City
Morning Brew: May 26th, 2008
Photo: "when i wake" by MCXL5, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday May 26th, 2008:
A foiled robbery attempt in a high end store in Yorkville has some employees concerned about their safety. In this instance, (seldom praised) road congestion in the area was partially responsible for the quick arrest of two suspects who were attempting to flee.
$6million per station times 69 stations equals $414million. That's an early estimate for what it would cost to have safety doors installed on TTC subway platforms. It's always hard (if not impossible) to put a price on human lives, but does the fact that this cost prohibitive system is being considered suggest that more people than we hear about are pushed or jump in front of speeding trains?
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Toronto Police continue to have difficulties recruiting officers of Asian descent. Although 16% of the force is now made up of people of racial minority, there's still a long way to go to have the force more representative of the actual ethnic and racial makeup of the city, which is far more diverse.
Provincial Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has finally stepped in and has ordered an investigation of Toronto Catholic District School Board's trustee spending. It's not clear which of the Ten Commandments it falls under, but I'm pretty sure that those involved know that thou shalt not receive compensation ten times for the same activity.
Kensington market, in addition to kicking off a season of car-free Pedestrian Sundays, was officially declared a national historic site this weekend. The gem of a neighbourhood has seen a lot of changes over the years, but continues to sparkle.
Discussion
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THE HORROR!
only the new stations do. Let use that standard - if we get a new station, it will get glass doors. Until then, lets focus on basic service - not flourishes.
1. Toronto has put up with "no-flourish" for long enough. It shows.
2. Platform doors aren't a flourish! TTC has published numbers relating to number of minutes lost per annum due to incidents preventable by track doors such as fires and suicides. Platform doors will inhibit entry of manganese-containing brake dust, reduce airflow from humid tunnels and thus airconditioning energy use and reduce the appalling screech from the brakes. If the rollercoaster to the airport car park can have platform doors, surely a full blown subway can.
Reduce? I thought many stations were currently ventilated by passing trains moving air around?
I get a kick out of your assumption that white Torontonians are horrified by Sikh cops in turbans. Newsflash for you: most white Torontonians are fairly progessive people.
You can make the same case for roads - people get hit by cars all the time by walking onto the street at the wrong time. I'm sure people get pushed onto the road as well (either purposely or by accident). Should we put glass walls along the roads?
Where do you draw the line?
Or hey, how about people just stand back from the yellow line???
One day coming home from downtown there was a 'personal injury' at st george station. The power had to be cut from Bay to ossington. When the subways were finally up and running, there was another 'personal injury' at islington station. It took me, and many other people 3 hours to get home that day for a 20 minute subway ride.
Generally, if someone steps in front of a car, it doesn't fuck up the entire city and cost people a lot of money.
And plus, I really wouldn't think stepping in front of a car is even remotely as common as a suicide method, as few people end up dying from being hit by a car.
'Although the exact number is unclear, Bruce Bryer, a TTC ticket agent for 23 years, says that on average one person jumps every week. "Something needs to be done, because we can't ignore it any longer," he says.'
Sure, safety doors would be 'safer'...but so would running more trains (on time) to reduce congestion, employing more station security at track level, or a myriad of other potential alternatives that don't cost the ttc what they cannot afford.
As far as suicide's concerned - if you're going to do it, you're going to do it...it's a shame that the ttc bears the reputational damage whenever someone causes an 'accident', but they're not going to change human nature by installing safety doors, they're just going to deflect the accident away from their name.
The ttc should spend more energy solving problems inherent to the transit system, not society as a whole...I'm sure that money could be well spent in system upgrades to bring the embarrassing Toronto transit closer in line with other world class cities.
You'd think that people would have a clear understanding of business by now. The only time something is done is when NOT doing it is projected to cost more than doing it.
If, over say 5 years, combined service interruptions are projected to cost more than the cost of installing gates, it's not a hard decision.
But more seriously, although far from impossible, it does become more difficult to stay "safe" as more and more riders frequent the transit system. Union Station has long been known for its dangerously narrow platform, a flaw that's exacerbated with the amount of foot traffic that flows through.
Recall the yellow line is only about a foot wide. I doubt that much is going to help anyone violently pushed over the platform edge, or even tripping over themselves as they turn a corner. It's at best a reminder to riders to watch their feet.
Re: cost of delays: There are other examples too. I've sweated it out at least once, stranded on the subway while I was trying to get to a final exam. They don't tend to reschedule those for you.
Anyone know why the yellow line gets everything before the green line? The stations actually have unique designs and decor, the renovations and cleaning are more frequent...what's up with that?
It boggles the mind. Why not just hire a police officer to patrol each PLATFORM? (not station, platform) it would be cheaper and would probably solve other multitudes of safety issues.