Shaun Cleaver

Longtime transit rider; sometime pedestri/cyclist. Figuring out how to get around. Which piques my personal interest in cities. Professional me is @shauncleaver

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@yyzMYA "Toronto traffic jams are all the way here now! We waste billions of dollars on bike lanes that no one uses while I can't get to Costco anymore because of the traffic!"

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@yyzMYA I see this as a technical explanation that would be deployed as cover for the socio-political explanation* that I hear from my family in Niagara's sprawland:

*(i.e., the logic that drives the Ford government's actions, beyond the enrichment of self and friends, I mean)

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@yyzMYA "$16B for key capital projects like widening the QEW" 🤢

As I read this I feel:
-Dispair for the potential of the GTA to be anything but more car-oriented sprawl
-Relief - for having left Ontario just before things took a turn for the much worse

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@yyzMYA @_DivyeshM Here is the mayor of Laval's (10-minute long) answer to that question, when asked on @Toutunmatin this morning:

https://t.co/5fGLgfBY27

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ After all: I do remember the old People Movers.

In the house in which I grew up, that was the closest bus route. Except that where we lived was in a big gap between stops.

I grew up dreaming that tourist ridership could be the backbone of a useful network.

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ The thing is: if integrated into the local network, I think that no routes would serve tourists only.

I agree with you that the parkway route is the most touristed.

Although I would also expect a similar situation on outer Lundy's Lane in the summer

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ I imagine that there is no bus service l, from anyone, at the moment?

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@yyzMYA @JackTattTran Good idea: no more sprawl inducing highways with a sprinkle of greenwash fantasy glitter.

Where do we sign up to stop the highway and instead build a railway?

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@larrylarry I think that this phenomenon, of forgetting that transit is an option even when it's good, is a big barrier to ridership in North America

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@JayBeeGooner @Sean_YYZ Have open minds, my friends

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ @JayBeeGooner How come?
I've traveled by Greyhound between Buffalo and Pittsburgh a few times.
I found it ok.

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@alexbozikovic @MTL_Ville I confirm that summer is delightful in a real city

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ If all things were rational, I might be able to say, "the ad revenue from not being able to see outside is worth X amount of frequency."

But like you, I suspect that the decisions come from folks who don't know/care about what this is like from the inside of the vehicle

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@VanishingUnder From that service design, I take it that few people were traveling between Brockville and Cornwall or Montreal.

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ At very least, I am relieved to see another transit advocate (besides Steve Munro) draw attention to these issues.

Situations like this were central to my experience of living in Toronto.

Yet nearly absent among the "fares, funding, and fantasy maps" discourses of advocates

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@Sean_YYZ As you know, there are a number of direct bus trips to St. Catharines/Niagara Falls.

If you want to keep heading south, there is Niagara Region transit to Fort Erie. An arrangement that is *totally not* designed to be easy. But it is possible.

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@BoGoggling @Sean_YYZ Look for the ads among the posts. They are part of "a carousel" of 3 videos.
The first two videos in the carousel are created by the host. The last video is the Metrolinx original

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@BoGoggling @Sean_YYZ See https://t.co/mfF0HN9qLI, the apparent maker of the next level ads

[Shaun Cleaver @urbanSCleaver]

@larrylarry Yes! Thank you for expressing this message.
Transit riders know about the timinguncertainty and know "waiting forever to have 4 vehicles arrive, the first 2 packed, the other ones might short turn".
But few are able to clearly identify what the problem is