Author: Stephanie Gomez

Wednesday, May 13

I am not the streetcar driver who’s been charged with careless driving nor am I the operator who has been accused of sexual misconduct — and I don’t finish off crossword puzzles behind the steering wheel of a bus.

I’m a ATU Local 113 member who works for the TTC as a collector. After 30 years I continue to serve Toronto with pride and respect. I am a Local 113 member who has won numerous safe driving awards, continue to be recognized for my commitment to excellent customer service and go home at the end of my shift with my head held high.

I am the transit worker who, no matter how beaten down in the media my chosen profession gets, continues to rise at 3 in the morning to help get my TTC customers to work on time. Who am I truly? I am the 99.9 per cent of TTC frontline workers the Toronto public see every morning when they enter our buses, streetcars and subway stations.

So when you see us in the morning, noon or dead of night, we’re there for you, the majority of TTC professionals who still give a crap about this city and carry on with pride and dedication no matter what the headlines may throw at us.

Daniel Kowbell, Mississauga

Thu, 2012-02-16 11:09

Whether it’s helping to reduce gridlock or making Toronto an attractive place for tourists, the TTC plays an important role in Toronto’s economy. Just take a look at some of these facts.

The use of transit increases the efficiency of Toronto’s economy by reducing gridlock, pollution-related illnesses, transportation costs and the mobility of workers and consumers.

A more efficient transportation sector means lower prices for goods because of costs saved in transport.

The average cost of traveling one person-kilometre by car in Canada is 46¢. For public transit, it is 12 cents. According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association, this means an annual savings of $2,495 for every Torontonian who uses transit.

Thursday, Feb 16.

Congestion in the GTA and Hamilton-Wentworth is estimated to cost the economy $2 billion per year. This is mostly the result of delays in deliveries by truck.

With urban sprawl, travel times for GTA commuters are expected to rise by an average of 12 minutes. Without additional investment in transit, this will mean an extra $28 million lost each day to congestion costs — a whopping $7 billion each year.

Add 1,000 travellers to a congested highway like the 401 and it would create a 6-km line-up. If these same travelers took the TTC and GO, the line-up would only increase by .25 km.

Public transit uses a twentieth of the space taken by the private automobile. Each full TTC bus removes 40 single-occupant cars from the road.

According to the Ontario Medical Association, the cost of air pollution-related health effects is $1 billion annually. That’s counting only hospital admissions, emergency room visits and absenteeism.

Thu, 2012-02-16 11:07

The TTC creates jobs in a number of ways, not least by providing salaries to its employees who then spend that money on goods and services in the local economy. The TTC also buys local goods and services – for petroleum products, electricity, rolling stock, spare parts, electrical supplies, computer-related products and financial services.

For every dollar spent on the new Sheppard line – the first new subway line in 20 years – two dollars have been invested by the private sector in related development.

A study by the BC Treasury Board found that transit investment creates three times more jobs than the same expenditure on general automotive expenses.

According to a Quebec study of the economic benefits of transit to Montreal “for every $10 million in expenditures, public transit generates 1.7 times more employment and 2.5 times more added value than private transport by car.”

U.S. study found that every $10 million invested in transit capital created 314 jobs, provided sales gains to businesses of $30 million and a saving to the transportation system of $15 million. The overall benefit-to-cost ratio can be as high as 9-to-1.

Thu, 2012-02-16 11:03

Public transit uses a twentieth of the space taken by the private automobile. Each full TTC bus removes 40 single-occupant cars from the road.

According to the Ontario Medical Association, the cost of air pollution-related health effects is $1 billion annually. That’s counting only hospital admissions, emergency room visits and absenteeism.

Thu, 2012-02-16 10:57

Kyoto Protocol was established as a first step in trying to reduce the dangerous environmental destruction that could face our planet. In Canada transport is responsible for up to a quarter of all greenhouse gases. If we are going to reverse global warming as well as smog and other pollutants, public transit is a key part of the answer.

-Passenger transportation makes up 54% of the total greenhouse gas emissions created by all modes of transportation.
-Public transit is responsible for less than one percent of greenhouse gas emissions. It consumes only a quarter of the energy per person-kilometre that automobiles take in Canada.
-Transportation is responsible for 59% of nitrogen oxide emissions – the source of smog.
-The Ontario Medical Association has calculated that 1,900 people die each year in the province because of smog exposure.
-Each full TTC bus saves 70,000 litres of fuel and effectively removes nine tonnes of pollutants from the air each year.
-Over the next 25 years, Canada predicts a 40% increase in transport-related fossil fuel consumption. By 2010 alone, these emissions are predicted to increase by 15%.