Like many students, I rely on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) every day to get to campus, work and attend to other commitments I may have. However, despite all efforts, the TTC remains very inconsistent.
On Oct. 24, John Tory was re-elected as mayor of Toronto. According to the Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO), Tory received more than 340,000 votes, or 62 per cent of the vote. Only 29 per cent of the city voted in the election.
In Tory’s re-election campaign, he announced his transit platform, which didn’t include any new projects, but revealed his focus was on four existing projects.
The Scarborough subway extension, the Ontario line set to be completed by 2030, the Eglinton Crosstown extension, and the Yonge North extension, which is set to begin construction in late 2023.
Gil Penalosa, Tory’s biggest opponent in the past election, announced in his campaign a new transit plan that would include fast lanes for buses with the permission for buses to exceed 60 kilometres per hour.
Tory’s project gives riders plenty of options, especially for those who live outside the city, but it doesn’t fix the system’s current problems, particularly for those in the city or closer to the downtown core. Moreover, for those who ride the bus, none of Tory’s existing projects really aim to solve those problems.
When I go to school and work, I always take the Jane bus northbound and southbound, but often find myself waiting for 15 to 20 minutes.
It makes it difficult for people to schedule their day.
As unreasonable as it may be to say — considering that traffic can vary throughout the day — adding a couple of buses per line would certainly help solve this problem.
However, adding a bus to a route isn’t cheap. In 2018, Tory introduced a new hybrid bus to give riders “a cleaner and greener ride,” and each bus costs $860,000. Adding drivers to move those buses increases the cost.
In addition to the issue with buses, there’s concern about personal safety on the subway. I’ve heard so many stories, mostly from women, about how unsafe it can be to take the subway alone, especially at night.
My friends and family use public transit with my girlfriend being one of them. She has described instances in which someone threatened her with a knife on the subway and even experienced people trying to chase after her.
Her friends have experienced worse. Several have reported being victims of sexual assault on the subway, usually taking place at night when there are relatively few riders.
With no real kind of protection for those who are vulnerable, this is a perfect recipe for someone to take advantage of them.
Not only is it frightening to go through as a human being who just wants to get to work or go home, but these incidents are also part of the reason for subway line detours and delays.
One way to prevent this would be to include more security or even officers on subways, especially in the later hours. People shouldn’t have to go through traumatizing experiences on their commute.
While there are security cameras that can capture incidents and catch suspects after the fact, the cameras don’t have the power to physically prevent a situation from escalating — people can.
I am very grateful to have a relatively successful public transit system in the city, but there are some things that need to be fixed. The TTC was once a world-leading transit system. It’s time to meet that standard again.