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| Driving car to work or riding subway? |
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Toronto residents love their cars and driving everywhere, but we might be witnessing that our attitude is starting to change. Residents are searching for alternatives, and public transport is starting to become more important to many. It might be a sign of economic time, but saving money becomes a priority. People have to change and economize their daily routines. Driving a car to their places of employment downtown, midtown or uptown and driving across the city core at all, has become unnecessary and luxury for many. Some reasons for leaving the car at home are easy to see. Cost of the gas and insurance rates that are higher for driving to work. Higher insurance rates include drivers with a clean driving record. Cost of parking plus it is more and more difficult to avoid costly parking fines. $15.00 for slightest excess of paid parking time. If these costs can be minimized or brought under control, they can improve the financial health for many. Maybe allow to pay or credit cards debts. When you get car repair bills, it is all extra costs.
Toronto residents love their cars and driving everywhere, but we might be witnessing that our attitude is starting to change. Residents are searching for alternatives, and public transport is starting to become more important to many. It might be a sign of economic time, but saving money becomes a priority. People have to change and economize their daily routines. Driving a car to their places of employment downtown, midtown or uptown and driving across the city core at all, has become unnecessary and luxury for many. Some reasons for leaving the car at home are easy to see. Cost of the gas and insurance rates that are higher for driving to work. Higher insurance rates include drivers with a clean driving record. Cost of parking plus it is more and more difficult to avoid costly parking fines. $15.00 for slightest excess of paid parking time. If these costs can be minimized or brought under control, they can improve the financial health for many. Maybe allow to pay or credit cards debts. When you get car repair bills, it is all extra costs. During September, Toronto Transit Commission announced a new record in usage of public transit. They recorded over 1.7 million users on a single day. Is it a proof that we are changing attitudes? Not even transit official were sure, why such a record was broken during a nice, sunny day, rather than in the middle of freezing weather in the middle of winter. A critic of public transit said that the publicly announced record is no more that publicity stunt by TTC. Public transit can be a popular whipping-boy to many people. They have an endless list of reasons to complain, but myself, I do not see most of popular complains as justified. I can list many complains about daily driving to center of the city. There are people with no choice. To go to work, they have to take only whatever is available to them. I do have a choice and chose public transit to arrive to my workplace downtown. Metropass is an excellent choice, giving one an opportunity to make stops, crossovers, on and off our transit, at whim. Our Metropasses are also transferable. It means that anybody can use the pass, but only one person at the time. Wife, a child, relative or a friend. I tend to laugh, when I see people's car being ticketed downtown. It is expensive and unnecessary. If you live out of town or in the suburbs, you can still drive your car to the suburban subway station, leave it there and continue by transit downtown. Driving downtown, down to the financial core is a status symbol for many drivers, that they do not want to give up at any cost. Subway is on the top of popularity among the transportation modes. More complaints are heard about bus rides and with streetcars somewhere in the middle. Subway is the better way Mayor Rob Ford declared. "Faster, better (transit) means rapid transit, not just transit on rails," Ford told on a news conference. He is about half correct about it, in his assertion. Finishing 13km Sheppard Subway line extension is a job long overdue. Many critics of underused line are not surprise. The line with its 5 stations and over 5.5 km length, it was designed to serve only former City of North York, that was before municipal amalgamation. The line is a legacy to former Mayor of North York Lastman, and for its shortness also a testimony of incompetency and lack of vision of Scarborough Mayor Joyce Trimmer, while she was in the office of separate city. Unlike Lastman, she had no foresight, nor political leverage with Provincial Government to bring the subway line, at least, to Scarborough doorstep at Victoria Park and do her voters some favors. Couple more subway station in Scarborough would increase the ridership markedly from Scarborough residents who are forced to go to east-west line only. Subways are great for long-distance ridership across the city but require feeder lines in the form of streetcars or buses. Unless you live close to subway stations and your destination is also around the subway station. Finishing 4.5 km of Sheppard subway line west to connect with Spadina subway line will create a new circle line, giving new options for commuters. It will help to alleviate crowding on the Yonge line. Many downtown commuters will travel this line west to take the Spadina-University line downtown. New subway trains have recently arrived to Toronto Transit Commission. They are modern, classy looking and more efficient with higher capacity. They have been introduced in Spadina-University-Yonge subway line traveling U shape line from Downsview to Finch Avenue station. Gradually they will replace all older trains. This line is being extended by 6.7 km and will have 5 new stations. It will be the first time that city subway will extend to neighbor municipality, City Vaughan in York Region. New Vaughan Metropolitan Centre will open just north of Highway 7, and it will be the ending stop of this subway. Four Tunnel Boring Machines are busy cutting the tunnels. They are built by Ontario Company and Toronto Transit Authorities have named them Holey, Moley, Yorkie and Torkie. Toronto Transit has a preferential purchasing treatment from local companies. How do streetcars compare in municipal transportation, against the subways? Current Mayor does not think they are of benefits since they have to share the same roads with cars and trucks. When he was elected, he declared war on cars, started by the previous administration, as over. Roads are for cars, trucks and buses. Public rail transportation belongs underground and not above, is his opinion. Visiting few European cities might reveal to him that Streetcars or Trams are also convenient, fast and liked. They are purchased and placed in operation at much lesser cost than subways. It is hard to imagine European city with no public rail system. Some cities like Paris have brought streetcars back to the city, after years of absence. Streetcars make streets busy with pedestrian traffic. Unlike, the buses that do not attract people! Many businesses like to open stores, restaurants with patios on streets that are busy with walking traffic. Property values are on the rise on these streets. There are streets in Toronto that prove this point. Stretches of College, Gerrard or Queen Street, are good examples. Every city with streetcars or LRT will proudly puts them on their post cards. Many small time investors are attracted to the investment on streets with streetcars. Buying and renovating renovating building, renting or operating stores. Building smaller office buildings. On the other hand, large developers invest and build condominiums or office buildings along already established subway routes. Along Sheppard line, we can see so many high-rise condos going up, all after the subway opened up. Mayor Ford looks for public-private joint venture, to fund the line extension. He has a vision that will be hard to share with large developers who do not like to work and invest in uncertainty. When you build the subways, developers will build the buildings! Eglinton LRT is the next line on the agenda. Under the previous administration, this line was in part above, part underground. It has been converted fully for underground LRT now. 25-kilometre long at the cost of $8.2 billion, paid by the Provincial Government. Transit Commission has already purchased boring machines, and preliminary work on tunneling has been started. Although no major real estate developments have been announced along Eglinton, it is expected that house prices in the proximity of Eglinton Avenue will rise more than the city average. Subways or underground LRT lines have fixed and predetermined stations, unlike streetcars and buses. Vicinity of subway stations usually becomes transportation crossroads with other modes, like buses or streetcars. The value of real estate will rise with its proximity to the stations, but also to lines alone. The station placement can create a commercial hub. Example of midtown station. Subway lower level, buses above, public parking, station part of office complex. We have many examples in Toronto, where it is the case. Along University-Yonge line and downtown or midtown section of Bloor line. Outside of city-core range, subway stations are stand alone structure, surrounded by rather older low rises or houses. They take up too much of valuable real estate that is not utilized for its best use! Cash-strapped transportation authority could sell rights to build above ground to interested developers. After all, city needs a higher density to justify future transportation development in many areas of the city. Perhaps mixed mid-rise commercial and residential development would be suitable above each subway station. Retailers on the street level, the offices above. Such commercial developments around stations can become ideal locations for many types of professional services. Lawyers, accountants, medical clinics with specialists. Dentists, orthodontists or cosmetic dentists would be conveniently located and accessible to all city residents. People look for best services available, but accessibility can be detrimental. Long car drives might place a service provider out of the question. As long as the best service providers for users' needs are located on the fastest and most convenient way of transportation, the distance is no longer obstacle. This city might need new stage for urban development, all taking place in proximity of subways or underground LRTs. Preferably, such development should not be centered with high-rise towers with large distances in between, but rather mid-rises developments lining the streets. High-rise towers usually do not comply with zoning restrictions, but their developers are able to get zoning changed, usually for development fee paid to the city. Mayor Ford is banking on these fees that they could pay the cost of subway. These towers are built along the subway line, but very seldom incorporate stations into their design and do not create pedestrians' friendly streetscape. Eglinton Avenue stretches from a suburb in the west to midtown Toronto and east to the suburb again. It is lined with a different type of development, appropriate for its neighborhood. With new underground LRT running under, it is sure to change. Residents would hope for mid-rises up to 7 floors that could spruce up the street, especially replacing ugly strip plazas that have grown up recently around Laird Avenue and in Scarborough. How can you start pedestrian friendly development that does not rely on cars for daily use? Transit authorities can start selling rights to build above stations and on their property. Transit Commission usually owns a large portion of land around the subway station. According to architectural plans published for new stations along Spadina-York extension, these stations will be of monumental design, but very little of practical use. They will not serve as an example or catalyst to the pedestrian friendly future development around these stations. Transit Commission considered selling stations' naming rights to private corporations, in order to raise money. Is there a better and more practical option for Transit Commission? To sell "rights-to-build," on subway stations, to private developers. Cash in on the growing popularity of public transit and create new and pedestrian friendly environment along. About the Author: New Toronto Subway trains called Rocket ride Spadina-University-Yonge Subway line through Toronto Midtown. |