Transportation
Re: On the Privatization of Transit in York Region
November 9, 2011 | 
Author Simon South is maintaining an interesting blog about the current YRT/VIVA transit strike. Just wanted to add my 4-cents:
You are right, Simon — its all about density. Many of us want the Toronto subway to extend up Yonge St to Richmond Hill Centre — and possibly beyond, but until Yonge St is completely lined with condos, the low densities will not justify it. But there are many pressures at play. Veolia and other companies have brought some valuable expertise that has helped York Region get serious about transit, but should that be a forever cost? Shouldn’t our elected officials and staff be able to learn how to run an efficient public system?
1 It was only a few years ago that York Region moved to amalgamate all of the separate transit systems (Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markahm, Newmarket, etc). So, I suppose you could make a case that the Region is still learning how to run a larger single transit operation — within the context of a rapidly (too rapid, I think) growing region. There are probably still many efficiencies to be had.
2) As long as population densities remain low, transit will always be more expensive in York Region. Don’t forget, the TTC used to have a zoned fare system so riders in outlying suburbs paid more to travel downtown. The TTC only began running deficits when they were forced to bring in a one-fare system. We currently run two zones on VIVA — perhaps we need 3 and/or a zone system for YRT. At least with a public system, any higher worker wages would be plowed back into the local economy.
3) Veolia profits are currently sucked out of the community and I don’t know if we can even discover what those profits are. Contracting out still requires considerable resources on the part of the Region. Do we know the real cost of VIVA transit enforcement system? It involves 60+ enforcers, additional police time as well as court time for some offenders. How much does this cost us?
4) No one likes to hear about Peak Oil, but it will almost certainly start to affect us more in the coming decades. Here is an excellent overview of Peak Oil from a physicist’s perspective. As Tom Murpyhy says:
So how can I look at the total hydrocarbons figure and still have concerns? Most simply, peak oil is about rates, not amounts. It’s also about economics, the speed with which we could scale, energy returned on energy invested (EROEI), carbon caps, and other practical matters. The fact that oil prices recently rose by a factor of three while no relief arrived from other hydrocarbons can be taken as empirical evidence that the vast amount of hydrocarbons in the ground is not immediately useful in a pinch. The market did not cradle us and take care of business, as the perennial promise goes.
Perhaps even [much] higher-priced transit will likely be viewed as an absolute bargain in the coming years.
As we look for efficiencies in York Region we will soon have to address the fact that we currently support 9 local councils and dozens of duplicate departments, multiple fire fighting services, library systems, etc. We will have to do better.
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Idling buses are killing us with diesel fumes and irony
When I read inspiring books like Bill McKibben's Deep Economy and Mike Nickerson's Life, Money and Illusion , I dream utopian dreams of a world with no cars. Instead, our roads are practically empty except for hundreds of modern, quiet, hybrid and electric buses. Lotsa buses. Enough buses that you'd almost never have to wait more than a minute or three to catch one. Enough buses to ensure you almost always get a seat. Maybe even a window seat.
And then I wake up and realize I'm standing in the middle of a crowded aisle on a VIVA bus, heading to York University. For some unknown reason, the driver refuses to open the roof vents or turn on the air conditioning. The packed load of sweating students sways with nausea as the bus lurches through stop and go traffic, navigates around road construction and dodges the SUVs that routinely cut in front.
Those of us who travel without earbuds are treated to the cacophonous hiss and pop of 30 or 40 iPods which rhythmically bash away at the eardrums of their wearers.
And then we arrive. And we stagger out of the bus like early morning drunks only to shuffle through a gauntlet of idling buses that spew diesel fumes which gather and linger around the walkways and buildings.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmqtr5tiToM[/video]
What I want to know is this: if we really are on the verge of Peak Oil; if a barrel of the stuff will soon cost more than $100; if the ice caps are melting, causing half the world to flood and other half to dry out; then, why can't we at least learn to turn off buses when they are parked? York Region Transit is about to raise fairs to $3 a ride. How much of this fair increase could be waived if drivers routinely shut off the engines when their buses are stopped for more than 3 minutes.
Of course, I'd prefer to see a car-less world where clean buses rule the roads. In the meantime, can we at least build buses that doesn't spew diesel and irony? Right now, they are choking the life out of us.
Tags: What I did on National Clean Air Day
Woke up on National Clean Air Day, took a deep breath and gagged on the humid grey sludge that passes for air in these parts. I briefly considered keying every Hummer I could find, but wussed out and hopped on the VIVA to get to work as per usual. I guess I shoulda cycled. When the weather is warm, I try to get on the bike and huff the 17Km to work, but on days like June 6th, every breath felt like sucking a lung through a meat grinder. Besides, the bike was already at work, left there from the previous day's commute. So VIVA it was — a prompt and uneventful trip.
In any case, I did get on the bike around noon and cycled over to "Getting Vaughan Moving", an event/photo-op showcasing VIVA buses, carpooling, car sharing, electric scooters, Segways and every other mode of land transport that does not involve single occupant 4-wheeled vehicles. I was hoping to get some interesting pictures of people on Segways, balancing on scooters, etc, but there were so many cameras clicking, I spent more time drooling over fancy DSLRs instead of taking many of my own.
It's good that the region is finally getting serious about smart commuting, but the fact that the event was held in a parking lot, and the fact that very little of the official speechifying could actually be heard (due to the din of an adjacent freeway), makes me question the motives of the whole thing. After all, the reason we have a transportation problem is because the will of the federal government, the province with the complicity of many local politicians has lead to a cancerous rate of growth and development in York Region. While the politicians preach "intensification", the GTA continues to sprawl and scrape its way toward Lake Simcoe and beyond.
In reality, we do not have a transportation problem or an energy crisis. What we now have is a population that is out of step with the full spectrum of resources needed to keep it healthy and productive. As we race to replace our best farmland with Walmarts and subdivisions, we depend more and more on Chile, China and other countries for the food we eat. We depend on a supply chain that grows longer, more complex, more expensive and more precarious with each passing year. Could we do things differently?
I like to think so. We work to control growth and conserve valuable resources (including water and farmland), we can effectively engineer abundance. We could learn to live well within our means — but only if we take the trouble to fully understand what we mean by "our means".
In the meantime, we're told to accept run-away growth and intensification (1.6 million people in York Region by 2031). The politicians smile and say never you mind the numbers. Just get in the Smartcar, take a spin on the Segway. Mill about on the steaming blacktop and chow down on the free greasy burgers.
Shall we all just smile and get with the program?
Donna Cansfield, Ontario Minister of Transportation boasts about how much money Ontario contributes to the region:
Vaughan Smartcar Photo-Op-Mobile:
Suit on a Segway
Getting Vaughan Moving (can I move somewhere else?)
VIVA: Please stop killing us with info-crapo-sexo-tainment
I'm a loyal rider and supporter of York Region's VIVA Transit system . I spend at least 2 hours a day on these fast, (mostly) efficient buses. Most of the fleet now includes an LCD TV display at the front of each bus. It used to be easy to ignore these things (they were turned off much of the time), but over the past few weeks, the incessant, mindless, insulting crap that flickers over VIVA TV is really starting to bug me. This stream of shite appears to be downloaded over a wireless internet connection and played back in a continuous loop using Windows-based display software. As shown in Exhibit A and B, you get the time, weather, scrolling headlines of "celebrity" gossip and any other headline that includes the word "sex", "scandal" or "explosion" in it. Apparently we are all dying to know about the lunatic antics of Brangelina, Tomkat, Spears and Hilton, et al.
VIVA and bytemedia (what dat?) have made a terrible marketing blunder here. Most of the time, most riders simply ignore these obnoxious flickerings. And for those few who mistakenly look up, much of the time, that screen will have already crashed with a Blue Screen of Death, or entered a perpetual reboot & crash cycle. So, it would be best for riders and the VIVA marketing geniuses to just get rid of these things now – it would free up some bandwidth so passengers could check their email, browse the web — or blog their brains out. If you VIVA suits still believe that riders can't survive without the boob tube, at least give us BBC World, or CBC's Newsworld, or CNN. I just don't want to hear about Paris Hilton's latest involuntary gyrations or Tomkat's wonky dance moves.
It's time to torpedo this horrible experiment.
The 407 ETR is driving me round the bend
The "407", that notorious ribbon of concrete and crash barriers that slices across the northern half of Toronto has really done it now. The 407 ETR marketing types have introduced a "loyalty program" that rewards people for driving more. To paraphrase their own lame slogan: Ladies and gentleman… start your fossil fuel, greenhouse gas-emitting engines. Drive at least 400 KM a month during the six-month "qualifying period" and you could win yourself some free kilometers. As the world slowly wakes up to the reality of global warming, the 407 geniuses want to pay you to stay asleep at the wheel and drive like there's no tomorrow. Way to go 407. Idiots.
On the other hand, at least the 407 ETR suits are honest about what they are doing. In reality their approach is not all that different from thousands of "green" marketing schemes — like airlines that encourage flyers to pay an extra green tax to make up for the tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel they are about to ignite in the upper atmosphere. Captain: "We'll burn 183,380 litres of fuel on this flight". Passenger: "Well then, here's 20 bucks. Go plant a tree".
For too long we have allowed corporate interests to appropriate Green as a mere marketing ploy. Do you buy the unbleached coffee filters? Do you heave a sigh of relief when the 60-inch big screen TV arrives wrapped in recycled cardboard (while ignoring the 20 pounds of packing foam)? Do you pay the extra 10 cents a litre for clean gasoline? If only these token gestures could actually save the place.
Sadly, the emptiness and dishonesty of these schemes is just a corporate reflection of the established Liberal<=>Conservative (they are interchangeable) political establishment. Any politician who can look people in the eye and bleat about "sustainable development" in a country with high immigration, dwindling fresh water, dwindling air quality and rapid soil depletion is full of CO2 (or some slimy, toxic effluent).