Answer for question 4490.

[sabotabby]

[Error: unknown template qotd]I'm moderately decent about it, helped by a fairly straightforward recycling/organics disposal program in Toronto. Also, I don't drive and I'm a vegetarian, which massively reduces my footprint. I recognize both are a privilege of living where I do.

The one simple thing I would ask of everyone is to educate themselves about transit infrastructure. My city is so uptight about the slightest increase in taxes but transit is key to making liveable, accessible cities. Sure, it's fine to blow $2.5 billion on the Pan Am Games, but transit improvements have been in political limbo for years. Even if you don't take transit yourself, getting more people off the roads helps everyone.

Comments

[middlemarching.livejournal.com]

I've only lived in Toronto for a year and I find it staggering how neglected and underdeveloped the TTC is.

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

There's an article in today's New York Times about the collapsing MTA, called Can Our Transit System Get Any Worse? so I think this is a common problem in cities with aging transit systems.

Nevertheless, the one commenter points out that "HK also has air-conditioned stations the floors and entrances to which are not paved with chewing gum. Woudja believe it?"

The same reader goes on the point out that "Shanghai builds an entire metro line in the time that NYC gets a renovated station."

Our 2nd Avenue Subway project has been in the works for over 50 years, and has become the stuff of myth by now.

[sabotabby]

I went to Mexico two summers in a row and Mexico City had built three LRT stations in that time. Toronto can't build one.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'll say it again, it's the national government paying for HK and Shanghai. If they had to do it out of city funds it wouldn't happen.

[sabotabby]

It was shocking when I was in Stockholm. Clean, fast, and you could get anywhere in the city.

[robby.livejournal.com]

One confusing element is that "green" is often used as a marketing ploy, and sometimes those products are not what they seem. Electric cars are an example. Modern internal combustion engines are probably "greener".
Another recent example is extreme water saving dishwashers. They need to be run a few times to clean dishes, which negates the advantage.

[sabotabby]

It's even more insidious than that. I've noticed a lot of companies putting green leaves on their packaging when there's nothing environmental about it.

[robby.livejournal.com]

Yeah, don't get tricked into a lot of empty gestures.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't think any municipality in the world could build a decent transit system out of the tax base Toronto has. For example, Crossrail in London is budgeted at around C$35B. Toronto's total capital budget including provincial contributions is roughly $3.5B per year of which roughly half goes to the TTC and related projects and isn't enough to maintain the current system. One would probably need to double or triple the TTC's capital spend to do what needs to be done. I don't see how one could do that out of property taxes. Of course the UK government is picking up the tab for Crossrail, not London. And it's only if the Federal and provincial governments step up to paying for transit infrastructure that Toronto, sand other major cities, will be able to build decent systemes.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, but can you imagine the Feds actually doing something about Toronto? The rest of the country would revolt.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Obviously if it's positioned as "for Toronto" it wouldn't fly but an infrastructure plan for major metropolitan areas might. 1 in 3 Canadians live in either the GTA, GMA or GVA. That's a fair chunk of the electorate though given that 40% of the population of Toronto appear to hate Toronto I'm not getting my hopes too high.

[sabotabby]

Non-Toronto is disproportionately represented electorally, though. That's why it'll never happen. I wonder if proportional representation would change things.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Remember the additional ten seats in the recent redistribution went mainly to the GTA, the GVA and Calgary. The Maritimes are still overrepresented but the Metro areas are potentially a big voting bloc.

[sabotabby]

Let's hope. I'm sick of the Toronto-hate, even if much of it is coming from Toronto itself.

[the_axel]

It's not just London that gets that benefit. The TTC is the least subsidized major city transit system in North America & Western Europe.

For instance
http://globalnews.ca/news/1670796/how-does-the-ttcs-funding-compare-to-other-transit-agencies/

[stormdog.livejournal.com]

Yes! More transit makes better cities! Especially well-implemented transit that doesn't leave accessibility deserts!

After my first week-plus now without a car, I'm really happy I decided to go that way. But certainly it's not doable everywhere. But the reason for that isn't any kind of natural law; it's just poor development policy.

[sabotabby]

Yeah. I think what I'm getting at is that the problems are structural. I as an individual can recycle all I want, but it's collective action that's actually effective.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

In the last twenty years, I've seen the transit system of my city go from "Only for commuters!" to mostly usable. We're still nowhere near what older East Cost cities have had for a hundred years now, but at least a person can go downtown in a time that's not rush hour.

[sabotabby]

What's your secret?

[mle292.livejournal.com]

Only our hairdresser knows for sure.

It's just been luck of politics, since the fickleness of elected officials can muck the whole thing up overnight. We lost a good trolley system back in the 50's because of a mayor that was in the pocket of auto manufacturers, and it might be related to some bitterness over that.

It's still a terrible system for anyone that lives more than two suburbs out from the big city.

[cat-sanctuary.livejournal.com]

I'm car-free, even in the country, and plan to be until I (or my mother or Significant Other) become disabled. Hurrah for you!

[sabotabby]

And you!

I do sometimes want a car but rentals and bumming lifts off people pretty much serves the purposes I need, which are carting large things and going off to to the country. It'd be different if my mum became disabled or couldn't drive, or if I got a job at the ass end of the city. But I've managed it for almost 20 years of living in the city.