Topic: Car pooling in danger in Ontario

[tpl]

From tonights news.

Trentway-Wagar is bringing an action in Ontario to close down a car pooling arrangement website.  Why?, Their lawyers says that it is unfair competition to the bus company.
Turns out that the car pooling website does introductions between drivers and passengers and then drivers may charge a small fee for the ride... it is not clear to me  from the news if the website takes a cut.  However, charging a fee for a ride is ILLEGAL in Ontario... they said that it is very old legislation to stop regular people acting as taxi drivers.... I can see that.
IIRC there was a similar case a few years back when someone tried to start up a service down the 401 using 12 passenger vans, I don't remember the details.

With the crowded roads around the GTA and the newish HOV lanes  seems to me that McGuinty could please a lot of people by quickly passing some legislation to expressly permit car pooling by private individuals and ensuring that the insurance industry could not refuse insurance because of carpooling.  While he is at it, maybe  introducing the shared taxi concept so common outside NA and the EU.

[ArticSteve]

insurance industry could not refuse insurance because of carpooling.

They don't presently, they just charge you more.  Problem is ppl don't report their change of usage.

[tpl]

You want to bet that they would not try ? especially if it was a regular thing with compensation.   betcha 

[ArticSteve]

I'll try and be more clear.  Presently, you can carry passengers to work on a regular basis and collect a fee for service, but the insurance companies do increase the premium and I don't think it's more than a hundred or so.

[tpl]

I read more about this today.   Trentway are NOT after the suburb to city neighbour type carpooling.   They are after the occasional city to city for an event car pooling which is what the car pool website is dealing in.

[safristi]

..anytime I've seen HOV lanes they have been fricken EMPTY..............the first time many moons ago i knew NOT wot they were i sped into San Fran past 15 miles of evening traffic SOLO...and got away wif ONE.....

[von_khan]

The HOV lanes on the 403 slash my commute to downtown Toronto by about 20-30 minutes every day depending on traffic. The thought of the Gardiner Expy having them gives me tingles.. 

[tpl]

The HOV lanes on the 403 slash my commute to downtown Toronto by about 20-30 minutes every day depending on traffic. The thought of the Gardiner Expy having them gives me tingles.. 

And so it should give you tingles as the Gardiner  will become totally stationary when 1/2 the capacity of one lane is removed.   I don't know about the 403 but when they added HOV to the 404 they spent some time widening the road to make room for it.  Widening the Gardiner would be somewhat difficult and expensive ( and the thought of it would give Mayor Miller a heart attack)

[safristi]

  worth the price....

[Ex-airbalancer]

The HOV lanes on the 403 slash my commute to downtown Toronto by about 20-30 minutes every day depending on traffic. The thought of the Gardiner Expy having them gives me tingles.. 

And so it should give you tingles as the Gardiner  will become totally stationary when 1/2 the capacity of one lane is removed.   I don't know about the 403 but when they added HOV to the 404 they spent some time widening the road to make room for it.  Widening the Gardiner would be somewhat difficult and expensive ( and the thought of it would give Mayor Miller a heart attack)

i was one of those people who had to commute and i couldn't believe how silly it was to look around seeing tens of thousands of fellow commuters, one per car, drive into town everyday on the gardiner, so i moved downtown closer to where i work.  yes my house costs more but it takes me 10 min to get to work instead of 60.  less pollution, less headache, less wear and tear on my car and the road system.   sorry tpl but the hov lanes would force people to use car pooling, the go train or move closer to their work place and this is a good thing.  its either that or turn the highways into toll roads. 

I hate just driving into GTA, to see that brown haze over it and knowing I will have breath it 

[tpl]

The HOV lanes on the 403 slash my commute to downtown Toronto by about 20-30 minutes every day depending on traffic. The thought of the Gardiner Expy having them gives me tingles.. 

And so it should give you tingles as the Gardiner  will become totally stationary when 1/2 the capacity of one lane is removed.   I don't know about the 403 but when they added HOV to the 404 they spent some time widening the road to make room for it.  Widening the Gardiner would be somewhat difficult and expensive ( and the thought of it would give Mayor Miller a heart attack)

i was one of those people who had to commute and i couldn't believe how silly it was to look around seeing tens of thousands of fellow commuters, one per car, drive into town everyday on the gardiner, so i moved downtown closer to where i work.  yes my house costs more but it takes me 10 min to get to work instead of 60.  less pollution, less headache, less wear and tear on my car and the road system.   sorry tpl but the hov lanes would force people to use car pooling, the go train or move closer to their work place and this is a good thing.  its either that or turn the highways into toll roads. 

Go trains 
Move closer   
Car pooling    works for some but not enough.  Works well for 2 seasons but less well in winter ( weather) and summer( vacations)  Also you'll need many    car pool car parks.

Highways into toll roads.   IMHO   But it would be unfair to many people to do that before a massive increase in Go trains and buses and other middle distance public transit. 

  Also note that you'll need better GO trains, yes, railways not buses, to other parts of the GTA not just downtown.

Just a note for fun.  According to the Times and the BBC the UK housing market is in quite a steep decline, price wise... obviously this is annoying lots of people but it is also giving hope to many others than they could possibly afford to live in a city.  I wonder if the same might happen in TO so that the live close to work becomes easier.   As well what about working closer to home?  Perhaps a good idea if more companies moved out of downtown TO.   CGI did when I was working for them.... increased my commute 'cos I lived downtown but brought much happiness to many others.

[tpl]

...

I hate just driving into GTA, to see that brown haze over it and knowing I will have breath it 

Nowhere near as bad as it was before they took the sulphur out of gasoline.  I working in Richmond Hill and we could just see the CN tower, that is we had line of sight to downtown.     The year after the sulphur went down to <30ppm the sky was noticeably bluer than before.... still brown I agree, but much better.

[von_khan]

The HOV lanes on the 403 slash my commute to downtown Toronto by about 20-30 minutes every day depending on traffic. The thought of the Gardiner Expy having them gives me tingles.. 

And so it should give you tingles as the Gardiner  will become totally stationary when 1/2 the capacity of one lane is removed.   I don't know about the 403 but when they added HOV to the 404 they spent some time widening the road to make room for it.  Widening the Gardiner would be somewhat difficult and expensive ( and the thought of it would give Mayor Miller a heart attack)

Well naturally it would have to be through an extension of the Gardner of some sort. If you take away that one lane on the Expy in the morning or evening, it'd be a disaster of epic proportions during rush hour.

That said I cant stand taking the GO train... Service delays, cramped seating, smelly commuters, having your knees jammed against a stranger, getting the suit all wrinkled because you dont have hanger like in the car.. etc. In the summer time driving from my house to work dowtown is still faster than taking the scheduled train provided I have a passenger. However, in the winter time I dont have much of a choice since the whole ballgame changes. I'm not looking forward to it.. lemme tell ya.

[tpl]

Double deck the Gardiner.    Real people at 1 to a car in the sheltered from the weather layer and buses and carpoolers on the top   

[von_khan]

Double deck the Gardiner.    Real people at 1 to a car in the sheltered from the weather layer and buses and carpoolers on the top   

Someone buy this man a beer. 

[tpl]

Gulp, gurgle swallow.  Urp.     Got it Oz.

[tpl]

"when i bought in downtown toronto i would say 80 percent of the houses hadn't been touched in 50 years - run down priced at 400k and up."

Really?   I lived about as much in the core as possible and I'd say it would be the other way around.   20% of the houses had not been touched for 50 years and the rest were as well maintained as is possible for old houses in our climate.   And $400k   either a few years back or you are talking about the "outer core"
But whatever.   

Trouble with any real plan for improving cities in Ontario is that it falls foul of
a) the way municipalities are funded
b) Nimbyism
c) the provincial/municipal election cycle

From what I have read, the order of the above is different in some other places.

[safristi]

to paraphrase Big Thumb...."My Hovercraft will have eels" before Toronto gets it
 "SHIP" together............known the place fer 30 plus YEARS.......