What are 5 ways that can be done by the community to improve the public transport system?
07.06.2025 11:11
So don’t hesitate. Like I said, a few weeks ago I went to Dixie Value Mall. I’ve been there before, and usually I use car share, but my other experience with transit recently (my sister moved out of town and I use the GO train every month to get there) made me decide to try to get to it by transit. It required three vehicles, and took about 1 hour 15 minutes each way (and I missed a bus in each direction - literally watching it drive away as I approached the stop) but the whole trip was $10 (versus $90 for a car), I didn’t have to drive in Toronto’s horrendous traffic (I scrolled the news on my phone) and I didn’t have to look for a place to park.
So, she dropped me and mom off while she went to park the car. There is a massive lot around a block away. However, by the time she parked, it took her 20 minutes to get back (she almost missed the part where they explain the plot of the opera). After the opera, we all went to get the car, but between walking to the lot, going down the stairs to the parking level, and paying the charge (by coincidence, $12.00) it took us half an hour to get me back home; I could have walked home in the same time, and transit was much faster (like I said, subway station right next to the opera house).
Also, until recently, all the transit systems in the Greater Toronto Area all charged separate fares. As such, if I took a TTC train to Union Station, then the GO train to Guildwood, then a TTC bus from Guildwood to my mom’s, that would have been three fares. Luckily, that’s changed - if you ride the GO train your trips on local transit are effectively free. Trips across transit borders are now much cheaper (short ones use to be a double fare, but now it’s just one fare).
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Resist balkanization
So if you want to go from bus to train, or vice versa (all the express buses stop here), its a 200m walk from the train station entrance to the bus stop. Uncovered of course. And the road is six lanes wide. Other stops like this are Danforth (a good 300m from the subway line, and often requires crossing a road bridge over the busy rail line) and Bloor GO (although a tunnel to nearby Dundas West station is under construction.
This is Guildwood GO Station in Scarborough. That road at the bottom is Kingston Road, a busy TTC bus corridor with bus lanes and express routes. The parking lot has been expanded twice, although they are talking about putting housing on that old auto dealership (red borders). VIA intercity trains also stop here on their way to Montreal.
Allow buses to stop anywhere
This is Yonge & Sheppard in Toronto, where two subway lines meet. I’ve worked up there for 20 years now and low density development in the area is slowly being replaced by high density development.
About 20 years ago, the Galleria Mall, just outside the Buffalo city limits, banned buses from entering its property, requiring bus passengers to cross a busy six lane road to get from the bus stop to the mall. One day, one of the workers on her way to the mall (the mall caters to suburban dwellers, but most of its workers are from the city and can’t afford a car) was hit by a vehicle and killed. The mall started letting the bus stop there the next day.
Don’t complain about bus lanes
About 15 years ago, my sister wanted to go to the opera for her birthday. However, she insisted on driving because the fare for her and my mom would be $12.00. Now, I can walk, to the opera house from where I live, and it’s a short transit ride, and I had a monthly pass (so, effectively, free) and the subway stop is literally connected to the Opera House. However, she insisted on picking me up.
But this is Pickering Go Station (top, you can see the train), which first opened about 50 years ago and now has service every 15–30 minutes. It’s the home of Ontario’s largest parking lot. There’s a large shopping mall off to the down left ,but that’s not why the world’s longest pedestrian bridge over the world’s widest freeway (the 401). That bridge is there to join the parking lot at the top with another parking lot for overflow. Also, the buses stop at the downward end on the other side of the train station. As such, most people using the train come by car. That’s a terrible use of space. Lots of transit stations in Toronto are now being redeveloped to take out parking and put in housing.
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Encourage Transit Centered Development
Over in Mississauga next door, it’s not a problem. Buses regularly stop at shopping malls. A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Dixie Value Mall, which is surrounded on two sides by busy roads - not a pleasant place to cross a road to a bus stop. However, in the parking lot, there’s a small bus platform where you can be dropped off about 50m from the mall entrance.
Think about using transit
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This is New York City’s 14th street busway in Manhattan. It’s only open to buses, taxis and trucks. It didn’t affect car traffic, which was easily able to move to 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th streets. However, local business owners sued to stop it even though most of their customers come on foot and there isn’t enough parking for more than one customer out front. More frequent and reliable bus service reduces people using cars.
You would not believe how many communities allow private property owners to exclude buses from their property. This is even a problem here in Toronto, where often the bus will drop you off a hundred meters from a shopping mall.