The State of The Car

[Kitdy]

Urban sprawl is definitely an issue, and you can tell I live in the outer boroughs. With the inclusion of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North, you can get to the fringes of NYC very quickly, all within an hour or two. But you can also take the busses and trains for 2 hours and still be within NYC proper, so the transit really isn't equally distributed in NYC.

NYC is still reeling from the austerity measures from the 70s as they deferred maintenance for almost 2 decades. In some stations, the ceiling is literally collapsing onto passengers. The NY state governor even declared a state of emergency because of the poor state of the system. I think you'd rather have an incomplete system than a system that is falling in on you. And god help you take the 4, 5, or 6 train during rush hour, it's as bad as traveling during rush hour in Tokyo. I haven't even gotten to the point that most of the subway system sits under the water table and that pumps need to be on all the time just to keep it dry. The system can't handle anything more than a heavy drizzle and tunnels flood all the time.

OK, so I am with you in this. I was a bit oversold on how dirty the NYC subway was before I visited. It certainly isn't super clean though. Toronto stations are sometimes ratty and not up to new Euro or Japan standards, but the subway in NYC was just more... Busted/dilapidated?

I've actually been to Toronto 2-3 times, but I've never been to the city proper. I stayed at my uncle's house in Markham and Scarborough and I think that's pretty far from the city of Toronto. I've been to Montreal recently and rode it for a few stops and thought it was pleasant.

Markham and Scarbs are kinda their own thing. Scarborough is now integrated into Toronto proper, but like where I live, the core is somewhat far. Transit doesn't serve the suburbs well, surprise surprise. Sprawl, once again.

Hit up downtown next time. It's like New York... But without all the stuff.

Montreal has pretty good coverage for the population; just the cars with rubber wheels are a bit herky jerky. There's s shit subway line in Scarborough that runs on it's own rolling stock with smaller cars, that reminds me of the Montreal metro, without rubber tires.

Good times.

I don't think Montreal or Toronto's transit system is built for the sheer volume of passengers per day, and that's understandable, there's a huge difference in population. I actually think the system would benefit from closing at night, at least once a week as I think the greatest cost to the system is labor costs of operating trains while people are working on tracks. All I remember from my trip to Toronto was the paranoia of staying off the private toll road, the 401 because I heard it was extremely expensive to pay if you don't have the radio tag to pay for it.

TTC shuts down every night from about 2 AM (before last call, which is a problem) to 6 AM. Intermittent late night service was great in NYC. I loved being able to hop on the MTA at all hours. Grass is greener.

Yeah slight correction, the 407 is one of very few toll-roads in Ontario, so unlike many states in the US, we are not culturally acclimated to a toll-road. No one uses it. The 401 is the main highway that is constantly jammed. The 407 was built North of the 401 to relieve congestion, then sold by the right-wing government of the day to balance the budget. So it has failed.

It cost $6 billion to build the 2nd Ave subway, and it's not even complete. It's just the first of three phases and it's only been extended 2 miles.

The best time to plant a tree was 40 years ago.