Toronto must prioritize improved bus service: report

The City of Toronto should concentrate on improving and upgradingbus servicein order to better serve low-paid service workers who tend to be concentrated in the outer reaches of the city, a report says.

The report, titledThe Geography of Toronto's Service Class, wasreleased last week by the University of Toronto'sMartin Prosperity Institute. Using census data, the report found that,for the most part,the workplaces for people defined as working in theservice sectorwere concentrated around the inner suburbs.

Many of these inner suburbs including Scarborough, Etobicoke and parts of North York are not served well by subway lines, the report said.

Only 21 per cent of areas identified by the report as being "service-dominant" had a subway station within 500 metres. On the other hand, 65 per cent of the areas defined as "creative-dominant" had a subway station within 500 metres.

Bus rapid transit a possible solution

Service workers are also paid less than creative workers the average service class salary in Toronto is around $46,000, whereas theaverage salary for a creative class worker is $75,000.

Service jobs tend to be distributed throughout the city more so than creative sector jobs, said Patrick Adler, one of the lead authors of the report. Therefore, service workers tend to use buses more than creative workers.

"So you've got a whole narrative in the mayoral election right now that's all about subways. Are subways good? Are they bad? Who's going to do subways more? But there seems to be very little discussion of bus service, which is the dominant mode of transit in the city," Adler told CBC's Metro Morning.

The city under Mayor David Miller has prioritized the construction of light rail lines as part of the Transit City plan. Mayoral candidates Rocco Rossi, Rob Ford, George Smithermanand Sarah Thomson have all said they favouradding to the city's subway network thanbuilding light rail. Only Joe Pantalone has stood by the Transit City plan in its current form.

"Our only recommendation is that while we're talking about making the subway system better, we might address this dominant mode of transportation, especially the one that most serves the working poor of the city," Adler said.

The Martin Prosperity institute reportacknowledgesthat calling for better transit isn't a particularly novel idea, and that the real challenge is implementing effective solutions quickly.

"The short planning window for implementing high-speed, high-frequency bus service three to five years, or even faster in the case of the simplest schemes makes it an attractive option for addressing the transportation-related challenges that face Torontos service class," the report said.

"Developing express bus routes and bus rapid transit (BRT) along key corridors would be a relatively inexpensive yet effective municipal intervention that would enhance the geographic mobility of the service class."

Affordability still a key issue

But Deb Cowen, a community activist who works in east Scarborough andteaches geography at the University of Toronto's St. George campus, said she doesn't think the report addresses the bigger issue of transit affordability.

She said the recommendation to improve bus services is "a bit like prescribing aspirin to treat a cancer.

"It doesn't respond to the long-term challenges of building a socially just, environmentally sustainable city," she said on Metro Morning.

"And while I think it's absolutely crucial to improve services, I think we have a crisis of transportation in the city. You wouldn't really know it from listening to some of our mayoral debates, but I think Torontonians on the street know it well."

Many people in the inner suburbs cannot afford the fares, she said, particularly seniors. What she said she keeps hearing from the community is while it's nice to talk about improving transit services, thoseimprovements will not help if people cannot afford the services anyway.

The city, however, is focusing on expanding transit service throughthe Transit City program. Fares, meanwhile, went up in the last year.

The adult fare in January wentup to$3.00 from $2.75earlier this year in part tobridge what Chair Adam Giambrone called an estimated budgetshortfall of around $100 million. He said the decision to raise the fares was driven in part by his unwillingness to cut service, which he said last November was " the worst thing that you can do to the TTC."

Cowensaid she doesn't know if the issue of transit affordability will get any traction in the lead-up to the municipal election on Oct. 25.

"Whether or not it gets the attention it needs, we've got to keep pushing," she said.