Thank you Mr. Ducharme

I received an e-mail message from Richard C. Ducharme, the Chief General Manager of the TTC on Friday. It was in response to my complaints about TTC vehicles parking in a school zone for extended periods of time with the engine running.

Mr. Ducharme regretted these occurrences and assured me that steps have been taken to inform operators on this route that the ONLY place a bus may lay over is at the Fenelon drive loop and that idling the engine is not permitted. They will monitor adherence to this directive.

I thank Mr. Ducharme for his prompt action on this matter. I say prompt because he notes in his letter that he first heard of the problem earlier this month. The residents have been complaining about parked, idling vehicles since the first day the bus showed up 9 months ago but nothing changed until now.

It is great to know that someone at the Commission cares and is willing to respond to the concerns of the public but why must we go to the very top for action?

An audience with Denzil

I attended Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong’s Recycle affair last night at Parkwoods Plaza on York Mills Road.

After parking my car and removing the box of toxic stuff I brought for disposal I looked up to see Denzil staring at me “here’s the bus chaser” he said. I cheerily acknowledged his greeting and went about finding the proper location to drop off my toxic load and then came back to engage him in conversation.

Denzil stated that he had not read my Weblog or website and had no intention of doing so because I was biased and had an agenda. When asked what my agenda might be he said he wasn’t sure but he didn’t want to know anyway. I am curious about his agenda (apparently we all have one) at least mine is out in the open if not too popular in certain quarters.

To make a long story short he said he considered the 122 Bus route extension to be a done deal based on the positive results of his survey among the people in the neighbourhood even though, oddly enough, most of the people who indicated that they were in favour of the bus route extension obviously don’t use it.

He believes the Ridership numbers published by the TTC are accurate, mine are wrong. I invited him or any one he designates to participate in an actual counting exercise with me at the hour and day of his choosing. He refused, missing a huge opportunity to make me look like a fool.

I am apparently still considered a constituent but not one he wants to hear from.

Some more odd numbers

Some more figures to ponder from the TTC website.

Counting lessons required

Snipped from the last posting--

“I decided to have a look at the situation this morning concentrating on westbound traffic only from 7:00 -9:00 A.M. expecting to see about 180 (250-40=210, 90% of which is189) Riders boarding the buses. I counted 67, that is sixty seven, Riders boarding the bus!

Must be something wrong here, I will go out and count again tomorrow.”

I counted again this morning with better results but still less than half the TTC’s numbers.

12 vehicles left our neighbourhood between 6:54 and 9:04 A.M. today carrying 87 Riders, these numbers are still a long way from 180.

Maybe the Commission will send somebody out to help me count these riders, I obviously need help to achieve anything like their numbers. Lunch is on me.

Toronto Transit Commission Report # 33

The TTC Report #33 distributed at the Monday May 9 meeting at Fenside school tells us that approximately 650 customer-trips are made each day on the new service.

“Of these 650 customer-trips each day, approximately 500 customer trips (410 in the peak periods, and 90 in the midday) are made to and from stops that are beyond 400 metres of alternate transit service.”

The TTC assumes, and I agree, that riders boarding a bus in the Morning peak period will return in the Afternoon peak period. It seems reasonable then that counting ridership in the Morning peak period and doubling it for a daily total is acceptable. My observations over 6 months show that approximately 10% of the morning peak period ridership leaves the area between 6:15 and 7:00 A.M, the remaining 90% leaves between 7:00 and 9:00 A.M.

Vehicles entering and leaving the area between Peak periods typically carry from 0 to 3 or 4 Riders.

An arbitrary breakdown of the TTC’s claimed 650 daily Riders may look like this:

Morning Peak period---250
Afternoon Peak period-250
Midday----------------150

If this distribution of Ridership is substantially incorrect please advise me and I will adjust it.

Eastbound traffic in the Morning Peak Period is pretty stable, 25-30 students to Donview Heights M.S. 2 students to Crestview ( a private school south of York Mills Road), maybe 10 adults and children bound for the daycare at Fenside Public school and 1 crossing guard, there is no where else to go.

I decided to have a look at the situation this morning concentrating on westbound traffic only from 7:00 -9:00 A.M. expecting to see about 180 (250-40=210, 90% of which is 189) Riders boarding the buses. I counted 67, that is sixty seven, Riders boarding the bus!

Must be something wrong here, I will go out and count again tomorrow.

TTC meeting today

I can’t make it to the TTC meeting this afternoon at which the Graydon Hall 122 Route temporary extension will be made permanent. Having been to a few of these affairs however I think I have a pretty good idea of how it will play out. I hope I am wrong but I think it will go down something like this:

 Long boring meeting with councillors droning on seemingly forever about some arcane minutia.

 Gaggle of Extension supporters huddle together nervously folding and unfolding their little signs.

 THE ITEM is announced! The gaggle wave their signs and are admonished by the chair.

 Deputations are requested and some poor soul speaks in opposition to the Extension, much booing ensues, the Gaggle is admonished again.

 Howard leans into the microphone and in his best AW Shucks, good old boy, Howard knows best voice tells everyone yet again the Marlee bus route legend as if it really related to anything today. Howard, you need a new shtick, everyone has heard this one ad nauseum.

 The Gaggle senses blood in the water, they murmur, signs are tentatively raised, the chair restores decorum.

 A few more deputations are heard, the weasel kisses butt and it’s all she wrote, enjoy your bus.

New math at the TTC

The 122 Graydon Hall Bus Route temporary extension is about to be made permanent on the basis of some pretty funny math. This new service will cost me and all the other taxpayers in Toronto $113,000 per year, this is not a funny number.

More from the numerically challenged staff at TTC.

The viability of this new service revolved around the TTC picking up 460 "BRAND NEW RIDERS" daily (read: did not use the TTC prior to this route extension) or so they said in June 2004. Now in May 2005 we are told they couldn't identify a "BRAND NEW RIDER" if one jumped up and bit them in the fare box. Didn't they already know this?

But don't worry it's OK because included in all the grossly inflated ridership figures is the news that 140 daily riders both began and ended their trips within the area served by the new extension. Hold on there, where are they going pray tell in a neighbourhood with 3 public schools, one of which hosts a daycare facility and no commercial, retail or industrial properties to generate this traffic. Maybe they just like to ride around all day and pump up those ridership numbers.

Creative counting seems to be a career boosting talent if you work for the TTC or does it work like the survey outfits, give the client/your boss the answer they want to hear? The TTC told us that they have tallied an average of 650 Riders per day on this route extension, the truth is more like half that number and almost 50% of those Riders are students.

For a background to this story please visit http://www3.sympatico.ca/donvalley