Subway Hell and Triathlon: Horror Commuting Stories?

December 13, 2007 - In case you missed it, here's the rest of the Toronto Star series on commuting in different parts of the world:

- London's Subway Commuting Hell
- Beijing - the Triathlon of Commutes
- Running a Gauntlet in Jerusalem
- Hellish Journey around Holy City

Some random thoughts:

- From my own personal experience, congestion on the London Tube is worse than on our Yonge subway line, though this is the result of the pricey congestion charge that the Mayor of London has imposed on the the city (for those of you who don't know, you have to pay a fee every time you drive your car into the central district of London). Obviously it is working, but only because the congestion charge was combined with large scale investments in public transit.

- The triathlon of commutes in Beijing is interesting in the sense that commuters use a variety of modes to commute. They don't just drive all the way from home to work - they drive, use transit, and then bike. Isn't that what we're trying to encourage here as well?

- I don't know how relevant the two Jerusalem stories are, mainly because the political situation in the Middle East strongly affects the way people travel. I thought this series is about people who are "choice-commuters", not because they have to due to political restrictions.

With the exception of the last article, everyone that was profiled in this series made the conscious decision to live far away from work. As I mentioned previously, that is their lifestyle choice and I don't really feel sorry for them. If they don't want to bitch about waking up at 5 am to avoid traffic, or missing their children's hockey games and music nights, then simply don't live so far from work. Is it just plain obvious?

I think if the Star really wants to do a series on "commuting horror stories", they should focus on people who have no choice but to commute. How about a story on that single mother with two children who live in Malvern but have to commute to Etobicoke for work? or newly arrived immigrants who live with their extended family in Brampton and must rely on transit to get to work in Vaughan or Newmarket? or that poor university student who must live at home in Markham because OSAP wouldn't cover rent nor residence fee in downtown Toronto? I think these make much more compelling stories than middle/upper-class commuters that drive their SUVs across town and complain about too much traffic.