Spearheaded by passionate local transit advocate/guru and prolific blogger Steve Munro, on June 19th Spacing Magazine, CodeRedTO, the ITE, and the Cities Centre welcomed Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, for a lecture on improving our thinking on transportation.

Titled “Abundant Access: Public Transit as an Instrument of Freedom”, Walker took the crowd of over 120 through important concepts in transportation, and discussed how some of the least visible attributes of a transit service can be the most important.

Walker’s opening defined his topic for the audience:

“Abundant Access means
as many people as possible…
able to reach as many destinations as possible…
as quickly as possible..
so they have as many real choices as possible…
are therefore truly…
free.”

The principles of good network design lead to finding appropriate technology, whereas choosing a technology first can lead to implementing the wrong transit. Walker encourages us to determine our values, so decisions can flow from them. As you are likely aware, Toronto has a bad habit of getting hung up on technology choice! Regularly asked how he feels about a specific type of transit mode, Walker said that it is “very much like asking a poet for their favourite vowel.”

He also discussed the challenge that transit planners face in creating useful transit. Too often, new lines are unintentionally restricted to less useful operation, reducing their likelihood of success. The most common examples are standalone loops, which visit every required location and therefore seem like a tidy solution. “But very few of us wish to travel in circles,” Walker reminds us. Another example is separating each direction of travel onto different streets. This seems to help traffic flow or bring a larger population into the catchment area, but in fact it reduces the usefulness of a service as now fewer people are within walking distance of both directions of travel – a requirement should they wish to actually use the service!

The key messages shared by Walker were to consider how accessible and abundant transit truly creates choice, and that you can’t actually design based on predicting where people will go. Planning based on seniors like to go here, this neighbourhood goes to that temple, etc cannot succeed, because in reality “everybody is always going everywhere.”

For this reason, Walker said, he is far more excited about Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT than he is about the Finch West or Sheppard East lines. They are stub lines near the outside of the system, which he said translates into “transferring to keep going in the same direction,” whereas the Eglinton line cuts across almost the entire city and touches multiple subway lines and many major bus lines, vastly multiplying its impact. The grid approach to transit service allows much greater flexibility and ease of use, and “Toronto should be very proud of its grid,” said Walker.

Walker also made a point that will resonate in some way with nearly everyone familiar with transit issues in the GTHA: it doesn’t matter whether it’s on rails or wheels (i.e. LRT or BRT), but rather it’s the service design (the “RT” part) that has the impact. Rails that can’t move due to mixed traffic blocking its way, or buses that can’t move due to mixed traffic blocking their way, are equally poor service offerings, and don’t create real choice through revolutionizing the transit available. A poor design is inefficient, and therefore is not providing the goal: Abundant Access.

Register here! Only 17 tickets remain as of 9:30am Monday! The pre-sale has ended already, but there are 60 seats available at the door – arrive early to guarantee a seat!

Learn more about Jarrett Walker here: http://www.humantransit.org/

In April and May CodeRedTO held a series of public meetings in Etobicoke (Jane and Finch, and Richview Gardens), Scarborough (Malvern), Leaside (Thorncliffe Park) and East York (Danforth and Coxwell) to share detailed information with the public on transit expansion projects happening in and near their communities. Metrolinx also presented information about future transit funding and their research into how other regions around North America and the world have paid for major transit expansion.

Invited were all Toronto city councillors, and all nearby provincial MPPs and federal MPs, and turnout was most impressive! Some councillors chose to not respond to our invitations to events in their wards but we extend our sincere thanks to the following elected representatives for attending:

• Councillor Mary Fragedakis, ward 29
• Councillor Paula Fletcher, ward 30
• Councillor Janet Davis, ward 31
• Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, ward 32
• Councillor Maria Augimeri, ward 9
• Councillor Chin Lee,  ward 41
• MPP Peter Tabuns, Toronto – Danforth
• MPP Michael Prue, Beaches – East York

CodeRedTO extends an open invitation to any community organization or elected representative who would like more information on transit presented at their event to contact us at any time. We have presented for MPs, MPPs, city councillors, and the University of Toronto, and we only use information from official sources and checked by transit agency officials.

To review our presentation, just click below to download the PDF version of our slides.

Some great questions were raised during our presentations, and we will share detailed answers soon. If you have any questions on transit expansion or funding, email info@coderedTO.com and we will get answers from the experts.

Join CodeRedTO, Metrolinx, CivicAction, and TTCriders to talk about the future of public transit in the GTHA. Note we are listed as an expert but while CodeRedTO shares information found in research, please note that we do not have expert urban planning or transit engineering knowledge.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 6-8 pm

Dufferin/St. Clair Library 1625 Dufferin Street

Expanding public transit in our region is a pressing need. There is a plan (The Big Move) and there have been consultations from the province’s regional transit planning agency Metrolinx, the City of Toronto and civic groups.

Now we want to hear from Ward 17 residents.

To pay for the new buses, LRTs and subways, should government create new revenue tools? Pay for it with taxes? Raise fares?

This is a chance for Ward 17 residents to hear from experts about the region’s pressing needs, the plans to build transit, and the options to pay for it. And like every Civic17 event, it’s a chance for residents to connect with each other and share their own views.

Expert Panel:
Dina Graser, Metrolinx
Luca De Franco, TTCriders
Cameron MacLeod, CodeRedTO
Linda Wichel, CivicAction

Invited to share their position:
Councillor Palacio
MPP Jonah Schein
MP Andrew Cash

For more information visit:

http://www.civic17.ca/3/public_transit_who_pays  or www.facebook.com/Civic17

Link to map and transit directions