by

Flatlining the TTC

[This item has been expanded on February 5, 2006 with additional information about loading standards in the more section.] 

This item contains a copy, modified into a suitable format for easy downloading, of the TTC staff presentation on January 25, 2006.  This has been adapted from a Power Point file by stripping out all of the photos and converting the remainder to a PDF.  This will allow easy access to the material by readers and very substantially reduces the size of the file.

20060125 TTC Flatlining

Explanatory notes and comments about this presentation are at the end of this item.

Here is the presentation I made at the TTC meeting.  My recommendations have been sent to staff for comment.  The nub of the argument is that TTC needs to provide ongoing projections of the resources needed to handle various scenarios for growth in demand, rather than treating each year’s changes as a big surprise for which there is no room in the budget.

20060125 TTC Budget and Loading Standards

Continue reading →

by

A Bold Initiative for Don Valley Transport

The City of Toronto has spent a lot of time thinking about possible ways to improve capacity in the Don Valley corridor.  One night, after a particularly good concert at Tafelmusik, a conversation ensued in front of Greg’s Ice Cream.  This evolved into a late evening flight of whimsy together with the realization that transit could be much better in Toronto, that we could fly ahead of the world in transit innovation.

If only we could get enough feathers.

Swans on the Don

by

Toronto International Film Festival

Over the years, I’ve attended many, many of the Toronto festivals, and quite some time back started to review what I had seen.  This was a combination of two factors:

  • People say “what have you seen” and after you’ve run through that list for the twentieth time, you get a bit tired.  I’ve also found that the most instant reviews one listener can absorb before terminal exhaustion sets in is three, and they have to be dedicated.
  • Once upon a time, there was a BBS (remember BBSes?) called Artworks that was run by Dana Lee at MuchMusic.  It was one of those delightfully old fashioned things (by today’s standards) where you dialed in with your ever so slow modem, and actually typed the posts right into the database.  The moment someone invented software that would actually handle uploads and downloads for you to view and edit offline, it seemed like people were cheating.  Anyhow, I became something of the house film critic, and that’s where these reviews were born.

Enjoy!

2005 Reviews  2004 Reviews  2003 (and 2002) Reviews  2001 Reviews

1999 Reviews  1998 Reviews  1997 Reviews

1996 Reviews  1994 Reviews  1993 Reviews

1988 Reviews  1987 Reviews  1986 Reviews

Note:  There is more than one Steve Munro living in Toronto and I am not the one who is a very good sound editor and designer.  If you don’t like my reviews, please don’t give him a hard time.