City
How the TTC used to deal with overcrowding
In light of this week's TTC stroller debate, here's a look back at how the Commission used to deal with overcrowding on its streetcars and busses; simply carrying fewer people. By encouraging companies to stagger work hours, the TTC spread the 5:00 rush over a longer period when jam-packed vehicles and surface gridlock were daily occurrences.
In the mid 40s, the same art department that urged riders to have exact fare and to scolded those that didn't shuffle to the back of the streetcar during peak times, also produced billboards asking workers talk to their employers about starting and finishing earlier or later. The concept was sold as a way to get more free time during regular daylight hours, either in the morning or late afternoon.
In 1941, riders made 25 million more trips than the year before, an increase of 15%. This sudden spike was likely a consequence of gasoline and rubber rationing for private car owners, something the TTC itself had to overcome. Speaking to the Toronto Star in January of that year, general manager Henry Patten said the ultimate goal of Toronto's transit provider was to provide the best possible service for "the many thousands of workers engaged in the war industries of Toronto."
The city's traffic conference and works committee suggested downtown offices and factories choose from an 8:30 - 4:30, 9:00 - 5:00, or 9:30 - 5:30 workday and in 1942 the TTC itself adopted the scheme for its office staff. Toronto Hydro and a large munitions plant that employed more than 6,000 workers were also notable early starters. Staggered hours schemes were also adopted in Ottawa and Montreal around the same time.
The long lost Queen Street subway, designed to be an underground streetcar route fed by the Dundas, Danforth, and Queen cars, was another way the TTC and the provincial government hoped to solve the choking traffic. Despite the on-going war, or perhaps because of it, these bumper years eventually spurred the construction of the Yonge line and drove new investment in Toronto transit.
Let's hope today's overcrowding will eventually lead to a better TTC, too.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Photos: City of Toronto Archives.
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Ads from the '50s would have addressed a more complacent, prosperous audience that had forgotten some elements of polite interaction - not one facing the effects of wartime shortages.
To "the lemur": The fact that they were successful in dehumanizing a people just shows that people were not generally "better" back then. It shows that people were much more open to prejudice and discrimination back then (I'd like to think the same level of discrimination couldn't happen now in the Western world, though I don't know if I'm being overly optimistic). We talk about how easy it is for politicians to manipulate people and divide us now, but that has been true for all of history.
Just saying that it's very frustrating to hear people talk about society going down the drain, when it is actually much better now than it has ever been before. The only difference is that there are more people, so it is more crowded all the time rather than just in extreme times like in the 40's.
We do still have that same level of discrimination in this world, just in different forms, and genocide still occurs.
These ads and the response to them at the time have nothing to do with politeness or the inherent good or bad nature of people now or then. It was just the TTC telling people that things were going to be difficult and very different because of the war effort. I don't know what level of understanding that campaign met with but it's difficult to imagine people being sufficiently community-minded now to think they even have a part in it.