[PHOTO] Five photos of my Tuesday commute to work (#toronto, #coronavirustoronto)

My commute to work Tuesday, which turned out to be the last one I will make in some time, was a bit odd, with buses and subway cars half-empty and a strange ambient mood.

[PHOTO] Major malfunction, Presto card reader, 29 Dufferin bus

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Yorkville, Burning Man, Rol San, 29 Dufferin, Cherry Street

• The Toronto Star looks back at its coverage of Yorkville in the 1960s, back when it was a hangout spot for hippies.
• Toronto Life shares photos of some Toronto-originated artworks put up at Burning Man this year, here.
• blogTO notes that Rol San, a leading dim sum place in Chinatown, might be erased by a 13-story tower.
• The crowding on the 29 Dufferin bus produced by the CNE is something I notice regularly. blogTO reports.
• The Cherry Street Bridge, after a month, is finally going to be fixed. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE} Seven Toronto links: CNE, 29 Dufferin, Rogers Road, Ontario Line, Green Line, renters

• blogTO reports on some new features at this year’s iteration of the CNE.
• blogTO notes the terrible overcrowding and other dysfunctions of the 29 Dufferin bus.
• Sean Marshall reports on the last runs of the Rogers Road streetcar, ancestor of the 161 Rogers Road bus.
• Happily, weird pronunciations of “Avenue” are no longer heard on TTC buses. Global News reports.
• Transit Toronto shares the Metrolinx report on the economics of the proposed Ontario Line.
• blogTO reports on the good news that the Green Line park system, trailing south and east of Earlscourt Park, is going to be built.
• This Toronto Life photo essay examining five recently evicted renters is quietly horrifying.

[PHOTO] 29 Dufferin passing under the bridge

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: 29 Dufferin, Metrolinx, drugs, Jarvis/Carlton mural, #Vegandale

• blogTO reports TTC plans to further improve service on the 29 Dufferin route.
• This lawsuit lodged by the companies building the Eglinton Crosstown against Metrolinx for breach of contract is unwelcome news. The Toronto Star reports.
• The apparent trend to prescribe injured workers not medical marijuana for their pain but the potentially much more dangerous opioids sounds like a mistake to me. CBC reports.
• The giant Okuda San Miguel mural on the wall of a student resident at Jarvis and Carlton is now complete. CBC reports.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto has written a fascinating long feature on the rise of veganism in Toronto, not only as a popular and visible food style but as a force responsible for gentrification (the block of Queen between Dufferin and Brock is home to a new vegan district).

[PHOTO] Three photos from last night in Toronto as the snow fell

The snow that was falling over Toronto last night as I returned home was beautiful, at Chechalk Lane near Yonge and Wellesley, at Bloor and Dufferin as the 29 bus came in, and on Dupont Street as I reached my home.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy shares a stunning photo of the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
• The Boston Globe‘s Big Picture shares photos from the world of Chinese opera, in Thailand.
• blogTO has a humourous list of signs you’ve survived, and suffered, on the 29 Dufferin bus.
• Centauri Dreams reflects on the possible ancient ocean of Charon.
• Dangerous Minds shares beautiful hand-painted portraits of tattooed yakuza.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that data from Cassini sets strict limits on hypothetical Planet Nine.
• The Map Room links to a map of the Japanese Empire’s rail network circa 1936.
• Steve Munro reports on demand projections for various subway relief lines.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer has lost any appreciation for Marco Rubio.
• Strange Maps shares various sound maps of London.
• Window on Eurasia notes the dynamics behind the alliance of Putin and Russia with Europe’s far right.

[URBAN NOTE] “Sufferin’ on the Dufferin”

Torontoist’s Sarah Niedoba reports on the state of the 29 Dufferin bus. I would agree that the bus has improved in recent years.

Rider complaints with the 29 are many and varied, from general busyness to the buses tendency to “roam in packs.” By and large, however, they can be broken down into a few main categories.

Steve Munro, a Toronto transit advocate and Torontoist contributor, has used TTC vehicle tracking data to review the 29 Dufferin’s operation between 2011 and 2015. In his report on the route he identifies a few key failures in performance: headways (or time in between vehicles), bunching, and short turns.

Headways give riders an idea of when they can expect the next bus to arrive. Regular service, according to the TTC, means a vehicle every five to 10 minutes. According to Munro, “Headways may look good on paper, but if the service arrives unreliably, or if some of it never reaches the destination thanks to short turns, then the advertised service is a polite fiction.”

Short turns are used by drivers to ensure that they are keeping to their scheduled running times. If they can’t complete the full route in the scheduled time, they’ll short turn and return to the station early, frustrating riders who are unceremoniously dumped off before arriving at their chosen destination. Munro notes that the 29 Dufferin will often short turn at College, meaning those who are looking to use the service southbound find themselves stranded.

“The route is constantly changed without warning, one moment you are on a bus headed south to Dufferin gates and the next you are being kicked off at minus 20 to stand on the corner of College Street to wait and try and make it onto the people-filled bus trailing behind,” wrote one disgruntled Yelp reviewer.

[PHOTO] Three southbound 29 Dufferin buses, all lined up

Looking north from the southeast corner of Dufferin and Dupont streets last night, I saw three southbound 29 Dufferin buses all lined up. I’ve seen and heard of longer lines–six is my personal record, while one Facebook commenter has seen eight–but three is actually not very rare. So, I snapped a picture illustrating the tendency of TTC traffic on this route to clump up in knots, so noteworthy that Toronto transit expert Steve Munro has devoted a category of his blog to analyses of what’s going on.