I visited Chicago this past summer and I was totally impressed by the scale, convenience and how technologically ahead the Chicago Public Transit System was. To top it off, for such a large city, their transit staff and operators seemed to be the ideal for a "service with a smile" slogan; you just can't get that here!

Now I don't mean to compare the US and Canada, but for a rapidly growing city like Toronto and the development boom in Mississauga, Toronto's Transit Commission has lagged behind in growth and service expansion. I'm a firm believer that the subway system should be extended into Mississauga as the number of people commuting between the two cities keeps growing by the day.

I'm going off my point though. Aside from the lack in growth, the TTC still runs their old, clunky, fuel guzzling buses. They have planned to add around 800 new buses in the next couple of years, but my ride today made me wonder if these new additions would mainly be seen in upscale, higher income areas.

In Chicago, every one of the buses had an automated system to call out the stops and display them on a digital screen. Cool right? Well, I took the Bayview 11 bus, which goes east from Davisville station, on Davisville St. Not only did the bus carry well dressed, middle-aged, upper class folk through the quiet and pristine part of Toronto's uptown, but the bus actually had an automated system to call out every stop. Imagine my surprise!

It made me wonder: why did the city choose to install these buses in this neighborhood where the bus traveled barely full and not pick the Eglington West neighborhood, or any other neighborhood with high TTC usage? The answer is blatant - need I say more?