TTC / en Toronto’s subways expose passengers to more air pollution than Montreal, Vancouver systems /news/toronto-s-subways-expose-passengers-more-air-pollution-montreal-vancouver-systems <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Toronto’s subways expose passengers to more air pollution than Montreal, Vancouver systems</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-24-evans-subway.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4Xpg6HKJ 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-04-24-evans-subway.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=idVfNKK1 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-04-24-evans-subway.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-KpOs6D3 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-24-evans-subway.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4Xpg6HKJ" alt="photo of Evans on subway platform"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-04-25T06:47:17-04:00" title="Tuesday, April 25, 2017 - 06:47" class="datetime">Tue, 04/25/2017 - 06:47</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Professor Greg Evans measures air pollution on A Toronto subway platform. A new study shows that airborne particulates in such locations are much higher than in the outside air (photo by Tyler Irving)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Tyler Irving</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/pollution" hreflang="en">Pollution</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Airborne particulates on subway platforms and trains are up to 10 times higher than outside air, around three times higher than levels in Montreal’s Metro</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A new study co-authored by Թϱ Engineering Professor<strong> Greg Evans</strong>&nbsp;shows that subways increase our personal exposure to certain pollutants, even as they decrease overall emissions –&nbsp;and that Toronto has the highest levels in Canada.</p> <p>The findings come from data collected on TTC platforms and in trains over three weeks in the summer of 2010 and the winter of 2011. In collaboration with researchers from Health Canada and McGill University, Evans and his chemical engineering students used portable detectors for particulate matter –&nbsp;tiny particles suspended in air –&nbsp;and found them to be much higher than in the ambient air outside.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-subway-air-pollution-1.4083583">Read more at the CBC</a></h3> <h3><a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/toronto-subway-riders-workers-breathing-air-10-times-worse-than-outside-study-1.3384061">Read the CTV story</a></h3> <p>The team evaluated air quality using a metric called PM2.5, which measures the mass of airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres per cubic metre of air.</p> <p>“While larger particles get caught in your nose or throat, these ones can make the twists and turns to be able to get deep down into the lungs,” says Evans.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/04/25/ttc-subway-system-10-times-more-polluted-than-outside-study-shows.html">Read the<em> Toronto Star</em> story</a></h3> <p>For comparison, a typical human hair is 50 to 100 micrometres wide.</p> <p>Evans says that a typical outdoor PM2.5 value for Toronto would be on the order of 10 micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air. On a poor air quality day in Toronto, that value might rise as high as 30 micrograms per cubic metre, and the particles would be visible in the air as haze.</p> <p>But on Toronto subway platforms and trains, the team measured an average value of 100 micrograms per cubic metre.</p> <p>“That’s comparable with a typical day in Beijing,” says Evans. <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag">The results are published today in the journal<em> Environmental Science &amp; Technology</em></a>.</p> <p>On the street, combustion sources such as cars and trucks are the dominant contributors to PM2.5 levels. But subway trains are electric, so the particles in subway stations must be coming from a different source.</p> <p>“We know from analyzing the composition of the particles that it’s not just everyday grime,” says Evans. “The metal concentrations are very high, and the ratios of manganese to iron are similar to what you see in steel.”</p> <p>This composition suggests that abrasion between the wheels and track of the train is grinding off tiny steel particles. As each train comes into the station, it pushes a column of air in front of it, which stirs up these particles along with any other dust settled at track level.</p> <p>In above-ground stations, such as Rosedale and Davisville, the team found that PM2.5 measurements were about half what they were underground. Vancouver’s Skytrain system, which is primarily above ground, also had much lower average PM2.5 values at an average of 17 micrograms per cubic metre. Montreal’s system, while entirely below ground, averaged 36 micrograms per cubic metre, which Evans says may be because its rubber wheels, concrete rails, and <a href="http://s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdvQLYC5hGc">wood-based braking system </a>leads to less abrasion than steel-on-steel.</p> <p>Long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution has been associated with negative effects on the respiratory and cardiac systems, and short-term exposures to high levels can aggravate asthma or trigger heart attacks. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/health-canada/migration/healthy-canadians/publications/healthy-living-vie-saine/fine-particulate-particule-fine/alt/fine-particulate-particule-fine-eng.pdf">Current Health Canada guidelines recommend that indoor PM2.5 levels be kept “as low as possible,” </a>and at minimum, lower than the outside air.</p> <p>Evans points out that these findings must be taken in context. Most commuters only spend about an hour or so on the subway each day, which means that its impact on overall daily exposure is limited. “Taking transit only increases a given daily overall exposure by 20 per cent,” says Evans.</p> <p>By contrast, the outdoor PM2.5 level can vary day to day by much more than 20 per cent simply due to the weather.</p> <p>“The comparison between the three subway systems shows that this is a preventable exposure and we should take steps to reduce it,” says Evans. “These particles may also be more toxic than typical outdoor particles due to their high metal content.”</p> <p>“The findings are similar to previously published studies conducted in metro systems across the world,” says Keith Van Ryswyk, scientific project coordinator at Health Canada’s Air Health Science Division and lead author of the study. “The results from the study can be used to help guide transportation planners in Canada to improve air quality for commuters.”</p> <p>Evans says exposure could be reduced by upgrading ventilation systems and cleaning up the dust that may be the source of the particles. He points out that his measurements were taken before the introduction of new train cars on Toronto’s Line 1, the Yonge-University-Spadina line, in 2011. These new cars may already be reducing exposure through better braking systems and improved air filters, although those studies have not yet been done.</p> <p>In the meantime, Evans says he will continue using subways for his daily commute, at least when biking is not an option.</p> <p>“Public transit offers the advantage of better air quality overall across the city,” he says. “This isn’t enough for me to stop taking the subway, but at the same time, we should try to reduce our exposure.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 25 Apr 2017 10:47:17 +0000 lanthierj 106999 at Transit expert Michael Schabas says Toronto must recognize transportation is a business, not just a service /news/transit-expert-michael-schabas-says-toronto-must-recognize-transportation-business-not-just <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Transit expert Michael Schabas says Toronto must recognize transportation is a business, not just a service</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Linus%20Follert%20flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qBg0XSQ7 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Linus%20Follert%20flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cUm6tsbI 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Linus%20Follert%20flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BBSGYoMp 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Linus%20Follert%20flickr.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qBg0XSQ7" alt="Photo of London Overground"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-01-11T12:49:42-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - 12:49" class="datetime">Wed, 01/11/2017 - 12:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Michael Schabas says he's still optimistic about Toronto fixing its transportation woes (photo by Linus Follert/Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transportation" hreflang="en">Transportation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/city" hreflang="en">City</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/john-h-daniels-faculty-architecture" hreflang="en">John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto" hreflang="en">Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/urban" hreflang="en">urban</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The Թϱ alum brings lessons from London to Toronto transit: "You need to offer a better service quality – faster and more frequent trains, all day and on weekends" </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Few transit systems hold a candle to London’s sprawling network of trains. Its comprehensive web of rail lines serve&nbsp;everyone from well-to-do businesspeople to blue-collar workers, transporting them to every corner of the city.&nbsp;</p> <p>Transit consultant&nbsp;<strong>Michael Schabas</strong>, an alumnus of Թϱ's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design,&nbsp;played an important role in making the London transportation system what it is today.</p> <p>He is&nbsp;sharing his insights from the United Kingdom in a new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Railway-Metropolis-planners-politicians-developers/dp/0727761803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1484073697&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=The+Railway+Metropolis+How+planners%2C+politicians%2C+and+developers+shaped+Modern+London"><em>The Railway Metropolis: How planners, politicians, and developers shaped Modern London</em></a>.</p> <p>“The book is about how London learned to build railways that were worth having that attracted passengers, that operated efficiently, that were affordable and efficient,” says Schabas.&nbsp;</p> <p>Schabas, who has worked on transportation projects all over the world, is currently in Toronto helping Metrolinx implement the Regional Express Rail project, a large scale <a href="http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/rer/">transformation of the GO Rail network</a>.</p> <p>He spoke with<em> Թϱ</em> about what Toronto can learn from London’s successes and missteps.&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3093 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/schabas%20resize.jpg" style="width: 179px; height: 250px; float: left; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Why is it important to tell the story of London's transportation system?</strong></p> <div> <div> <p>Because railways are so expensive&nbsp;and take so long to plan and build that some cities never learned from their mistakes. The last railway Toronto built was the Sheppard subway – that was about 20 years ago, and before that, the Spadina RT, which came 10 years before it.&nbsp;</p> <p>You have to learn from other cities. You can't just learn from your own city because it's probably too long ago.</p> <p>London learned from Vancouver when it built the SkyTrain. I worked on the first line in the early 1980s, and London copied it with the Docklands Light Railway, an automated, elevated system that other cities around the world have also copied. But Toronto still learns only from itself&nbsp;so it only wants to build subways and streetcar lines.</p> <p><strong>What are Toronto's other transit shortcomings?</strong></p> <p>Toronto only thinks about the capital costs. It assumes that a railway always loses money and doesn't do analysis of business cases &nbsp;– so you have plans like the Scarborough subway, which is supposed to replace the Scarborough RT but obviously won't attract any more passengers because it's going to do pretty much exactly the same thing as the existing line. And, it may actually cost more to operate than the RT it will replace.</p> <p>Most of the investment in London over the last 30 years has been to upgrade the surface railway. The London Overground is a new service created by knitting together and electrifying surface railways.&nbsp;That's the lesson Toronto is learning with the Regional Express Rail project that's now going ahead.&nbsp;</p> <p>I'm a Toronto boy.&nbsp;I grew up in Toronto. I left Toronto in 1979 because I didn't think Toronto would do anything clever with railways for the next 30 years. I went to Vancouver and then London and built a lot of railways. Most of which have been successful&nbsp;but also a lot of mistakes were made.</p> <p>My book tells the stories of the projects that have been delivered in London. If you get to the last page, you will see that I give London a score of 7/10. Not bad, but plenty of room for improvement.</p> <p><strong>What score would you give Toronto?</strong></p> <p>At the moment, we don't want to talk about it. But I&nbsp;would say if I write the same book on Toronto in 2040, 8/10 is still within reach.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>How do we get past the roadblocks Toronto's transit system is currently facing?</strong></p> <p>Toronto needs to learn that transport is a business as well as a social service. You need to offer a better service quality –&nbsp;faster and more frequent trains, all day and on weekends. There's a line I use as a title of one of my chapters, which is credited to the mayor of Bogotá: the successful city isn't a place where the poor people have cars, but it's a city where the rich people use public transit. &nbsp;</p> <p>By rich people, I don't think he meant millionaires. He meant people with jobs, people with cars, people carrying knapsacks with laptops in them.</p> <p>In Toronto, those people do use public transit to go downtown, and they love it. But they don't use it to go from Scarborough to Mississauga because it's too slow, and they end up sitting in their cars on the 401.</p> <p>In London, those people use public transit. Toronto is a rich city, and it needs its public transit system to also be for "rich” people.</p> <p><strong>How optimistic are you that Toronto will get to the point where it can create the transportation systems it needs?</strong></p> <p>I'm very optimistic.</p> <p>Toronto is a potential railway metropolis. It's very dense, even in the suburbs. Even Scarborough and Mississauga are much denser than American suburbs. People don't realize that.</p> <p>Toronto has six&nbsp;freeway lanes in to the downtown. Houston has 43.</p> <p>Toronto has very little in the way of a freeway system. Rail is the only way to make Toronto keep growing, and luckily for Toronto, it's not too late – the corridors are there for the RER, and Toronto never had the problems American cities had that made “rich”&nbsp;people stop using transit.&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 11 Jan 2017 17:49:42 +0000 Romi Levine 103251 at Թϱ joins the city of Toronto in social procurement pledge /news/u-t-joins-city-toronto-social-procurement-pledge <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Թϱ joins the city of Toronto in social procurement pledge</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/ECB%20main.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lG-qk4UW 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/ECB%20main.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=YUEb5fuw 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/ECB%20main.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=aYTGnUHI 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/ECB%20main.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lG-qk4UW" alt="photo of Environmental Science and Chemistry Building at Թϱ Scarborough"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-10-24T12:02:51-04:00" title="Monday, October 24, 2016 - 12:02" class="datetime">Mon, 10/24/2016 - 12:02</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Environmental Science and Chemistry building at University of Toronto Scarborough (photo by Ken Jones)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-toronto" hreflang="en">University of Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">Թϱ Scarborough</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/food-services" hreflang="en">Food Services</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto" hreflang="en">Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/anchorto" hreflang="en">AnchorTO</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">AnchorTO brings the city’s largest public institutions together for ‘buy local’ strategy</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Nothing beats spending a sunny afternoon at a nearby farmer’s market, picking up fresh produce grown only a few kilometres away.&nbsp;</p> <p>The&nbsp;“buy local” philosophy has been&nbsp;spreading beyond the farmer’s market to restaurants and&nbsp;boutiques –&nbsp;and now to Toronto’s public institutions like&nbsp;the University of Toronto. &nbsp;</p> <p>U&nbsp;of T&nbsp;Scarborough, for example, is working with its food services provider Aramark to find ways to source local food.</p> <p>“There are a tremendous number of farms around the campus,” says <strong>Andrew Arifuzzaman</strong>,&nbsp;chief administrative officer of Թϱ Scarborough. “We’ll be bringing local farms in, talking about what they need to become suppliers to Aramark.”</p> <p>Թϱ's downtown Toronto campus already sources and buys local food. Since the campus' food services began operating in-house, those volumes have increased, according to <strong>Anne Macdonald</strong>, director of ancillary services.</p> <p>In that same vein of "buying local," Թϱ Scarborough&nbsp;has also partnered with an organization called Hammer Heads, which hires local apprentices for on-campus construction projects, most recently at&nbsp;the Environmental Science and Chemistry building and at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/aboutus/highland-hall">Highland Hall</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>The university's downtown Toronto campus is now hoping to do something similar.</p> <p>Թϱ is looking to expand its community engagement with local businesses and workers by teaming up with the Atkinson Foundation and&nbsp;anchor institutions&nbsp;such as the City of Toronto and&nbsp;public sector organizations like the TTC, Ryerson University and Toronto Public Library. Anchor institutions are&nbsp;public or non-profit organizations&nbsp;rooted in their community, hence the name of the initiative, AnchorTO.&nbsp;</p> <p>Along with Թϱ, 13&nbsp;institutions have signed on, pledging to research and create a plan for sourcing and utilizing local goods and services – a practice called social procurement.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It is to our benefit to ensure that the community is as successful as it can be because it’s essentially a symbiotic relationship,” says <strong>Sheila Brown</strong>, Թϱ’s chief financial officer.</p> <p>For Թϱ’s Director of Procurement Services&nbsp;<strong>Renata Faverin</strong>, it’s important that AnchorTO takes a collaborative approach to procurement.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It’s about working on projects and identifying ways, always within our regulations, to encourage participation and further economic development for our disadvantaged communities, our smaller suppliers,” she says.</p> <p>Implementing new procurement strategies will be complicated, guided by the legal framework already in place, says Brown.</p> <p>“We must do everything in accordance to the current rules, which are complex, and the current rules in Ontario,” she says.&nbsp;</p> <p>Arifuzzaman believes&nbsp;all that hard work pays off for the university and the community at large. That's what he&nbsp;hopes will happen in Scarborough.</p> <p>“Creating opportunities for local suppliers makes Scarborough more attractive to live work and play,” he says. “It creates a whole system – a micro ecosystem of economic growth and prosperity.”</p> <p><strong>Other Toronto organizations signed on to AnchorTO:</strong></p> <p>Atkinson Foundation<br> City of Toronto<br> Centennial College<br> George Brown College<br> Metrolinx<br> Ryerson University<br> Seneca College<br> Toronto Public Library<br> Toronto Transit Commission<br> Toronto Community Housing<br> United Way Toronto and York Region<br> University of Toronto<br> University of Toronto Scarborough</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:02:51 +0000 Romi Levine 101485 at #UofTBTS16: Թϱ research hopes to ease student transportation woes /news/uoftbts16-u-t-research-student-transportation <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">#UofTBTS16: Թϱ research hopes to ease student transportation woes </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-07-transit-lead2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=i8vfY9cO 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-09-07-transit-lead2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=IRrrPEdX 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-09-07-transit-lead2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=s0cwxTd3 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-09-07-transit-lead2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=i8vfY9cO" alt="Photo of streetcar on College Street"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-09-07T12:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - 12:00" class="datetime">Wed, 09/07/2016 - 12:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Photo by Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transportation" hreflang="en">Transportation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geography-and-planning" hreflang="en">Geography and Planning</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/back-school" hreflang="en">Back to School</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/uoftbts16" hreflang="en">#UofTBTS16</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Sonali Patel</strong> spends four hours on public transit almost every day, getting to and from the University of Toronto’s St. George campus.</p> <p>That’s a bus to the Bronte GO station from her Oakville home, a train to Union Station and then a subway ride to St. George.</p> <p>“My day is go from 9 am to 9 pm,” says Patel. “I’m at the train at 7 in the morning and I don’t get home until 11 at night. I basically live on campus. I just go home to sleep.”</p> <p>The long, cumbersome commute isn’t unique to Patel – in fact, a third of students in Toronto spend two hours or more per day, traveling to and from campus, according to a survey released earlier this year by&nbsp;StudentMoveTO,&nbsp;a collaboration between the University of Toronto, OCAD University, Ryerson University and York University.</p> <p>Getting the universities to&nbsp;work together&nbsp;on a survey&nbsp;of this magnitude -- 15,226 students responded -- was part of a ground-breaking effort by the four university presidents to collaborate on solving critical issues for the city-region. It has since inspired Թϱ researchers in engineering and geography to dig deeper into the issue.</p> <p><strong>Monir Moniruzzaman</strong>, a postdoctoral researcher in geography and planning, is working alongside assistant professor Steven Farber to further analyze the survey data. Moniruzzaman researches student attitudes toward different&nbsp;transportation options. He says the survey offers researchers a large sample size, often not found in other studies.</p> <p>“Do we need more transit or more bicycle paths or dedicated shuttles for university students?” Moniruzzaman asks. He hopes his work will help answer that question, and&nbsp;the survey results will help planners and policy-makers&nbsp;create a more student-friendly city.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Matti Siemiatycki</strong>, associate professor of geography and planning at Թϱ and one of the lead researchers of&nbsp;StudentMoveTO, said the initiative&nbsp;is working with transportation agencies like the TTC and Metrolinx to help them find ways to utilize the survey results.</p> <p>“We’re in the process of building those relationships and getting the data out there,”&nbsp;Siemiatycki says.</p> <p>Siemiatycki says it’s the best way to inform change and inspire research.</p> <p>“It allows others to come with their own creativity and ideas that, for those of us involved at the beginning, we may not have envisioned – and that’s great. I think that’s where innovation comes from and new ideas,” he says.</p> <h3><a href="/news/studentmoveto"><font color="#0066cc">Read more about the results here</font></a></h3> <p>The survey also found that students were making sacrifices<span style="line-height: 20.8px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>either on time or money<span style="line-height: 20.8px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>as a result of limited transportation options. On average, students are taking 40 minutes one-way to get to campus. And commuting distance is affecting how students pick their courses. Students may group classes together, thus avoiding early morning and late night courses but also affecting whether they avoid taking classes on Mondays and Fridays.</p> <p>“Students are making trade-offs between where they live and how long their commutes are,” Siemiatycki says. “Some students are making a trade-off to spend more money and live close to campus while others are deciding to either rent apartments or live at home further way from campus and spend additional money and time on their commute.”</p> <p>Students are&nbsp;making academic sacrifices too, says Siemiatycki.</p> <p>“There’s a cohort of students out there that are making their class choices and making their extra-curricular choices based on whether they can reach campus in time to take part, or whether they can stay late and still find a way to get home,” he says.&nbsp;“I think there are important lessons for our institutions about how we do scheduling, and how we understand the needs of our students on our campuses.”</p> <p><a href="http://www.studentmoveto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/StudentMoveTO.Handout_4Uni.v2.pdf"><font color="#0066cc">The survey data</font></a> is available online to anyone who wants to access it.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 07 Sep 2016 16:00:00 +0000 Romi Levine 100309 at Թϱ applauds new transit proposal for Scarborough /news/u-t-applauds-new-transit-proposal-scarborough <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Թϱ applauds new transit proposal for Scarborough</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-01-21T10:31:14-05:00" title="Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 10:31" class="datetime">Thu, 01/21/2016 - 10:31</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“Թϱ Scarborough is an exciting and growing campus,” President Meric Gertler says. “It is central to the cultural and intellectual life in the Eastern GTA and very much a part of Toronto’s overall growth.”</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/don-campbell" hreflang="en">Don Campbell</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Don Campbell</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/campus" hreflang="en">Campus</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Bruce Kidd: “rational transit solution” for students, faculty and staff will provide huge economic stimulus for region</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The proposed transit plan for Scarborough is being welcomed as a game-changer for both University of Toronto Scarborough and the entire east end of Toronto.&nbsp;</p> <p>“This plan serves our growing student population, faculty, staff and all of the Scarborough community with a rational transit solution,” Թϱ Scarborough Principal <strong>Bruce Kidd&nbsp;</strong>said.</p> <p>“It will provide a huge economic stimulus to this long under-served region of the city, and enable many more people to benefit from the tremendous educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities provided by UTSC and the rest of Scarborough.”</p> <p>The city staff report released on Jan. 21 proposes a 17-stop Eglinton Crosstown LRT that will run to Թϱ Scarborough. The plan also proposes eliminating two of three stops along the proposed Scarborough extension of Line 2, which would now stop only at Scarborough Town Centre. The $1 billion in savings would go to support the LRT extension.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Transit infrastructure is crucial to the prosperity of the city-regions, just as outstanding universities are a vital part of our capacity for innovation,” &nbsp;Թϱ President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong> said. “This new, evidence-based transit plan brings these two priorities together in a way that will serve the eastern GTA extremely well for years and decades to come."</p> <p>Professor <strong>André Sorensen</strong>, chair of the department of human geography at UTSC and <a href="http://ose.utsc.utoronto.ca/ose/story.php?id=7094&amp;sectid=1">author of a report covering transit options for Scarborough</a>, called the proposal&nbsp; “smart, informed planning.”</p> <p>One big advantage of the LRT is that it’s shovel-ready since an environmental assessment has already been completed, says Sorensen.</p> <p>“We know that well-planned transit can significantly contribute to the quality of life for people in Scarborough by providing mobility, higher intensity of use along key corridors, and along with that comes new investment.”&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="photo of UTSC students on campus" src="/sites/default/files/2016-01-21-UTSC_Students.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 448px; margin: 10px; float: right;">Toronto Mayor <strong>John Tory</strong> told CBC’s <em>Metro Morning</em> that the plan already has the support of both the provincial and federal governments, noting money has already been allocated for the project. &nbsp;</p> <p>“This is a better plan – more transit for Scarborough for the same money. If I can find a better way to do things that goes along with expert advice, that gets more value for the money ... I'm going to go with that,”&nbsp;Tory said.</p> <p>The city report outlining the transit proposal is expected to go to the mayor's executive committee next Thursday.</p> <p>“The east Scarborough LRT&nbsp;was promised by City Council years ago, when UTSC students committed to a capital levy to bring about the creation of the T<a href="http://www.tpasc.ca/view/tpasc">oronto Pan American Sport Centre</a>,” Kidd said. “Today’s announcement brings the delivery of this promise much closer to reality.”</p> <p>Թϱ Scarborough is already a transit hub in the eastern part of the city with 675 buses arriving every weekday. The LRT extension to the campus will connect all those travelers to even more parts of the city.&nbsp;</p> <p>“The city is taking an important step in the right direction for a community that has previously not been adequately served by public transit,” said&nbsp;<strong>Yasmin Rajabi</strong>, vice-president, external for the Scarborough Campus Students Union.“This plan truly connects UTSC to the rest of the city, the way it should be.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2016-01-21-transit-map-header.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:31:14 +0000 sgupta 7601 at StudentMoveTO: thousands complete transit survey created by students /news/studentmoveto-thousands-complete-transit-survey-created-students <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">StudentMoveTO: thousands complete transit survey created by students </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-12-08T03:07:06-05:00" title="Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - 03:07" class="datetime">Tue, 12/08/2015 - 03:07</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Four universities collaborated in the survey about commuting to school (photo by Sean_Marshall via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/current-students" hreflang="en">Current Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/commute" hreflang="en">Commute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utsc" hreflang="en">UTSC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Matti Siemiatycki: “We will have enough data to continue to engage with students, to push the conversation” about their transit needs</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>More than 7,000 University of Toronto students have filled out an unprecedented survey about their concerns while travelling to and from school.&nbsp;</p> <p>The survey was launched on Sept. 30 at Toronto City Hall, with the four universities in Toronto collaborating on the initiative. More than 13,000 post-secondary students responded, including more than 7,000 from Թϱ.</p> <p><strong>Matti Siemiatycki</strong>, an associate professor of geography and expert on transit and infrastructure, helped design the survey and will be part of a Թϱ group analyzing the results in January. The survey closes on Dec. 8.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/studentmoveto">Read more about the survey</a></h2> <p>Siemiatycki said in an interview with <em>Թϱ</em> the response so far is “good intermediate news. This suggests how interested students are in this issue. We are highly encouraged that they would take the time to do this.”</p> <p>When the results are analyzed, “we will have enough data to continue to engage with students, to push the conversation” about their transit needs. “We will get a really good picture of what their travel habits are across the (GTA) region.”</p> <p><strong>Zainab Abbasi </strong>filled out the survey. The fourth-year student majoring in urban studies and architectural design commutes to the downtown Toronto campus from Mississauga.</p> <p>“I was really surprised that so many students filled it out. I thought it would be just students in urban studies who would be interested,” Abbasi said in an interview.</p> <p>One section of the survey asked the students to essentially keep a diary of their day-to-day travels for one week. “It was very comprehensive and detailed,” Abbasi said.</p> <p>She takes the GO-Train from the Streetsville Station to get to Թϱ. “It is not the cheapest way but it is the most dependable. I know some students from Mississauga who can’t afford it and take a bus to the Islington subway station, but it really takes much longer” to get to school.</p> <p><strong>Bushra Nassab</strong>, president of the Association of Political Science Students at Թϱ, also completed the survey. She too commutes to the downtown Toronto campus from Mississauga.&nbsp;</p> <p>“My biggest issue regarding travel times is traveling during rush hour. In order to avoid making my one hour commute a one and a half hour one, usually I find myself avoiding travelling during such times. However, my biggest issue with the transportation system in the GTA is not so much the travel time, but how expensive it is.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Nassab said she studied in Germany and “while I was there, I was given a significant discount on transportation services by virtue of me being a student. I feel that the GTA transportation systems keep raising their fares and are not accommodating towards students. I feel like we can learn a lot from Germany.”&nbsp;</p> <p>In Germany she purchased&nbsp;a “monthly regional pass (the region being almost the size of the GTA) with unlimited travel on all buses and trains in the region for only 56 Euros, which is approximately $81 Canadian.</p> <p>“In Canada, I use a Presto Card and I spend approximately $54 per week just commuting from home to Թϱ and vice versa. I feel that the provincial government should really do much more to help students in this respect and save them some money,” she said. &nbsp;</p> <p>The survey was created by StudentMoveTO, a partnership between Թϱ, York University, Ryerson University and OCAD U. The launch at City Hall was attended by President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong> and representatives of the other universities and transit officials in the GTA.</p> <p>(Image below: President Gertler at the launch/photo by Johnny Guatto)</p> <p><img alt="photo of President Meric Gertler at transit survey launch" src="/sites/default/files/2015-12-08-TransitSurveyLaunch.jpg" style="width: 630px; height: 420px; margin: 10px 25px;">&nbsp;</p> <p>(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/7119320@N05/21370482678/in/dateposted/">See the original of the photo used above at Flickr</a>)</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-12-08-transit-survey.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 08 Dec 2015 08:07:06 +0000 sgupta 7516 at Թϱ experts on why Tory's tax plan is not enough /news/u-t-experts-why-torys-tax-plan-not-enough <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Թϱ experts on why Tory's tax plan is not enough</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-12-04T11:32:38-05:00" title="Friday, December 4, 2015 - 11:32" class="datetime">Fri, 12/04/2015 - 11:32</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“We have dramatic needs for infrastructure investment,” Matti Siemiatycki says (photo by Ashton Pal via Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/taxes" hreflang="en">Taxes</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/revenue" hreflang="en">revenue</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">It's a good start but more revenue is required for infrastructure, researchers say</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Toronto Mayor <strong>John Tory</strong>’s plan to introduce a property tax dedicated to public transit and social housing infrastructure is a good start, University of Toronto experts say&nbsp;–&nbsp;but just a start.</p> <p>Tory announced on Nov. 2 that he will be seeking an annual “city building” tax of 0.5 per cent added to property tax bills, for transit and housing. It would start in 2017 and add about $13 to the average property tax bill of $2,654.50.</p> <p><strong>Enid Slack</strong>, director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Government at Թϱ’s Munk School of Global Affairs and one of Canada’s foremost experts in municipal finance, said Tory’s plan “shows that the city recognizes it has a revenue problem,” not a spending problem.</p> <p>The Institute did a study before the last municipal election in 2014 on the fiscal health of problems of Toronto that showed it has not been increasing property taxes very rapidly, and has huge infrastructure needs.</p> <p>“Increasing the property tax is a good start,” Slack said, “but it may not be enough. It’s not a lot of money coming in, so I think they may still have to think about other things to do, perhaps increasing borrowing.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Dedicating the tax increase to transit and infrastructure for housing “makes it a bit more palatable for taxpayers,” she said, noting that such infrastructure lasts for 30 or 40 years and citizens can reap the benefits at the same time the city is paying back loans over the same period.</p> <p><strong>Matti Siemiatycki</strong>, an associate professor of geography who focuses on municipal infrastructure and transit, echoed Slack’s views.&nbsp;</p> <p>Siemiatycki pointed to a report from city manager Peter Wallace this week that City Council has planned $23 billion in capital projects without identifying any sources of funding. &nbsp;</p> <p>“We have dramatic needs for infrastructure investment,” Siemiatycki said.</p> <p>Tory’s plan “is the beginning of a recognition that we have to come up with ways to pay for all of this. If you want to have it, you have to pay for it,” Siematycki said, suggesting&nbsp;a “variety of other” taxes could be needed.</p> <p>Borrowing for infrastructure projects is a good thing, he said, as long as the right projects are chosen. They should be ones that “drive the economic engine and create jobs.”</p> <p>The report released by the institute last year made three basic points: Toronto’s residential property tax is relatively low compared to other cities and growing slowly, and actually declining in real terms; the city can’t manage its infrastructure deficit without new revenue tools and Toronto’s debt load “is modest and manageable for a growing city.”</p> <p>Slack said that Tory’s plan shows the city is starting to address the problems outlined in the report.</p> <p>(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashtonpal/10938717866/">See the original of the photo above at Flickr</a>)</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-12-04-tory-bus.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:32:38 +0000 sgupta 7500 at Can this expert solve Toronto's transit woes? /news/can-expert-solve-torontos-transit-woes <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Can this expert solve Toronto's transit woes?</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-11-27T11:26:33-05:00" title="Friday, November 27, 2015 - 11:26" class="datetime">Fri, 11/27/2015 - 11:26</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">“We are non-ideological,” says Professor Eric Miller of Թϱ's Transportation Research Institute, which is assessing Toronto's transit needs and examining the SmartTrack Plan. “It has to be evidence-based.” (photo by Roberta Baker)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transportation" hreflang="en">Transportation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Eric Miller on why we have to stop “setting ourselves up for failure”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For years, the University of Toronto has been an “under-utilized resource” for the City of Toronto, Professor <strong>Eric Miller</strong> says – but he is at the forefront of changing that.</p> <p>A civil engineering professor and the director of Թϱ’s <a href="http://uttri.utoronto.ca/">Transportation Research Institute</a>, Miller has had a close working relationship with the City of Toronto for many years.</p> <p>But with both President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong> and Mayor <strong>John Tory</strong> stressing closer ties, that relationship has intensified.&nbsp;</p> <p>Earlier this year City Council awarded a contract to Miller and the institute to do a major study on the transit needs of Toronto, including an examination of Tory’s SmartTrack proposal he made during last year’s mayoral election campaign. The report is due in January.</p> <p>Miller told <em>Թϱ</em> that “it is very important that we not look at just one project is isolation,” suggesting that the study could make recommendations about walking and biking as well as public transit.</p> <p>During the municipal election campaign Miller wrote in an op-ed column for <em>The Star</em> that Tory’s SmartTrack plan, tabbed a “regional relief line,” was a good idea. But he also said Olivia Chow’s proposal for more buses was welcomed as well, because “increasing the capacity of the surface transit network is essential.” &nbsp;</p> <p>The TTC is planning to add more buses, though its attempt to add more streetcars has been stymied by manufacturing delays.</p> <p>Many transit advocates are pushing for a downtown relief line to ease the congestion on the Yonge/Spadina line. Miller noted though that &nbsp;the SmartTrack plan would also offer such relief. The SmartTrack line will provide service from the Airport Corporate Centre in the west, southeast to Union Station and northeast to Markham in the east. It would have 22 new station stops and five interchanges with the TTC rapid transit network. &nbsp;</p> <p>Tory promised that the line would be built in seven years with service starting in 2021.&nbsp;</p> <p>Miller stressed that the institute is not an advocate for any one plan. “We are non-ideological. It has to be evidence-based and, technically, make sense or not.”</p> <p>While not coming out in favour of any plan, Miller made it clear that one of the frustrations for transit planners is the lack of political will to get things done.</p> <p>“The root problem is the total unwillingness [of politicians]&nbsp;to deal with transit funding. The idea that they are not willing to pay for it is so ridiculous. We are setting ourselves up for failure” by not coming to grips with the issue.</p> <p>Gertler and city manager <strong>Peter Wallace</strong> attended a session recently on funding for municipalities during which they discussed alternative sources of revenue and alumna <strong>Anne Golden</strong>, former head of the United Way of Greater Toronto, suggested raising revenue for transit through a city sales tax. Golden made the recommendation to the provincial government in December, 2013 along with former city planner Paul Bedford.</p> <p>“The reports were fantastic,” Miller said. “It could have been the solution” to the problem of finding money for public transit. Instead, we got a “totally mindless, kneejerk reaction” from politicians. “They don’t want to bite the bullet to pay for things that will make your life better.”</p> <p>One group of people whose lives could be made better by improved public transit are university students, who often commute for hours just to get to class.&nbsp;</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/just-how-bad-your-commute">Read about one student's commute</a></h2> <p>Miller was heavily involved in the creation of StudentMove TO which launched an unprecedented public transit survey of 170,000 post-secondary students in Toronto last September. One of his PhD students, <strong>Chris Harding</strong>, helped designed the survey.</p> <p>Miller said “I am very, very excited” that the survey results will “lead to better policy decisions” that will help students. The results will be analyzed after the survey is concluded in January.</p> <h2><a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/tags/studentmoveto">Read more about StudentMove TO</a></h2> <p>The strengthening of ties between Թϱ and the City of Toronto is critical to the success of both, he suggested. The relationship “has always been a little ad hoc” and formalizing it in a wide array of areas makes sense, Miller said. But he said “we have to be a little careful in making sure our [Թϱ’s]&nbsp;work is objectively based, and not politicized.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-11-27-eric-miller-resized.jpg</div> </div> Fri, 27 Nov 2015 16:26:33 +0000 sgupta 7483 at Four Toronto universities join forces in major student transit survey /news/four-toronto-universities-join-forces-major-student-transit-survey <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Four Toronto universities join forces in major student transit survey</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-09-22T10:09:28-04:00" title="Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - 10:09" class="datetime">Tue, 09/22/2015 - 10:09</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">President Meric Gertler with Թϱ students Aqsa Malik and Cyntia Kocan (photo by Johnny Guatto)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alan-christie" hreflang="en">Alan Christie</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Alan Christie</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ttc" hreflang="en">TTC</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/transit" hreflang="en">Transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto-transit-0" hreflang="en">Toronto transit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto" hreflang="en">Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/student-life" hreflang="en">Student Life</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/meric-gertler" hreflang="en">Meric Gertler</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/community" hreflang="en">Community</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/city-hall" hreflang="en">City Hall</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Student commutes have city-wide implications, university presidents say</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Aqsa Malik</strong> and <strong>Cyntia Kocan</strong> barely know each other but have something in common – the miserable commute they have to endure to get to Թϱ for classes.</p> <p>Malik and Kocan joined 200 university students at a symposium on public transit in Council Chambers at Toronto City Hall on Sept. 21. The event was organized by StudentMoveTO, a joint initiative of the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University and OCAD University.</p> <p>The two Թϱ students were among five asked to represent the views of their colleagues, who not only filled the seats of city councillors but took up most of the space in the public gallery.&nbsp;They submitted written questions to representatives of public transit agencies in the GTA.</p> <p>Malik, in her first year of a master’s program in science and urban geography,&nbsp;told the audience it takes her an hour and a half to get to St. George campus from Markham – a span of time that does not include “the 20 minutes it takes for someone in my family to drop me off at the subway station.” Even small improvements like bicycle posts at the station would help, allowing her to cycle and leave her bike there during the day.</p> <p>Kocan, in her final year in urban studies, human geography and mapping at the St. George campus, said her commute could be 45 minutes from Thorncliffe but is often two hours because of TTC service disruptions. She said improvements would include bus shelters where people could remain safe and dry.</p> <p>Both women have to prepare in advance, bringing food and other supplies in case they end up spending extra hours getting to and from class.</p> <p>Officials from all four Toronto universities attended the session.</p> <p><img alt="Toronto City Hall" src="/sites/default/files/2015-09-21-Transit-Survey-Launch_18.jpg" style="margin: 5px; width: 600px; height: 400px;"></p> <p>Թϱ President <strong>Meric Gertler</strong> explained that the presidents have been meeting for the past couple of years to discuss how to make progress on the challenges that all four institutions confront. “It didn’t take us long to converge on transportation within the city and the Greater Toronto Area as an obvious place to start,” he said.</p> <p>This decision led to the formation of StudentMoveTO and to the announcement during the symposium that a major transit survey is about to be launched. Every university student in Toronto will be emailed a questionnaire on travel experiences. The data will be unprecedented and will result in concrete actions, the organizers say.</p> <p>There are more than 180,000 students enrolled in the four universities, Gertler said, plus 310,000 at the various colleges in the GTA. Three-quarters of Թϱ students commute, often taking more an hour to get to school.</p> <p>“This is a bit of a problem,” Gertler said, “a problem for them, because it’s often soul-destroying, given the kind of arduous journey that they have to endure.”</p> <p>He continued: “Every minute they’re spending in transit going to or from one of our campuses is time they cannot spend on their studies or engaging in life on one of our campuses. So it has a direct impact on the student experience, something we feel acutely.”</p> <p>At a time when key decisions are being made about long-term transit plans “it is vitally important for the daily travel experiences and needs of our students be properly represented in the planning process,” Gertler said. The goals of the four universities are to improve the transit needs of their students, “but also improve the quality of life in this region that we call home.”</p> <p>Sara Diamond, president of OCAD University, cited affordability as another major challenge for students. More bike paths and even the ability to walk freely and safely in the city are options that make transit more affordable, she said.</p> <p>“It is important to understand that student issues resonate for other low-income groups, so the kinds of approaches that we develop will have an impact far beyond the student population,” Diamond added. York President Mamdouh Shoukri and Ryerson Provost Mohamed Lachemi also spoke to the students.</p> <p>Student transit is just the first of several issues the universities will be collaborating on, Diamond said. The next is affordable housing. The institutions are already working together on bringing Syrian refugees to Canada. <a href="http://news.utoronto.ca/responding-refugee-crisis-u-t-ocad-york-university-partner-ryerson">(Read more about the Lifeline Syria Challenge collaboration)</a></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-09-21-Transit-Survey-Launch_70.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 22 Sep 2015 14:09:28 +0000 sgupta 7295 at