TTC and Toronto City Councillors

I was reading an article today in 24HRS newspaper about some youth from Rexdale and Jamestown who "challenged city councillors to walk in their shoes by relying exclusively on the TTC for transportation between Jan.10 and Jan.17." This article really grabbed my attention because I thought this was a brilliant challenge. What better way to figure out how to better something than by actually experiencing it. All these fat cats sit in their beamers driving to work frustrated by the Toronto gridlock, reading complaints about this TTC they have never been on. In response to these complaints they choose to direct the millions of public dollars towards new trains... Is that really what you think TTC patrons want? New trains that are just as poorly constructed, just as crowded, break down just as often, and continue to make us just as late for work/school everyday?

The best part about this article was the fact that "of the Toronto City Councillors, only two said they'd take public transit for a full week". The irony is they know how horrific the conditions are so they won't even agree to partake in this challenge. I wish we had the option of deciding not to take the TTC. Of the two that agreed to take it, neither could stick it out for the full week. "Heavy binders" deterred them from continuing on with the public transportation system; the same heavy binders students carry every single day on their commute to and from school. The heavy binders that are equivalent to laptops and presentation binders for us working folk who have to lug their lives back and forth from the office everyday on the TTC. The fact that they couldn't even put up with the conditions of the TTC for a week is telling. Now try putting up with it everyday, at least twice a day, year in year out. And they wonder why society has become so angry and selfish.

I'm not saying that the driving conditions are much better, but let's be honest; wouldn't you rather be sitting in the comfort of your own heated/air conditioned car, listening to music or a podcast. Sounds pretty good to me. I would absolutely choose an hour of traffic everyday over an hour off TTC travel time, being passed by by multiple half full buses, smashed on to the subway like a sardine only to stop every 3ft. because a passenger assistance alarm has been pulled, there is a technical error with a train or the best is when they just don't tell you anything and you have some obese, smelly, disgusting fellow commuter breathing all over your face.

In summary, if City Councillors can't even ride their own public transit system for one week, how do they expect the rest of their fellow citizens to ride it everyday? Perhaps they should be concerning themselves a little less with getting new subways cars, and green buses on the road, and more with the scheduling issues and the engineering of these faulty vehicles.

What Grinds My Gears... The TTC

I'm going to kick off my blog with a grinds my gears post about the TTC. I choose to start this way because it will be a recurring theme. The TTC is actually what inspired me to start this blog. I'll begin by stating the number 1 thing that grinds my gears about the TTC: Bus Riding Etiquette. It's shocking that even though we commuters ride the TTC everyday, we still haven't figured out the proper bus riding etiquette. MOVE TO THE BACK OF THE BUS. I know it's scary back there, all the way in the back. The horror of missing your stop because you can't push through the hoards of people to get from the back up to the rear doors must terrorize people's dreams. But I can promise you now, the bus driver will wait for you to get off. It's actually the same thing as moving to the rear door from the front/middle of the bus. You're still pushing back sweaty, rude, angry people carrying backpacks, children, pushing strollers and generally taking up as much space as possible trying to claim it as their own. The only thing you accomplish by hovering around the rear doors and refusing to move back, is an extremely comfortable ride for the extraordinary people who did move back. Kudos to them for doing so. You deserve your double seat. However, the asshole bus drivers who refuse to stop even though they can see an empty back, are what make me even angrier than the stupid people that refuse to move back.

Dear Bus Driver,

This is your moment of power. Exert your authority and refuse to move the bus until people get their shit to the back. We don't need all these Rosa Parks assholes making us late for work every day because of their stubborness and your inactivity.

Thanks,
All the riders who WANT to be on your bus.

I truly don't understand these bus drivers. They power trip if  you're even a nickle short on fare, but actually using their authority to make the TTC more effficient? Never.

So, as you can see I blame the drivers equally as much as I blame the riders. You're all assholes.