[URBAN NOTE] "Microtransit idea offers glimmer of hope in otherwise business as usual TTC meeting"

[rfmcdonald]

Chris Selley's article in the National Post, generally despairing of the TTC, does conclude on a note of hope. Is "microtransit" really viable?

“People think there’s no good project managers at the TTC,” Byford told commissioners. “They’re wrong.” And he credibly argued it’s unfair to compare the final cost of the Spadina line extension to the widely quoted original $1.5 billion.

It wasn’t TTC management who decided they wanted “grandiose” stations instead of modest ones. It wasn’t TTC management that shut down work at York University for half a year because of a worker’s death. And for heaven’s sake, the $1.5 billion was supposed to take the subway to York, not all the way to Vaughan.

[. . .]

One item on the agenda Wednesday did offer a glimmer of hope, however: “Implications of microtransit for TTC.” Staff are considering whether incorporating non-traditional public transit conveyances into the system might improve both customer experiences and the commission’s bottom line. Microtransit is not normally defined this broadly, but it could harness the power of taxis, Uber cars, minivans, or even Wheel-Trans vehicles.

At the beginner level, this might theoretically help with the TTC’s least profitable bus lines, which too often live and die for political reasons rather than empirical ones. Some routes are economic nightmares: in 2014, the 99 Arrow Road bus carried just 184 people a day. In some areas of the city, especially at night, transit demand would clearly be better served by smaller vehicles. Maybe they don’t have to be TTC-owned vehicles.