TTC Troubles

Let me preface this by saying that, generally, I love the TTC. In fact, I like most mass transit. Car travel, while ostensibly convenient, is just such an absurd concept to me - wrapping yrself in a large block of steel and plastic and rolling to the same place that hundreds of other people are rolling towards in the name of some freedom that does not really exist. I mean, how free are you, when you are driving to work more just to pay for the insurance, the oil change and the gas. Of course, I speak as a person who lives in a city with fairly reliable and extensive 24 hour a day transit. I know that people in smaller places don't have this luxury, so the 'rolling coffin' (as Ken Kesey called them) becomes a necessary evil.

But I'm not really here to bash car travel. I actually wanted to talk about the TTC and their nasty habit of short turning buses that I am on.

For those of you not living in Toronto, the short turn is what the TTC uses to get its buses back on schedule after biggish delays. Instead of going to the end of the line, the bus turns around at some point and goes back the other way, picking up its regular schedule. The passengers who are on the bus have to grab a transfer and wait for the next bus. Usually, I am understanding. The TTC is doing the best it can to serve all the passengers and, while I've been inconvenienced, sometimes it just has to happen.

Lately, though, it has been happening way too often - every Friday on the Jane bus and even last night on the normally reliable 106. I don't mind if it happens once in a while but, when it starts to become a regular occurence, something should be done. I am a fan of transit and I am starting to get frustrated. Imagine what this must be doing to the people who are not as fond of the TTC - more car drivers.

And while this is happening, the TTC goes looking for money for a subway. Some logic, eh? The government isn't giving us enough to run the system as it is, so we are going to go after them to build another subway to ikea, this time the one at Jane and Hwy. 7. Why not fix what you have before you get caught up in an ultra-expensive vanity project that won't do much to increase ridership? I like subways, but I like decent service better and, the way things are, we cannot afford both.

If I haven't bored you enough already with talk of transit, check out transit.toronto.on.ca. It's a great site with lots of transit info. run by people who really care about transit.