March 28, 2007 - Eight universities and colleges in the Toronto Area are current negotiating with the TTC in developing a discount transit pass for post-secondary students. The "U-Pass" will be provided to all undergraduate students for about $60 each month, during the September-April school year. The pass will have the student's picture on it (and hence it will be non-transferable) and it will be billed as part of the student's tuition, with no opt-outs. If negotiations go well, the U-Pass could be implemented by September 2008.
While I'm all for providing fare discounts to post-secondary students, I'm not sure if the current terms for the U-Pass are that ideal. A couple of reasons:
1) The U-Pass is only available to undergraduate students
Why they excluded graduate students is beyond me. Graduate students face the same financial constraints as undergraduate students (tuition alone is much higher than undergraduate study already!). In addition, university staff the currently enjoy discount metropasses under the TTC's Volume Incentive Program (VIP) are not eligible for the U-Pass.
2) No Opt-outs
Not every student rides the TTC. I personally know many that drive, walk, or bike to school. Forcing each and every undergraduate student to pay for the U-Pass, with no opt-outs is unfair to those who have no need for the service.
Some universities (i.e. York U) are talking to the TTC about having those students that live outside the 416 area be excluded from the U-Pass. More study needs to be done to determine just how many students commute to Toronto from the 905 region (I know I did throughout my 6 years at UofT!). I understand the rationale behind the exclusion, but at the same time, you're also creating a two-fare system and you're penalizing students who despite living far away, still want to commute to school.
Granted, having the U-Pass readily available to students may encourage ridership. But will the U-Pass be able to convert more students to move away from their cars and ride the rocket to school? I doubt it. Those who drive to school do so for many reasons (poor service I bet is one of them). If the TTC wants to attract more student riders, it needs to also improve its service (and customer relations). The U-Pass won't do you any good when you're waiting for a bus for over half-an-hour in the middle of winter.
3) Costs
$60 per month is cheaper than the $87.75 that students now pay for their discount passes. However, for those that do not need the pass, an additional $480 on their tuition is a lot of money (almost the cost of taking a half course at U of T!).
This is also more than 5 times what UTM students will be paying for their Mississauga transit passes and way more than the almost $50 per term that Waterloo students will pay for their's.
U of T students will be asked to vote on the issue once the TTC and U of T SAC reach some sort of agreement on the terms of the U-Pass (which is not expected to be anytime soon). History says that U of T students are generally against any kind of levy (a few years ago, we voted overwhelming to deny an increase of less than $100 on our tuition to fund a new stadium and athletic centre). But given today's heightened awareness of transit needs, a U-Pass is not a bad idea, just that better needs to be worked out to benefit all students.
March 27, 2007 - Tonight I had the opportunity to check out the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall. It was my first time at the orchestra since I was in high school. Through this program called tsoundcheck, anyone between the ages of 15-29 can get discount show tickets. Now I have to admit that I'm not very knowledgeable with classical music (despite years of studying music in school and playing the violin), so I decided to pick something that's a bit lighter - and I happened to find a show called: Music from the Hollywood Epics.
The night was fun - all the tunes that the TSO played were fairly recognizable. They even had the storm troopers and Darth Vader greeting the audience before the show (they also marched in when the orchestra was playing the Star Wars theme). For $12, it was definitely very good entertainment.
What bugged me most though was the couple sitting next to me. They kept giggling and laughing throughout the show. And the guy kept playing with his fingers pretending to be the conductor. It was pretty annoying (and they were my age too). Seriously, if you can't sit still for a couple of hours, you really shouldn't be at the orchestra!
March 26, 2007 - A few news stories that caught my attention the past couple of days:
Hundreds of Rodents, Pigeons Found in Downtown Apartment
As a follow up to my pigeon problem post, this dude who lives in St. Jamestown was found to have been keeping and breeding HUNDREDS of pigeons, mice and who knows what. The news showed his apartment filled with pigeon cages (over 300!!!) with the birds flying, pooping, and hurting themselves everywhere. Very very disturbing - can you imagine living next door to this guy?
TTC Advocates King Streetcar Right-of-Way
Talk about deja vu - just a few days ago, my friend Mike and I were saying how cool it would be if the TTC converts Queen Street into a transit mall (given that our Queen Street LRT proposal didn't make it in the Transit City plan!). And now a King Streetcar Right-of-Way through the entertainment district!! It's a great idea - the entertainment district needs to be more pedestrian friendly and anytime a single-occupant vehicle prevents a streetcar full of riders from moving forward is unacceptable. Not to mention King Street has Adelaide and Richmond to move vehicles (and access to lots of parking lots). Of course, some business owners are already freaking out on this proposal (click here, here, and here) - I doubt it will cause "traffic chaos"! maybe it will get people out of the cars, even if it's only for a few days.
Waterloo to receive funding for LRT
Looks like Waterloo will be the next city to get a light rail system. The Province has committed to funding 1/3 of the Region's plan for a light rail system to run from Waterloo (through the UW!) to Kitchener, with a future extension into downtown Cambridge. All they have to do now is figure out where the route will go, where the stations will be located, and oh ya, complete the environmental assessment.
March 25, 2007 - It's amazing how far technology has evolved these days. It really wasn't that long ago (ok, so maybe 10 years is a long time ago) when I first got introduced to the world of internet. Today, I seriously can't imagine what life would be like without the internet.
The net is also great in keeping in touch too - whether it's through email, or ICQ (remember how big that was?) or Friendster, or MSN - it's a free, easy way to keep in touch with everyone and anyone. The latest (at least to me it's the latest) is this site called Facebook (FB). It works exactly like Friendster, except almost everyone and anyone is on it. I've found everyone from old elementary friends to people at work. I'm sure you could look up Brad Pitt and he'll be on it as well. It's that popular apparently!!
This site is so powerful that not only can you reconnect with old friends, you can also broadcast every intimate detail of your life to everyone =) now i only discovered how powerful FB truly is tonight when I was playing around with the profile options and accidentally made a change. FB picked it up right away and within a couple of hours, I got asked if everything is alright and if I'm ok =S
So lessons learned:
1) Do not play with the profile options unless you know what you're doing
2) I have friends who really do care about my life - for better or for worse (so thanks guys)
3) FB is truly an amazing, powerful tool
So FYI: yes, I'm fine! B's fine too! and we're both doing fine (actually, better than fine I would say!) I have corrected the profile change, so everything is ok now =)
