Archive for the ‘Travels South of 7’ Category

« Older Entries

TTC token hoarding

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

penny-jar

I started hoarding TTC tokens last week.  After all,  it is a simple human response to TTC’s plan to increase fare while proving no additional value to riders.

According to  the Metro article, the TTC  has acknowledged that riders reacted negatively to the proposed fare increase and that the TTC should have been prepared better for this. So you would think the TTC would re-think their fare increase plan. Maybe point out some added value after the increase.  Nope. Instead, the TTC chose to  ration token purchases…and now stop token sales altogether!

That is some brilliant monopolistic thinking. Since when is a token a scarce resource? Isn’t access to use the TTC a public service? It’s not like the token are free.  Doesn’t that sound like recent Venezuelan water rationing?

Well,  so the TTC can’t cope with change very well. That’s nothing new.  At least the riders disapproval is being heard. However, it makes you wonder why the TTC chose to run on proprietary currency like tokens in the first place? Why can’t you buy fares using a credit card in 2009?  Why is a bus driver unable to give out change for a $20 bill? Why is money in cash boxes never counted?  Why are there only 2 lines in a city of over 5 million people? Why doesn’t the subway reach the Toronto International airport? Is it because visitors to Canada do not have tokens or Canadian cash when they arrive?  So many questions …you can  think about while standing in line to buy TTC tickets.

In the meantime,  riders can do more to make their disapproval for the TTC heard. Hit the TTC where it really hurts.  Yes, their cash inventory. I am not suggesting to steal, only to prove a point that there is one more thing at the TTC does not work. The TTC collector booth system is an ancient system designed to fail or at least with limited capacity. The cash box has a fixed volume (even if there is a larger container hidden underneath). Care to make an experiment? Let’s assume that every rider was to pay his or her fare in pennies. That’s 275 little copper coins per rider. How long would is take before a subway collector cash box is full during rush hour?

So, go ahead and reach for your penny jar this week! Let’s see if it makes the news.

Posted in Travels South of 7 | No Comments »

ONTARIO REGULATION 366/09

Monday, October 26th, 2009

bb_buttons

As a commuter, I am in favour of improved road safety. However, enforcing the new law making it illegal to use your hands to operate electronic devices while driving may be difficult to enforce.  It is likely that many court cases will be quashed because of exemptions like …
“Exemption for pressing buttons
14. (1) A person may drive a motor vehicle on a highway while pressing a button on a hand-held wireless communication device to make, answer or end a cell phone call or to transmit or receive voice communication on a two-way radio if the device is placed securely in or mounted to the motor vehicle so that it does not move while the vehicle is in motion and the driver can see it at a quick glance and easily reach it without adjusting his or her driving position.”

So if I understand this correctly, as long as the phone is attached, the driver can still press  buttons to operate it.  It seems that the intention of this exemption is to make it legal to press one button but not more or maybe some of the buttons but not all. Is pressing one button more distracting or dangerous then pressing two buttons? How exactly will it be proven in court how many buttons were pressed? Will there be a list of exempt buttons?

It is interesting to see how the sales of hands-free Bluetooth wireless devices are going throught the roof. I wonder if drivers are buying them for the right reasons. Isn’t that just adding to the number of devices and buttons in your car? I have tried the Motorola T-505 device in my car as an experiment. I found that I periodically had to scan the status of the visor-mounted T-505 to make sure it was ready to make or take a call and that it didn’t power down because of inactivity, etc. Then, I would also point my eye balls on the phone itself to see if I missed any calls. Talk about distracting! I am not picking on Motorola but, like most new gadgets, it will take some time to get used to. The unfortunate thing is that the drivers will be learning how to use their new devices strarting this week WHILE DRIVING!

 As for me, I am going low tech on this one – sticking some Velcro on the back of my smart phone and the dash and turning on the speaker button. I hope that button is legal.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Sebski on Technology, Travels South of 7 | No Comments »

TTC Commuter Parking Lots

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Starting April 1, 2009 the Toronto Transit Commission has decided to start charging 905 commuters for the use of the TTC parking lots, even for metro pass holders.  Like many other commuters who are also TTC riders,  this obviously upsets me.

According to the TTC, the commuter lots are used by a small percentage of TTC riders, so the rest of the riders should not pay for it.  There is something wrong with this logic. Weren’t commuter lots designed to encourage using the  TTC in the first place? Regardless of usage, they are still shared TTC resources. As a paying TTC rider, I also pay for the operating costs  the 85 bus (you can look up where it is in relation to Vaughan) which I will most likely never use  and neither will the other TTC riders from the 905 area.  Using TTC’s logic, only riders that use the 85 bus should pay for it. Why are the commuter lots any different then the 85 bus?

So, beware TTC riders – I can see a proposal that the single fare metro pass will not cover all buses, trains or streetcars or not all the time. Why doesn’t the TTC just say that they are suggesting fares based on usage? Maybe even creating additional fare zones? Maybe, this is not such a bad idea.  Fare zone  systems have been around for years in other parts of the world.  They make  sense for riders’ pockets as long as paying for the one TTC zone that you actually use costs less then for the all TTC services.  In this fare zone system, the 905 commuters could pay more then people who live downtown.  But wait, the TTC doesn’t know how to lower fares!  And the 905 commuters like myself are already paying more.  How would the TTC manage this model? How can fare zones even work in other countries?  Do they get money from somewhere else? Maybe the TCC can convince the Ontario government, who subsides the transit,  to get money from people who take buses in Ottawa. Those riders  don’t take the 85 bus either.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travels South of 7 | No Comments »

« Older Entries