Those of you who don’t live in Toronto can probably skip this post. This post isn’t about online information architecture. It is a bit about marketing and communication strategies, but not about mobile or semantic web, or social networks, really. But it is definitely about user experience.

This post is inspired by a colleague at work, who one morning again complained about the experience he had had trying to get to work on crowded TTC streetcars. At the end of his long complaint, which I could easily agree on, he said: “I don’t care what they say – it really isn’t The Better Way,” making reference to the common slogan of the Toronto Transit Commission.

For large cities, punctual and efficient public transit is not just a better way, but a necessity. The current system in Canada’s most populous city, Toronto, is neither punctual nor efficient. In this post, I list some ideas of how to improve the system. Considering how outdated and inadequate some parts of Toronto’s (public transit) infrastructure have become, I know that some of the necessary improvements will now take not just large amounts of money, but also time. Others, however, would be easy to implement almost immediately and with very little funding. While we’re waiting for big things like the Transit City plan really start happening, here are some smaller ideas. In another post later (pt 2), I’ll list bigger things.

1. Ensure that route schedules and information are available at every stop
A simple thing, clearly signposting the numbers and names of the routes that stop at a particular stop, would make the system easier to use. This is done in most other major cities in the world, but in Toronto the signs that mark the stops usually don’t show the numbers and/or destinations of the routes that stop there.

And an online route planner. Yes, a quick, easy-to-use route planner (that the TTC says they’re maybe finally working on now?) would be a very basic thing that the city should have. They have it in London, in Ottawa, in New York, in Helsinki, in Berlin, and in Vancouver, for example. Why not here? There are community built versions in Toronto, which  is absolutely great (love #ttcu_community & TTCupdates.com too!), but why does it have to take private individuals to build these things here?

2. Stop idling buses at stations
Toronto has an idling control bylaw, which aims to limit idling to no more than three minutes in a 60 minute period. I’ve never seen it actually enforced, but according to councillor Howard Moscoe city bylaw officers hand out about one anti-idiling ticket (!) per year. TTC vehicles are currently exempted. Now councillor Moscoe, himself a former TTC chair, is pushing for the idling control bylaw to apply to TTC as well. It’s sad to see TTC, supposed to be the greener way, buses spew out fumes at subway stations for 10 or 15 minutes, while the doors are left open (so it clearly isn’t about keeping the passengers warm). The engine could easily be turned off for the duration of the wait. Burning all that gas idling also means burning more of the cash-strapped TTC’s money.

3. Clearly announce and explain short turns
Short turning, i.e. a streetcar turning off its scheduled route before it reaches its scheduled destination, is like short selling the service. Short turning is particularly common on the 501 Queen line. But what’s worse is that often short turns aren’t clearly announced by the driver. Tonight I got on a College car at Spadina, and not much later, at Bathurst, it suddenly short turned. The driver perhaps had made an earlier announcement, but not after I got on board with several other people at Spadina.

4. Introduce time based transfer on all lines
Since July 2005, TTC has been running a time based transfer pilot program on the 512 St Clair route. What I don’t understand is why that hasn’t been introduced across the whole TTC network a long time ago. Time based transfer is the standard in European cities, allowing riders to get on and off at will – in both directions – typically during a 60 to 90 minute window after they paid the fare.

5. Always exit through the rear door, and always move to the back
This one’s to fellow TTC customers: please use the rear door, not the front, for exiting, like the sign says, unless you really don’t have an option, and always move to the back. For as long as there are no significant service improvements and the TTC streetcars and buses are as packed as they are, please let’s use them as efficiently as we can.

6. Transparency and integrity
After I remind myself that the TTC is in fact the least subsidized public transit system in North America and perhaps the world, I can actually think that it’s quite incredible that the TTC manages to do this much with the little money they have. With about 70 – 78 per cent of the cost of the system borne by riders, it can’t get significantly better unless the politicians in this country (and the people who vote them in power) start seeing public transit as the essential element of city building that it is instead of just a social service to be ignored.

Given the fact that the TTC itself can’t change the way the province and the federal government do their budgets, I think the TTC could take a friendlier approach by simply saying “hey, we know it should be way better, but we’re doing our best.” So why then did it take a visually impaired lawyer to file a lawsuit against the TTC and an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruling to get the TTC to institute the automated stop announcement system on all streetcars, buses and subways? The TTC, yes, the very same TTC that’s too cash-strapped to improve its services, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fight the lawsuit, according to reports. These kind of things make it sound like the TTC has something against its customers, the people who pay for most of the Commission’s budget.

To me another example of the TTC’s attitude is this. In the “excerpts from the final report from the Mayor’s Independent Fiscal Review Panel,” written by the TTC, it claims “by most international benchmarks it [the TTC] is among the best in the world.” However, the page on the TTC website doesn’t actually name any of those “international benchmarks.” I looked at the original document that the sentence is taken from, mayor Miller’s “Blueprint for Fiscal Stability and Economic Prosperity — a Call to Action”. The long report looks perfectly sane to me, for most part. But the same sentence, “by most international benchmarks it [the TTC] is among the best in the world,” appears with no further explanation there, too.

It is comments like that that really make me wonder. Haven’t TTC officials, Toronto city workers ever travelled in Europe or Asia? Haven’t they ever used public transit there? Haven’t they ever compared the vast transit network in Berlin, where the amount of population is very close to Toronto, to the TTC?

There’s a comment in Steve Munro’s blog that maybe offers some explanation to why the TTC talks about itself that way. The comment reads: “…it takes the TTC an eternity to admit it’s wrong about anything.  This is a deep flaw in their corporate culture, but not surprising for a large organization used to thinking it’s the best in the world.”

Recently, there have been some small but notable improvements. TTC’s Director of Communication, Brad Ross, and Commissioner and Councillor Adam Giambrone have joined Twitter, which is a brave move. Twitter is instant and feedback is direct. This kind of openness is very welcome.

Other recent improvements include the e-alert service that’s finally available, (hopefully it will soon be SMS-based and more similar to, say, the alert system that’s been in use in Helsinki for years) and the next vehicle arrival notification system. Similar systems have been in use in European cities for much longer.

7. SMS tickets
It looks like the TTC won’t have a modern smartcard-based payment system in use for a while. But a simple SMS-ticket system, like the one that’s been in use in Helsinki, Finland for years, would be easy to implement (if Canadian mobile network operators choose to co-operate). It would make it quick and easy to pay for a ride without having to look for change or a convenience store that’s not out of tokens today.

8. Cell phone coverage in the subway system
When there’s a service disruption on the subway, and you’re on your way to an important meeting, wouldn’t it be nice to send a text message to say you’ll be late? It shouldn’t be too hard to work with the different network operators to get things working. This has been done in Europe and Asia. In Helsinki, where the subway was dug deep into the bedrock, there is still perfect coverage on the trains and at all stations. And not just cell phone networks, but the city also offers free Wi-Fi on the subway and some streetcars and buses.

UPDATE: According to this article in the NP, posted in December, TTC is now seriously planning to install cell phone networks in the subway system. Installation could take two to three years. Once cell phones are covered, maybe we’ll see Wi-Fi one day? It shouldn’t be too hard. In Helsinki, Wi-Fi on the subway uses the same cables and technology that was built for the cell phones networks earlier, but different frequencies.

That’s the list for now. Next time I’ll roll out some more. In the meanwhile, here’s a couple good links that I recommend:
TTC now just ‘hick town transit’
Free transit touted elsewhere, but not in Toronto
Suffering the TTC