- Books (5)
- BrainStorms (40)
- Chess (1)
- Design (2)
- Economics (16)
- Flatulence (18)
- Four Stars (7)
- Meta (18)
- Music (22)
- One Star (1)
- Random (15)
- Science (12)
- Technology (18)
- Three Stars (10)
- Two Stars (1)
- Uncategorized (64)
- Video (5)
- WWII (4)
Here was my letter to Toronto Mayor David Miller in response to Les Klein’s idea to build a green roof over top of the Gardiner: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/putting-the-garden-back-in-the-gardiner/article1188258/
Dear Mayor David Miller,
I am a great fan of yours and love our city very much. I think you have done an excellent job. Thank you so much for the dedication and honesty with which you brought to the Mayor’s office. Below please find some quick simple points/idea, which I thought to send along and which I hope will be of use to you and your administration:
• Suggest A:
‘one stop rule’ for streetcars and buses, which would prevent 2 buses/streetcars from tailing one another.
Reasoning: especially with streetcars, where one cannot pass another, they tend to bunch, with the front streetcar collecting all the passengers on a run, and the other will follow in its wake, with no passengers for the remainder of the route!
A ‘one stop rule’ would leave adequate spacing between streetcars and buses, which is better resource allocation and improves service. As an economist, I mention that it is a pareto-efficient improvement, with no losers. I wanted to check again, if there was a reason for its implementation or non-implementation?
• Suggest B:
In response to Les Klein’s suggestion of a green gardiner, which seemed to attract a lot of media attention
I thought to suggest to you what I believe is a better idea, (if it has not been suggested before) the possibility of zoning to build an enclosed mall/retail/public space under the Gardiner. At first thinking it is a possibly ‘crazy’ idea, but here are the reasons as a possible method to save and legitimize the Gardiner:
Thank you very much, Mayor David Miller and your staff for handling this email. I hope it affects some change or will be used as an idea to strengthen other more deserving ideas for the improvement of the city.
All best, kindly
Alwin
1 Comment
admin
Aug 8, 2009
Here is the response from the Mayor’s Office.
Dear Alwin:
Thank you for your thoughtful email regarding the Gardiner. The Mayor appreciates the time you have taken to express your concerns.
I can’t find your original email about vehicle spacing. Please feel free to resend it. The TTC takes the problem very seriously and is addressing it in a number of ways. In the past drivers and supervisors had to report service irregularities and typically short turned a bunched vehicle into a gap in the opposite direction. Later this year the TTC will be rolling out live, GPS-based vehicle tracking that will allow supervisors and the public see exactly where every vehicle is. This will allow far more thorough identification of service problems and facilitate their resolution.
The biggest cause of bunching is inadequate vehicle size, which leads to overcrowding and long dwell times and stations. Surface transit typically is most effective when the vehicles are several minutes apart. Any service running under three minutes apart risks becoming uneven. The TTC is dealing with this by upgrading services on its busiest lines by adding express service, building light rail lines, and, in the case of streetcars, moving to all door loading and longer vehicles.
Much attention is drawn to the City’s efforts to tear down the eastern end of the Gardiner, but the City is, in fact, pursuing a number of different ways of making it more hospitable to pedestrians. At Fort York, for example, the we will be building a new visitors centre and park under the expressway as part or the bicentennial of the War s 1812. The City Place development east of Bathurst also includes an exciting new park that will help connect its neighbourhood to the waterfront.
I have studied many examples from around the world where the land under elevated expressways had been reclaimed. They are overwhelming in sections with no off ramps. In fact, the challenge to doing more in the central section is more the off ramps than it is the elevated expressway. The number of lanes of vehicles, variation in vehicle movement and speed, cannot be solved through design treatments.
Thank you for writing and sharing your concerns. Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact this office again.
Yours truly,
B AI, Senior Advisor
Office of Mayor David Miller
Toronto City Hall
Leave a Comment