Commuter Diaries

[thebitterguy]

Man, I'm so glad I don't live in downtown TO.

The company I'm (still) working at is currently located in Toronto, at the 401 and Islington. We're moving to a new location in Mississauga.

For ME, this move is made of Win. My personal commute will go from a theoretical 28 minutes (This Does Not Include Traffic) for 36 klicks to 19 minutes (TDNIC) for 22.9 klicks (all figures courtesy Google Maps: Google, because we will kill you if we feel like it).

So, for YHB, this move is good.

For, say, hypothetical Joe CSR, who lives a comfy life in downtown TO, this is NOT such a good thing.

For example, they can no longer get here by TTC, which the previously could. Now, to get here, they have several options. They can take TTC to Islington station, and then take a Mississauga Transit ride to the new location. This is about a 38 minute trip from Islington station, including an 8 minute walk to the building.

If they were to use pases for both systems, it would cost them $205.

They can, instead, use a GTA weekly pass, which will allow them to use MT, the TTC, as well as Brampton & York transit; they sell for $43 a week, so that's 172 a month. That's $2236 a year, compared to $2460 annually for the passes. That option is actually less than I pay for insurance (well, my wife & I together)

Another option is to take the GO train from Union Station to the Port Credit Go station. An monthly pass is $145; GO commuters can get a sticker on their monthly pass which will allow them to travel on Mississauga Transit vehicles to and from their stations for $22 a month, which would be $167 a month, or $2004 a year.

Now, that wouldn't be too bad if they were just travelling from Union and could walk or bike there (or could get dropped off). This does not include any transportation around Toronto at all, though.

So, yeah, not the greatest situation for commuting people.

Comments

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

When I was living downtown and working in Markham, I noted that there were a lot more people going in to downtown in rush hour than coming out. As such, I'm not entirely sure how many Joe CSRs (or Jane CSRs for that matter) this might affect, but you'd know your cow-orkers better than I. I don't know them at all, except for that one time, and we were all pretty drunk anyway...

Kudos to you on the impressive level of research done, however. I do note that the $145 monthly Go pass plus the $22 tag would add up to $167 a month, not $177 as stated. There, I just saved Joe or Jane anther $120 per year. :-)

[thebitterguy]

Whoops. There's my math again.

[thebitterguy]

This is what happens when I try to help people; it turned out being a lot more depressing anyway.

I remembered the GO sticker for MT being a lot less, but that was 7 years ago.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the same thing happed where I worked. Many people left.

[thebitterguy]

Was that when they moved the office to Mississauga?

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[sunnydaysfornow.livejournal.com]

OMG don't get me started on the TTC!! I ride the streetcar everyday, and today I had to wait 45 minutes for one that I could actually squeeze onto, and then some giant mess was squished up against me the whole time ...... terrible. Plus the price of a metropass goes up next month, to $109. The whole transit situation seems to be getting worse and worse, there are fewer streetcars/buses, and they are charging more money for them! Bah! Makes me want to start driving my car again instead of letting it rot outside my apartment. Oh wait, I can't afford to park it anywhere else ....

[thebitterguy]

It's kinda damned if you do, damned if you don't. I think the TTC has some kind of record for lowest amount of support given by other levels of government.

I usually travel by subway, if I have to take the TTC, or on weekends, so I don't have too many issues with transit.

[malliabu.livejournal.com]

Am I a bad person for not doing the "Hey fill out this thing so we know where you live and can guilt you into driving people to work....and you might get a $25 gift card for Futureshop which will get you nothing you want from there...cause anything you can get at Futureshop for that price can be downloaded or bought elsewhere for cheaper" thing?

[thebitterguy]

You're a bad person for a BUNCH of reasons. That's just one of them.

Spratskiniski

[(Anonymous)]

If this were a blog I'd probably care about your gibberish. I'd stay away from the movie "Rendition" if I were you, from what I hear, when you're leaving, those guys at the door aren't really WarCraft recruiters. Just sayin.

Re: Spratskiniski

[thebitterguy]

Tell me you got up early and this wasn't the late evening/early morning ejaculation of a strained mind.