TTC guessing game: which leaves first?

As someone who lives in Pape Village, I constantly face a guessing game. Two buses head north, and both routes 81 and 25 follow the same route for 1.5 km. When you board at Pape station, which do you take? If both are waiting, it's an act of faith. When you ask the driver, you often get a shrug. With few exceptions, the bus that leaves first is the one I didn't pick.

As a TV producer pointed out last week, commuters face the same "guessing game" at Broadview station. With two loading docks for streetcars heading south, you can never be sure which leaves first.

TTC photo

The TTC's Next Vehicle Arrival System uses GPS data and presents commuters with the next coming vehicle, through text messages for streetcar stops and LCD screens at some stations (some are even solar-powered). The data's available to app developers, who have combined smartphones' GPS capabilities to let commuters make the most efficient choices.

The LCD screen at Broadview is really helpful for knowing when your bus is coming, but it would be helpful if it also said which streetcar leaves first. Same for the buses at Pape station.

That being said, the TTC has achieved much through the NVAS project, which started as a pilot project for streetcars leaving Spadina station. I hope it expands with time.

Map: A week of TTC delays

My main goal of this project was a data visualization project, where I would take a year of TTC delays, code them and create online interactives that would show frequency of delays, common locations, causes, etc. The data's out there; if we assemble it we might learn more about the efficiency of our system.

You have to start somewhere. So I took a week of delays and put them on a map. There were 37 incidents in a seven-day period. I took all the notices issued and coded them onto a map. Sometimes there were 2-3 notices for one incident (multiple routes affected, service gradually returns). I grouped these as one incident.

I sorted them by cause (mechanical, collision, police, passenger alarm).

Here's the first map I did. Click on a few incidents for details:


View A week of TTC delays - pointers in a larger map

Here's a lengend of what each one is:

Turquoise: mechanical/signal issue

Red: collision

Yellow: road closure/construction

Green: passenger alarm/illness

Puple: police/fire investigation

Pink: power issues

icons: St. Patty's parade (green walker) and Union Station's ongoing issues (red warning sign)

Google doesn't yet have a feature to create your own legend. It would have been helpful to have a clickable one that isolates each cause. The Toronto Star's homicide map does this, but the source code shows it's done through clever frames and script usage. 

I made a copy of the map using Google's icons. But they're a big large, tacky and not the most relevant (a customs officer is police/fire, and taxis mean collision — get it?)

View A week of TTC delays - icons in a larger map

Maps are one of the most popular parts of multi-platform journalism, especially since so much of it is hyperlocal. It helps us understand the wider picture when talking about complex issues, like transit funding and planning.

It's unfortunate not a lot of information can be retrieved by the TTC. Though a large media partner could probably partner with them to have pre-coded updates (that the news org simply submits into an ongoing map). Maybe one day.

Globe and Mail feature on Toronto congestion

The Globe and Mail did a brilliant interactive on congestion in Toronto. Take a look at it.

The Globe not only mapped out traffic data, it also had readers submit their traffic grievances and placed it on a map. There may not be too many mapped responses, but it's a really good idea for having a discussion on one of the most relevant concerns of Torontonians.

To boot, they made it searchable by location. More importantly, they've linked to the raw data. This allows for further collaboration by those outside the news organization.

The Star has a number of similar maps too. The crime ones are particularly important, and the area one helps locate the numerous boroughs that make up the city.

Understaffed TTC can't fill my data request

The TTC isn't able to pass me the data I requested. They don't have enough staff.

As mentioned in a previous post, my main goal of this project was data visualization, specifically throwing together a year of TTC delays on an interactive, colour-coded map. My thinking was that I could take data that already exists and see which areas suffer the most delays, and which routes are the worst to take.

I contacted the TTC at the end of Janurary. My questions: "I know major service advisories are broadcasted online and emailed to a list, but is there a log kept?" and "I'd like to obtain a list or compilation of all advisories for 2011 and 2010. Do you know how I could go about this?"

I got a rather prompt reply from a public relations staffer saying she'd look into it.

About one month and three prompting emails later, I got a reply. It was right in the middle of the still-running transit debate cesspool at City Hall.

I'm very sorry, it's been a busy week here at the TTC. Unfortunately, we
do not have the resources to compile the list of ealerts. IT was unable
to do it on their end. The only other option is to cut and paste from
our Facebook or Twitter accounts. 

This is something our communications team would have helped with in the
past, but with recent budget cuts, our department has been cut from six
staff to four. I would not be granted the overtime necessary to work on
something like this.

Good luck!

Jessica Martin is a communications advisor with the TTC.
You might recognize her as the woman giving TTC updates
on CP24's morning commuter show.
Torstar News Service photo

It's disappointing, but I'm thankful for her reply, and I sympathize with their dilemma.

The email was from Jessica Martin, a communications advisor with the TTC. She's also the one who gives commuter updates on CP24's morning show (formerly Breakfast Television).

As my course instructor pointed out, this is part of the new would of PR, where communications people are expected to take on multiple roles.

Not only does Martin keep track of customer emails, media requests and other daily tasks in a short-staffed office, she has to broadcast updates every weekday morning.

I don't envy her job.

Audio: How reliable is the TTC?

Two weeks ago I took to the streets with a radio recorder and asked 10 commuters for their thoughts on the TTC.

I picked the four whose comments best reflected what I'd heard Some were quite satisfied, while others complained of unpredictable service.

I mixed it with some photos in my Flickr account and produced this audio slideshow.

Our class this week is focusing on the use of audio online. I found some TTC-related podcasts that are worth a listen:

• Spacing Radio: The magazine for Canadian infrastructure wonks has a bi-wekly discussion on issues including transit.
• Canadian Urban Institute: This podcast has unfortunately remained untouched since 2010, but has some interesting talks on the possibilities and limitations of the TTC. Some of the talk of looming budgetary conflict is eerily prophetic.
• Posted Toronto: The National Post's Toronto section has a weekly sit-down with its city-dwelling editorial board members. Transit is a frequent topic.
• CBC's Metro Morning: The show is a round-up of Toronto news and issues, but the ongoing TTC debates feature largely in their podcasts.

I also found some individual episodes on TTC plans:

• The Mark: Fixing Toronto's Transit Woes
• Toronto Star: Ford bullying makes for bad transit planning

Storify: The fate of Gary Webster

Councillor Joe Mihevc shows support for Webster.
Photo tweeted by the Sun's Don Peat.

It looks like TTC head Gary Webster is going to be fired this afternoon.

City council's TTC commission is meeting to discuss Webster and will likely present a motion to dismiss him. Webster butted heads with Mayor Rob Ford over future plans for the TTC, a move that's caused much political drama these past few months.

I'm running a live Storify, compiling tweets and photos related to the ongoing meeting. Check it out: http://storify.com/TTCheadaches/the-fate-of-gary-webster

TTC exec apologizes for Monday morning cesspool

Photo courtesy of the TTC.

Yesterday was a particularly bad morning for Toronto commuters. After an issue with smoke at track level, almost a dozen official delays were issued.

Some riders claimed they waited for over half an hour, both on platforms and on trains. During that afternoon's commute, a TTC staffer took the system's intercoms and issued an apology for the headaches that morning.

As the Toronto Star reported:

Andy Byford, a Londoner who came to the TTC in the fall via Sydney, recorded the public apology after numerous train delays between about 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Monday. That’s when a disabled train at Davisville and smoke at track level near Sheppard cascaded with 11 passenger assistance alarms.