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Ward 1 (Etobicoke North) Debate Wrap-up
Who should I vote for? Ward Councillor candidate reviews
City Council has important decision-making powers over transit, particularly
its budget, which we all know has a direct relationship to the service that
allows us to get around and the fares we pay. All Councillors in Toronto City
Council, including the mayor, only have one vote, so it is very important that
there is a pro-transit council if we want to be able to get around this city.
Making an informed choice for your mayor's vote is important; but the vote for
your ward councillor will be even more important. Fortunately, there are some
upcoming and recent events, and some ongoing tools available to help you make
a good decision.
Ward 18 Sustainable Transportation Debate
Wednesday 8 October, 6:30pm, Bloor Bladstone Public Library, 1101 Bloor Street
West Click
here
to see a map of Ward 18, Davenport Eight candidates have confirmed their
participation at this event to discuss: -TTC service, fares, and funding -Safe
bike infrastructure -Safe sidewalks and intersections -Congestion The planning
has been led by the Ward 18 CycleTO group, and TTCriders is a proud sponsor.
Ward 1 Debate wrap-up
Rexdale Community Hub (Panorama Court, near Kipling & Finch West) Friday 3
October, 6:30-9:00pm Click
here
to see a map of Ward 1, Etobicoke North
As a proud supporting member of Northwest Transit Action, TTCriders joined
CodeRedTO in attending the recent Ward 1 Councillor debate at the Rexdale
Community Hub this past Friday (October 3). The importance of transit to this
area was obvious to us early; the trip to the meeting on the 45 Kipling North
was crowded and slow, with a group of riders huddling in the rain at almost
every stop. Many of these were passed up since the bus was already full.
Fortunately, we were happy to see that Ward 1 candidates and residents were
excited to talk transit. Encouragingly,
the majority of the candidates vying for the Ward 1 council seat support
the immediate construction of an LRT line on Finch West
in order to bring high quality rapid transit to Rexdale as quickly as
possible. The most notable exception to this was the incumbent, Mr. Vincent
Crisanti, who is instead promoting “enhanced bus service” over LRT for Finch
West. We spoke with Mr. Crisanti about this after the event where he reported
that it was the TTC who had told him that with transit signal priority (TSP)
and queue jump lanes buses would move faster than would an LRT. This claim
confused us; according to our understanding of transit planning, LRT provides
the ultimate enhancement to surface transit.
We have written the TTC for clarification on this matter and will report it as
soon as possible. In the meantime, we are happy to see Mr. Crisanti embrace
the possibility of investing in transit and making changes to road design in
order to improve mobility for transit riders. Although there are currently
plans to make even better changes to Finch West to improve transit,
we expect to continue talking to Mr. Crisanti and others about how to
institute things like “enhanced bus service” more broadly throughout our
city.
Who should I vote for? Ward Councillor candidate reviews
Public appearances and debates are one good way to get to know candidates, but
another important one is to clearly know their campaign plans, and in the case
of people running for re-election, their voting records on transit issues in the
past. The Toronto Centre for Active Transportation has created an online tool to
compile and compare the campaign plans of candidates. Click
here to search out the
candidates in your ward to help you decide how to vote. TTCriders has developed
its own tool to clearly demonstrate how Toronto City Councillors have performed
on important transit votes in the past. We will continue to monitor this into
the future, but click
here
if you want to see how transit friendly or transit scroogey your councillor has
been.