A Brief Trip on Toronto's Eglinton LRT

Last week, I had to be up in North Toronto so I took a ride on the new Eglinton LRT. I got off the bus on the southeast corner of  Avenue Road and Eglinton but had to cross to the northwest corner  to get to the LRT station. 

I was surprised at how deep it is, nine flights of stairs or five escalators to the platform level. The train cars are more like streetcars than subway cars. I didn't think the layout and seating made good use of the space and the doors are very narrow. The cars are also noise in the tunnel than the subway.  It was half full at around 2:00 p.m. which is a good sign.

I got off at Eglinton and took the elevator up to the subway level. If you do that, make sure you go two stops up to the upper concourse. (I mistakenly got off first on the lower concourse.) I don't know why there is a lower concourse as it doesn't seem to go anywhere. 

It's unfortunate that Metrolinx didn't run the line the extra mile to Eglinton GO station instead of ending it at Kennedy. That would have made an easy connection for anyone coming in from the east and wanting to take the LRT to midtown. As it is, I probably won't be using the line much. 

First and second sets of nine escalators

The platform at Avenue Road station

Another Presto Snafu

Regular riders of the GTA's GO Transit system are well aware of the Presto fare card's failings. But the Toronto Star has pointed out yet another one, and this one's a doozy.

The UP Express, AKA UPX, is a half-billion-dollar train that runs between Toronto's Union Station and Pearson airport along GO Transit's Kitchener line. Two stops are shared with GO Transit stations. The Presto card readers on the UPX side of the station are separate from the GO Transit readers and they don't talk to each other.

Let's say you get on the UPX at Bloor station and tap on using a GO Transit Presto reader, which is green. You get off at Pearson and tap off on a UPX Presto reader, which is silver. One trip, right? But you are going to get charged for two, and to make matters worse, the GO fare charged will be for the full Kitchener line, because you didn't tap off (on a GO reader).

The simple solution would be to connect the two systems, right? But that's not the Presto way. They're going to fix it with a better "user experience".

Ferguson said Metrolinx is “working to improve the user experience” and is launching a pilot initiative at Union “to test out designs that would better visually distinguish the two types of machines.”

According to Olivier St-Cyr, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s faculty of information and an expert in user experience design, public-facing technical systems that rely on people to correctly interpret visual cues like signage are often the least effective.

He argued it would be ideal to just have one type of machine, but if that’s not possible Metrolinx could design a system that prevents people from choosing the wrong device. For example, he suggested that if possible the devices could be programmed to reject a customer’s payment if they end their journey by tapping their card on a different colour device than the one they started with.

I can't wait to see what Metrolinx comes up with. In the meantime, if you have any friends or family taking the UPX, make sure they know about this little quirk.

Toronto Street Art Map

The City of Toronto has created an interactive web map of street art projects in Toronto. From their website:

Toronto is home to some of the best mural, street and graffiti artists and art in the world. These artists and artworks have transformed Toronto's public streets, laneways and parks into a city-wide art gallery!

This map based app will help you explore the amazing street art located throughout the city. The current database provides a sampling of murals created as part of the StreetARToronto suite of programs from 2012 to 2018. In addition to identifying the artist and arts organization responsible for painting the mural the database describes the stories and themes behind each unique and beautiful artwork. Individually and collectively these murals are designed to celebrate the City of Toronto motto "Diversity Our Strength" and foster a greater sense of belonging among all.

Filters allow you to search by any combination of Year and/or Ward. Additional filters will be installed and the database is being updated regularly to add more artwork, so check back often!

This is very cool and works well both on my computer and phone. I expect to be using it quite a bit when we're exploring Toronto (once the temperature goes up to something closer to supporting human life). I did notice immediately the paucity of street art in the financial core and dowtown.

Thanks to Mobile Syrup for the tip and review.

Ford Nation: How Populism Took Hold in Toronto

I live in Pickering, just east of the city of Toronto, and have spent most of the last 35 years working in Toronto, so I tend to think of myself as a Torontonian, even though I don't live there. I love the city; it's safe, multicultural, vibrant, and has more good restaurants than I could sample in a dozen lifetimes. But it's not perfect, and the major imperfections are its transit and its politics, which are tightly intertwined.

Toronto's politics has been tumultuous during the last decade and the main reason for that comes from one family, the Fords. The late Rob Ford won one term as mayor and probably would have won a second if he hadn't developed a fatal cancer. His brother, Doug Ford, won election as a city councillor and is now the premier of Ontario, a post that he has used to shaft Toronto at every opportunity.

I've made no secret of how much I detest the Fords, especially Doug, who is now in a position to do real damage to, not just Toronto, but the people of Ontario. I find it difficult to understand how a man who is so manifestly unqualified to hold public office has attained the premiership. In Ford Nation: How Populism Took Hold in Toronto, Rob Florida looks at the rise of the Ford dynasty and analyses the demographic and political factors behind it.

Before Trump, the late Rob Ford rose to power in Toronto, arguably North America’s most diverse city, filled with tall towers, dense walkable streets, and a vibrant knowledge economy, with a long history of progressivism on social issues. Rob Ford’s rise was not just a one-off event: It was part of a much broader populist movement dubbed “Ford Nation” that ended up propelling his brother Doug to the much more powerful post of premier of Ontario.

The rise of Ford’s brand of populism in Toronto is the subject of a new study by my University of Toronto colleagues Daniel Silver and Fernando Calderón-Figueroa, and Zack Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Western Ontario. Their detailed research is a warning to all of us, especially to left-leaning urbanists, that populism can grow in superstar cities. So exactly how did Ford’s populism emerge in Toronto and Ontario, the largest city and largest province of a country whose national political scene is often noted as virtually immune to populism?

Florida's final words echo my thoughts exactly:

When Rob Ford’s originally rose to power in my adopted hometown of Toronto, I predicted that if he could take power in such a thriving diverse and progressive city, more would likely follow. After reading this study, I am more worried now than ever.