Bike Walk Bus Toronto

At the beginning of September, YRT introduced a new route: the 361 Nashville Express. This route, which operates during peak periods only, at 27-minute frequencies, provides transit service to some parts of Vaughan that were otherwise at a significant distance from the transit. The map of the route is below.  Its shape is quite peculiar, and genuinely looks like a little kid designed it. However, despite initial feedback from the public last year being mixed, there are some immediate positives: notably, the route operates through both residential and industrial areas, so demand is bidirectional. While it is not shown on the map, the 'end of the line' for a northbound trip is on Barons at MacTier: remember this for later. As I do, I took the route on its first day of operation, and I was astounded at how stupid of a route it is. While there is some demand, the implementation of the service, combined with the fact that is requires three buses to operate, reads to me that this wil...

Hey everyone! Politicians love flashy projects. If there's an opportunity for a photo op, they will be there. However, this obsession with capital projects instead of operations and maintenance leads to big facilities that are criminally underused (if you're interested in the topic of maintenance of urban systems, I recommend reading A City is not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences by Shannon Mattern). Ontario is ground-zero for this projects: huge infrastructure that is seldom used. I argue that York Region is a particularly bad example of this relationship. As they say, every decision is made in York Region, and this political clout has led to a huge amount of money allocated for physical infrastructures and little for actually making them work. As construction on the Yonge North Subway Extension to Richmond Hill Centre is set to begin, I argue that York Region is not deserving of this. Using examples of the subway extension to Vaughan, as well as the new Cornell Terminal,...