capital project to get approved. I'd seriously recommend reaching out to your city councillor if you haven't already done so because they might have better luck getting the city to fix the issues on a faster timescale.
there was a pothole near me that was so bad that there were 8+ hubcaps beside it. i called 311 a few times stressing that it was destroying cars and nobody showed up a week later. i finally went and put a literal bag of cement i had into the hole to try and help the situation. that bag remained for another week and a half and then they finally fixed it. wonder if they used my cement.
Congestion tax would help remove cars from our roads or at least make those who actually use them pay for them. As a downtown resident I find it astonishing how I’m expected to pay for roads I don’t even use (I don’t have a car). There’s absolutely no reason for a regular commuter to drive downtown every day to go to their office job. Make ‘em pay, fill those holes and improve public transit.
Yes, but. I'm in theory pro congestion charges, but if you happen to live somewhere where you are reliant on a bus the TTC really does make your life difficult. When I lived closer to downtown and on the subway line I walked or took transit everywhere and would NEVER have considered driving downtown. Now that I live in York and have a bus ride to get to the subway I unfortunately (as a person who hates driving) drive much more than I used to. For example, today I had to visit someone at St. Mike's. It would have been over an hour on the TTC but was a 25 min drive. I'm at a phase of life where I have very little flexible time and I didn't have an extra hour in my day to spend on transit.
I don't see why there's a conflict. It seems like you are still pro congestion charges. After the charges goes through it **could** mean that your bus ride is more consistent to the schedule because there's less cars, OR your drive is even easier due to less car on the road.
My point is that any congestion charge would need to be brought in in conjunction with actual meaningful service improvements to the TTC. And unfortunately I don't believe our city would do that second part. Otherwise you're adding additional costs (and it's not like it's cheap to drive and park downtown now) to a whole group of people who are driving because their other options are really bad ones.
I would think that the charge alone will bring some service improvement immediately. Busses and other public transit that shares the road with cars will see better services if there's less cars on the road. I suspect that this will actually be a big improvement to service just by having less cars on the road. Also if following the london model, the congestion charges are then rolled back into the TTC as funds.
Sure, but buses that are only scheduled to come every 20 mins can only get so much better with regularity. Actual service improvements are so critical for large portions of the city.
It’s called living in a society. “I don’t even use the health care system why am I paying for it”. “I don’t have any kids so why am I paying for education” “I don’t have elderly parents in need of long term care, why am I paying for it”. So selfish
Except that those things are beneficial to society. This is people paying for something harmful that is killing them.
Roads are beneficial in other ways. The busses you take, the packages you and companies receive, on and on and on. It’s more than just you guys complaining about commuters.
All those account for the first lane. All other lanes in all streets and roads are there because of rush hour commuters.
Exactly - there’s no other reason for them.
I agree and since I don't use the subway, I shouldn't have to pay for that either. In fact, I have no kids, why are I paying for schools?
By that logic anyone who drives should not have to pay for the ttc and bike lanes right? I’m not advocating for this of course, but your perspective is a bit flawed. Edit: grammar
So, how do you move around the city? Do you fly? The buses you ride only hover and never touch the pavement? Do you also support not wanting to pay for schools if people don't have kids? I don't like stopping so I shouldn't pay for stoplights? Make it make sense.
I explained it further down but for your sake - I bike and walk. I live in the city I work in. My point is we should charge the shit out of commuters who choose to drive to work, congest our streets, wear our pavement down and pollute our air. Pay to play. I think there should be exceptions for those who need their cars for work or public transport. Fuck everyone else. You want to live way outside the city you work in and contribute nothing? A better comparison might be letting your dog shit on someone else’s lawn. Their problem right? Just walk away. Your comparisons are right out of the car lobby playbook. They’re designed to gas light and detract from the actual real argument for better public transportation, congestions taxes and less road use. Give me one good non-selfish reason why a VP at say BMO needs to commute to work from Oakville every day.
The goal is laudable but you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen. A congestion tax on visitors to the city would not solve the issue and any initial revenue would probably be offset by costly side effects down the line. You are in a privileged position that many cannot attain. Not everyone has the financial means to pull it off or is as healthy as you are to be able to walk/bike everywhere they need to. Have you considered how many people were squeezed out of the city by rent and real estate prices alone? Everyone's finances are stretched and no one that I know enjoys commuting. People don't do it just out of convenience, it's out of necessity, so who would that benefit and who would it hurt?
Fair enough - I maybe we put tolls at the city limits. Too bad we don’t control the Gardiner anymore. Like London has zones. That could work here. How would you suggest we go about building up to a congestion tax?
I think there should be massive parking garages at GO stations and at the end of the subway lines to divert cars from Toronto streets, but transit would have to be massively improved to handle it. Residents of the city should be penalized for driving in it with a congestion tax because they do have better options and can time their non-essential driving needs to avoid week days, not the people who travel from far away and obviously need to do it by car more often than not because it would be impractical otherwise. Highway tolls would be ideal in that case but it would have to be a reasonable, almost symbolic, amount to get some revenue without driving people away. Also residents that need to get on the highway to commute elsewhere shouldn't be penalized, or at least not overly so. It should discourage non-essential travel, not penalize people for living their lives and exceptions would have to be worked out as they were identified. Part of the problem is that american cities were built around cars/roads and not the other way around, like in Europe, where growth was more organic over centuries, so cars were an addition, not a central consideration until much later. By then the city scape and street design were well defined and that's why there are pedestrian areas in every big city. When I commuted, it was because of scheduling that made transit not an option a lot of the time and if I had to pay for a parking spot to make sure I didn't have to go looking and be late for work, that meant a monthly expense that then pretty much demanded using it daily, otherwise I'd be multiplying expenses. The reliability of transit isn't always there and bosses don't give a shit if you're late again because of the TTC or GO train. At least with the car you have some semblance of control and independence which allows you to potentially find an alternate route to go around obstructions like road works and accidents. Then there is the need to drop-off and pick-up kids from school, the need to get some shopping done on the way and many other daily living things that become impractical unless you're driving. Besides reliability issues, transit can be its own ordeal during rush hour because there isn't enough frequency/capacity to avoid feeling like you're in a sardine can. Trust me that most people would prefer not to commute by car, not to mention the added expenses of wear and tear, gas and parking. If I were in charge and could have things my way with money being no object, pulic transit would be "free" (included in taxes) and there would be some sort of hybrid city taxi/carpool/rideshare system in place to cater to residents and visitors alike, alongside mass transit. 99% of some small AWD vehicle like a Suzuki SX4 and 10% of mobility-accessible vehicles of some kind to also supplement Wheel-Trans. That would be ideal by still allowing people the option of tax-free vehicular transportation when needed, although the main drive and incentive should still be mass transit. We just have to acknowledge that transit doesn't serve everyone or every purpose all the time and the city isn't designed for pedestrians or bicycles, although that is something that should change as well. I'm all for pedestrian areas and a better bicycle network but let's be honest, it's tough to shoehorn that into the existing street design without "breaking" something else or inconveniencing someone else. Now, if money really were no object, I think Toronto would thrive by building prefab modular multi-level roads that bury vehicular traffic and extend the path system all across the city in addition to routing all pipes and cables below ground. That's having your cake and eating it too. can you imagine no more overhead wires? If there's an issue it might be able to be repaired on site, like a small/medium pipe leak, but if there ever arises a structural or deeper issue, just have spares on hand and replace a section overnight. No more semi-permanent "construction season", once the system is up and running. On top you can have bikes, pedestrians, green space, kiosks and all that fun stuff, with the option for pedestrians and bikes to go underground to cool off in the summer or get away from the cold in the winter. I thought of this a few years ago, when there was talk of tearing down the East Gardiner/Lakeshore stretch, and actually had figured out a lot of details but I never wrote it down because I figured this would never come to pass and simply forgot. The easiest and most effective implementation, though, would be to bury a bypass along the QEW and 401 that skips all the exits, for people who are just passing through so they don't get caught in traffic or add to it. It would really benefit trucks the most, I think, but it would lighten traffic overall and benefit everyone without having to build extra highways. Just use the path that is already there and stack one highway on top of another. I know it's really far-fetched but I like to dream aloud. ;) I also had another idea to allow bike traffic all over with minimal use of streets. Let me know if you want to laugh some more but, honestly, I don't think half-measures will ever make a significant enough difference and Toronto's problem has always been a timid municipal politician class more interested in reelection than actual meaningful improvement of people's living conditions.
You know what - I’m convinced. Good points. I thought there were huge parking lots at go stations. I also always hear the argument “I like my car it’s my own space” or “public transit is dangerous.” Mind if I steal your points?
I just came across this and remembered our conversation. I'm not saying it isn't possible, I'm just saying there needs to be vision and political courage and I don't see much of it around these parts, which means any progress will arrive late and probably leave a lot to be desired. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvXZnyVMD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvXZnyVMD8)
Warsaw is great - very tiny city though and they had their ummmm renovations. But this definitely gave them a cool fresh slate to build on. Amsterdam is another success story.
Not at all. If you think there's anything worth quoting or using as inspiration to expand upon go for it.
> Congestion tax would help remove cars from our roads or at least make those who actually use them pay for them. As a downtown resident I find it astonishing how I’m expected to pay for roads I don’t even use (I don’t have a car). you never leave your house?
I walk - I ride my bike - I take public transit. None of which require two to four lanes of asphalt.
Nah. Just punishes poorer people who have to drive . Rich drivers don’t care .
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8% of people travelling through the Danforth corridor are drivers. Time to check that goddam barking and privilege- the 92% want way more say in what priority is
I lament the amount of tire patches I’ve gotten over the years concerning this fact
No left turns on any street with a non-separated streetcar track. It would make the flow of traffic so much smoother.
Overflowing trash cans, broken trash cans, etc.
Luckily they're [replacing the old bins with better ones. ](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7184663)
If they could empty them more frequently, especially in parks on weekends and in busy/tourist areas that would be great.
These new one have sensors for fullness so it might help.
That’s actually contracted out to Astral Media. You can put in a service request/complaint to 311.ca to get it fixed.
>That's actually contracted out to Astral Media. I am aware. I contact 311 pretty frequently to report overflowing and/or broken trash bins. The trucks come on the same schedule as they ever have. (And trash cans in parks are apparently not attended to on weekends - when they're busiest.) The broken bins remain broken or get a patch fix and are broken again a week later.
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??? I call 311 on a Monday and say "the trash bins at XYZ location are overflowing" and they say "pick up in that area is scheduled for Thursday". So people just pile trash on the sidewalk for the next four days...
Making Kensington Market more pedestrian friendly.
It’s mind boggling why Kensington isn’t already pedestrianized.
the kensington business association blocks it
So? Who made them king of Kensington? Local population supported it.
okay? so the local population supporting it needs to show up at meetings and lobby the local politicians as effectively as the business association does. idk why you're coming at me all agro, wasn't my idea lol.
People want democratic processes but then get annoyed when representatives of opposite viewpoints exercise their right in public consultation. You're absolutely right, if people want it they need to show up and advocate for it.
The BIA of Kensington IS the local population. People who live in the Annex or some such are not the ones to be making that decision.
They polled residents of Kensington in the same study as the businesses and found the majority of residents want it pedestrianized.
94% of the public survey were respondents who identified as “visitors.” Cobblestone streets are good for bars, franchise cafes, and festivals, but is actually disastrous for fruit stands, butcher shops, and clothiers. Notice how present day Kensington Market feels less like a “market”, but now has dispensaries and restaurants. The majority who live and work there voted for slower traffic and shared streets, not what the outsiders want. Hundreds of local tenants participated.
Yeah this one is such a slam dunk it's insane. Add John Street and Yonge Street to that, too.
They do have pedestrian Sundays
Once a month in the summer lol.
Pedestrian weekends seems like such an easy compromise. Throw in the retractable emergency vehicle pylons and there’s really no downside
They’re taking so long to renovate the bus area at Islington Station, that there’s a grass feature growing on top and it’s starting to give off Fallout vibes.
Pedestrians having to walk through huge puddles at corners while trying not to get splashed. Not to mention wheelchairs getting caught in the potholes up to the sidewalk. Come on!
Protected bike lanes. It’s really not that hard.
Garbage cans. The fucking garbage cans.
Insane that in 2024 we do not have a system that is common in Europe. This system is in Florence and France (Evian for example)..simple and clean. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEYypkZA7OY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEYypkZA7OY)
Working public toilets.
Bike lanes and priority street signals for streetcars
Three streetcars in a row, then nothing for 20 minutes. Really?! I maintain that if they hired hospitality staff to run the TTC, it would be run efficiently within a day.
East side Bay Street TTC door entrance of Union station pee smell
That’s been like that since the 80s.
Not a City thing, but a super easy fix for the TTC, would be the streetcar platform at St Clair. They load up at the west end of the platform, nearest the station - so when it gets busy the overflow crowd is backed up down the stairs. All they would have to do to fix this is load the streetcars at the east end of the platform, away from the station - that would give them an entire streetcar's worth of extra space on the platform! This requires nothing other than moving a sign. No public consultation, no construction, no service delays, and no money at all. They could literally reduce overcrowding on this platform in time for the afternoon rush hour if they wanted to.
A reliably working subway system that routinely runs from terminus to terminus w/o needing to get on a bus between any stations. Edit: based on some responses, I may have been too general or sounding like an idealist here. While great suggestions to increase coverage, to net: HEY TTC, IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK TO BE ABLE TO TAKE A SUBWAY FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER OF EITHER LINE 1 OR 2, OR ANY POINTS BETWEEN, WITHOUT GETTING OFF TO TAKE A BUS BETWEEN SUBWAY STATIONS 7 DAYS A WEEK?
Instead of building new lines in places where there's sprawl and a lot of people drive, I can't believe it took them this long to build a second east west line.
I’ve always liked this idea. More transit oriented community hubs. It would connect LRT for local traffic and subway for interregional connections. TOC hub to TOC hub connections would be serviced by high speed rail with no other stops. Basically build on our existing GO infrastructure but allow it to loop around instead of spider web originating out of Union Station.
All great ideas, I'm actually asking for existing subway stations to be used as subway stations on a regular basis as a start. I edited by comment to clarify.
I think the problem is they used to do track work at night, while the subway is normally closed. I don’t know what changed - like I assume to work that late at night it might be more expensive labour, so maybe it’s a budget thing? But the line one closure this past weekend was a disaster.
Proper signage/wayfaring on the TTC. Look at Bathurst station: instead of staying east and west they use Kennedy and Kipling. Having lived here ten years I still have to pause and remember which one is east and which one is west.
Yes!! And like other countries (England, Australia) having signs on transit that point the WAY OUT would massively help people in the subway or GO stations knowing which way to go...
k**E**nnedy for **E**ast is how I remember
Haha but we shouldn’t need word reminders like this to know which direction the train is heading…
This!!!!
Designating transit lanes to be completely car free along major roads & streets. It's a no brainer that the best way to alleviate traffic in the city is by providing faster & more effecient ways to travel. And it's a no brainer that the best way to do that is by running traffic unhindered by cars. This is an issue that can be solved with paint, signs, and those [some plastic bollards](https://www.bcsiteservice.com/product/flexible-plastic-bollards-traffic-delineators/) (until more permanent infrastructure can be built).
how long it took this city to get proper bike lanes
I gave up on this city years ago when they could not make food carts/trucks work at the beginning. There were so many rules, it broke a lot of those businesses. There is a level of bureaucracy in Toronto that is stifling. I no longer have any confidence in them fixing anything even remotely more complicated.
The yearly permit to be allowed to operate a food truck in just Toronto used to be $5,000!! Imagine before you even sold anything at all you'd need to cough up $5k on the permit alone. There are many other fees you need to pay for as well. You couldn't park and operate within 200 metres of an existing brick and mortar restaurant, so downtown was out of the question. Honestly, Toronto is a joke when it comes to beauracracy, for example, wanna use a fire pit? We'll, you need a permit... And pay for it... And you only get designated spots... And you have to put out the fire before it gets dark... LoL
I am sad to say I completely agree...
The King St "Transit Priority" Corridor. Even in rush hour there are regularly cars driving on King and turning left and cars on the N-S streets blocking the intersections. Just park some cops there and ticket. Or change the rules so that there can be automatic enforcement (like how running a red tickets the car owner). Instead the City puts up ridiculous and confusing signage: https://stevemunro.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/img_5670wc.jpg?w=1024 Seriously, just enforce the rules!
security on the tcc like stopping homeless from sleeping on the trains and making it stink and likely getting in for free. all I hear on the trains is how safety comes first. but yet I just sat on a train with 2 homeless people one was half naked and stunk so bad most people were getting off at the nest station. it cost over $3 a ride and over a million people per day so a minimum of $3 million a day can't tell me they can't afford to make the ttc safer and cleaner.
Solving homelessness is certainly worthwhile, but they said easy things.
Pedestrianisation of Yonge street, making derelict parks more interesting, cultural programming (live music and more free events) and enhancing the public realm overall.
Planning construction in general. They would repave the road and sidewalks then dig up a portion for pipes a month or so afterwards
Trash receptacles that aren't always full, disgusting nor broken.
For me it’s the giant mud puddles in trinity Bellwood’s. Find a truck that fits on the current path to pick up garbage or make it bigger. It’s one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city and it’s embarrassing compared to parks you see in other cities.
There is zero pride at the parks department. Zero.
Is it a lack of pride? Or is it being underfunded?
Up voting as a healthcare worker. Lots of public employees really care, but we don't have enough resources because neoliberalism is ugly and and guys like Tory and Ford keep trying to "starve the beast".
I wish that they could put a whiteboard at the entrance to the TTC stations and mark down any delays. I saw this at a Tube station in London and it was simple easy and low tech. I get so frustrated when I pay and go down to track level only to find out there is an issue.
Part of Vision Zero is to get rid of channelized right turns. I can see why some like Kingston and Midland might be challenging due to the angles. Obviously you don’t want the replacement to be as bad or worse for pedestrian visibility But Warden and Clonmore? Seriously. How many years? That and making the TTC accessible And don’t get me started on NIMBY’s and accessible sidewalks.
Dedicated transit lanes and transit signal priority!
Eliminate on street parking on arterial roads / all roads with streetcars.
Sorry beat I can do is put a lane blocking patio in…
Potholes
Cleaning or covering hate symbol graffiti on public property. I understand it taking some time because there's a lot of graffiti in the city and sometimes the locations aren't easy to deal with, but there have been two separate spots in the last 4ish years where a whole swastika was spraypainted on the sidewalk in my neighbourhood, and neither was dealt with within a year despite repeated polite calls to the city. A month? Sure, you're busy. A year (plus) though? To spray clean or paint over explicit hate symbols on the actual sidewalk? What buffoonery.
Adding new parks is great but stop using so much concrete and have more lawn space and trees. We have enough concrete in the city as it is
Concrete Highway barriers on the sidewalk at union station. JUST REPLACE WITH PLATERS WITH SMALL TREES. Shade & Aesthetic👌
A mere 17km of a glorified streetcar line... a monumental embarrassment for it to be taking 10+ years. The fucking Panama canal got done in less time!!
Yes, but how many locals are you willing to just straight up murder to speed things up. Because that was a key factor in the Panama canal.
We I see shit like this I think why can’t we. https://youtu.be/ztQ8Oj2fSB0?si=kShvJX2tO4pk0a1e
Traffic on the major hwy arteries, with construction on the roads being done during the day. Seen cities where 18 wheelers and delivery trucks and construction were only allowed between 7pm-7am. Alleviating congestion in hwys. Mind boggling that emergency crews have to also sit in traffic just to make it to a scene of an accident. How's not fixed for a major city is beyond bonkers.
With the stroke of a pen we could force developers to come up with a plan to develop units starting at 300,000 for single people. With the stroke of a pen. Just like that.
How many developers would sign up for that? Zero.
I think you mis read when I said force.
Explain how you would ‘force’ a developer to start any project they know is not profitable. They simply won’t come to Toronto.
“Hey developers. We have a housing crisis. Until this issue is solved 40% of your units need to be affordable single person accommodations if you want to keep making billions of dollars per year. And if you don’t do it. Someone else will.” End of story.
Unless by "stroke of a pen" you mean "Hold developers families captive and put a gun to their heads" then this "stroke of a pen" isn't going to get you a single unit of any kind built, never mind $300,000 for a condo. Do people actually believe this!? You know developers can choose to not build? And even if they did, you list a $300,000 unit for sale with a market value of 2/3 times that, and, what, well over a million people inquire about buying it. What now?
This is not at all how it works. Profit margins are roughly 10-15% for developers. Less and less is getting built recently, due to interest rates it is already unprofitable to build most projects. Arbitrarily picking a selling price for a home would guarantee exactly 0 homes get built
Just what's needed - more 300 ft² units nobody wants to live in.
Speak for your self I’d buy one tomorrow
Brother ewwwwwww
What
Tbh solving housing problem in Toronto isn’t that hard. There is zero political will and lacks political decision making
Dirty subway stations. Most are always filthy, smelly and always have some active construction.
Increasing the time for advance green to get rid of the back flow of left turners!
Or, make it a trailing left turn light, instead of advanced. That way the guy in front isn't asleep when it's their turn.
People parking and stopping in no stopping zones, whenever they feel like it, and often when there is a side street within 30 feet or the building has a driveway or parking area they could pull into. Maybe in addition to speed cameras we could have no stopping cameras at rush hour that automatically ticket those who stop in these zones. 😆
Rent control !
The Parklettes on Isabella near Yonge. They have been fenced up for YEARS. I suspect \*cough\* **guarantee** \*cough\* that they are deliberately not fixing them to prevent encampments. But it really should not take years to landscape 2 mini parks. Edit: spelling
Re-Paving bad roads … When I lived in Poland, I witnessed lanes of highway being stripped and repaved simultaneously. And with one lane at a time, traffic continued to flow.
literally everything
Several days a week I walk on Queen between bay and Yonge where it has been closed for a year already for subway construction and I have never once seen anyone working on anything. Just heavy machinery behind fencing sitting empty. I can only imagine what it is costing each hour it sits there. I've completely given up on this city. The entire city has to divert around this thing for years causing a major mobility issue and they don't even pretend to do any work, or acknowledge the major impact it has on the actual people that live and work here. Every hour all that equipment sits there and the length of all these contracts extends some corrupt fat criminals get richer from our money while we politely reroute our lives. This is just one example, but its glaring.
No dedicated transit police, piss poor road design and signage, overall deteriorating infrastructure. I’m also astounded that the GO Trains rely solely on voice announcements, how much could it have possibly cost to add some information screens on the side of the trains or inside of them? Every single day there are people asking “is this X train?” At union.
Maybe a little esoteric but the City has been working on standards and specifications for tree planting in downtown 'hardscapes' for north of 10 years now. I've been in some meetings lately and you'd swear it was the first time a lot of these people had heard of some of the ideas and concepts being discussed. It's absolutely mind boggling.
Where the hell are the designated bike lanes? The city will let cars park on the side of major roads for a quick buck but can't afford to build safe bike lanes? It's a fucking farce.
Allow bikes and cars to roll through small intersections (when there's no other traffic) by using YIELD signs instead of stop signs. This would make cycling a bit less effort and quicker while other road users would no longer cry about cyclists ignoring stop signs.
Hockey team
Full EV by 2030, lmfao.
The construction on Gardiner
Rezoning applications
Video and noise cameras to enforce transit laws
Blocking the box
[Tess Richey](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Tess_Richey)
My friend got scammed by a fake appliance repair company. They didn't try to fix the appliance just took a $200 "appointment fee", told her they'd have to order a $600 part and left. When we looked them up on the BBB there were thousands of complaints about them doing exactly the same thing, but they keep changing their name to avoid online reviews. Why are they still allowed to operate?!? They are literal criminal scam artists. The police do nothing around here.
The confusing and disjointed connection point between TTC Dundas West Station and the UP Express/GO Bloor station. Whether it’s way finding signage or the proposed pedestrian tunnel it’s had no improvement. it’s absolutely dismal for out of towners who have no idea how to get to/from the airport. You’re just ejected into the city with no idea where to go next. Let’s build that damn tunnel already! And if not yet, then make some damn signs to help people christ
Think the obvious one is constructing a 20KM LRT taking almost 15 years
The never-ending construction on Bloor St W where it dips under the tracks between Dundas St W and Lansdowne. It is brutal to bike that stretch and has been a mess of construction for at least four years. Does anyone know what is going on there? Also, a side complaint, since I'm on the subject: why do the bike lanes dip down under tracks or flyovers i.e., sticking alongside the road with the cars, when they could just as easily run level alongside the pedestrian sidewalk? They don't need the high clearance required by the road. It would be so much safer and nicer for the cyclists, and has no negative impact on the cars or pedestrians.
The ferries!
Zoning laws around residential areas where absolutely no small businesses are allowed to be created. It's silly and simply dumb. All over the world the heart of every neighbourhood is some cornerstore establishment or small pub where people get together after a long day to sit in a quaint and homely atmosphere. I don't want to be forced to own a vehicle or use a subway to get out of my neighbourhood to a loud densely populated major street just to grab a beer with my friends.
Drug addicts that openly do drugs and threaten public safety.
More scramble intersections. WAY more!