海角社区官网

Other commutes take their time to grind you down 鈥� a traffic delay here, a missed bus there.

And when, finally, you have to spend money you just earned to ride a surge-priced Uber home when the TTC isn’t working, all those little issues have worn you down to rock bottom.

Emily works an office job in North York, and had a commute like that until she made a move just a few months ago, almost entirely motivated by the mental wear-and-tear of her daily trek.

The 7 Bathurst bus is unreliable, she explained, especially northbound and out of the station.聽And if it’s not the bus, it’s the subway. When trains would suddenly stop between stations on Line 2, there was no cell service to let her office know she would be late.

At its worst, the commute has taken her three hours door-to-door, which included an Uber home from Castle Frank Station.

“If the subway went down at any point of that commute it was a million dollars to get an Uber to get to where I needed to go, because everybody was trying to get Uber,” said Emily.聽(The Star is providing pseudonyms to the commuters for safety reasons.)聽

As part of the Star鈥檚 new series, I took Emily’s daily commute, part of our effort to discover what makes getting around our city so miserable 鈥� and what we can do about it.

A shaky start

As I arrive at the intersection of Bathurst and Dupont, a bus leaves.聽I see it as I wait for the light to turn so I can reach the bus shelter 鈥� a cruel irony.聽As聽soon as I cross, the bus zips away.

This is an area in the midst of development, boxy condo buildings are being constructed to the east and west, while commercial rail tracks run to the north.

Now it鈥檚 time to wait. I text the number on the bus stop to see how long until the next bus. Eight minutes.聽There鈥檚 a gas station right by the bus stop, with a Tim Hortons attached. I consider going inside 鈥� do I risk missing my bus for a coffee?

After a minute of indecision I relent. I quickly grab my coffee and run out to the bus stop 鈥� but the bus is still minutes away. I finally get on at 7:38 a.m., just as the TTC texting service had predicted (though it can be hit-or-miss).

The ride is quick and uncomfortably bumpy but not enough to topple you over.聽

The trip takes four minutes down to Bathurst Station. Working my way through the station, I spot provincial offences officers (the new name for fare enforcement personnel), but they’re chatting on a bench. I walk by without even a glance my way.

Fare enforcement has been a tricky subject for the TTC聽鈥斅�transit riders have increasingly skipped out on fares in recent years, which means less money for the city’s cash-strapped transit agency. But as transit has increasingly become delayed and crowded, more riders are feeling frustrated with the system’s $3.35 fare. And that’s all before mentioning the TTC’s rocky history with fare inspection and racial profiling.

Heading down toward the subway, I take a quick pause to remember if I need to head toward Kennedy or Kipling. Even for riders who have lived in 海角社区官网for years (like myself) navigating the TTC can still be confusing and it’s an issue that advocacy groups have been raising for years.

A subway interlude

I get on the Line 2 subway at 7:45 a.m., after a minute of waiting. The subway car is mildly filled, meaning I鈥檓 faced with the dilemma of sitting next to someone or standing.

The train crawls, the wheels letting out a screeching noise, as we pass through a slow zone between Spadina and St. George.

Reduced speed zones, also known as 鈥渟low zones,鈥� have become a frequent bug of Toronto’s transit system. The subway system currently has 12 reduced speed聽zones, including six on Line 2,聽where speed is reduced to 10 to 25 km/h for track maintenance. The transit agency has previously said the system would never reach zero slow zones.

At this point, I’m optimistic. Despite some bumps in the road and an inconvenient slow zone, the commute so far has been relatively painless.

Bumps on the Broadview bus

By the time the subway pulls into Broadview Station, it鈥檚 7:53 a.m. I trudge up the stairs to the busway聽and wait five minutes for the 925 Don Mills bus to arrive.

After boarding, the bus pulls out of the station at 8:03 a.m.

As we pull away, the man sitting across from me bunches up his jacket and uses it as a pillow to rest his head against the window. It hardly seems an omen of a quick and easy trip.

As we slip into Thorncliffe Park, the聽ride becomes bumpier, the traffic heavier and my stomach churns as the bus sways over bumps and potholes. This neighbourhood is being subjected to intense Ontario Line construction, turning the roads bright orange with cones and machinery lining the street.

The $27-billion Ontario Line subway will stretch from Exhibition Station in the west to Don Valley in the east and has triggered frustration in recent years. Small businesses have been forced to close or relocate, some tenants and homeowners have been evicted from their homes and construction has caused dust, noise聽and, in some areas, inflamed rat infestations.

The packed bus smells aggressively of mint gum and someone鈥檚 menthol balm, which doesn鈥檛 help the carsickness聽building in my gut.

I tend to get car sick pretty often, unless I’m driving, but I don’t usually throw-up unless I’ve had lots of food or, on occasion, lots of alcohol. TTC buses can be especially bad for carsickness because you can’t see the horizon or the road straight ahead. It probably didn’t help that the only thing I had in my stomach was the Tim Hortons coffee for breakfast.

As we make our way聽from Overlea Boulevard to Don Mills Road, I spot the shuttered Science Centre. That鈥檚 when the bus crawls, caught in traffic with cars tangled at Eglinton and Don Mills.

The man sitting next to me is fast asleep, his head slumped down and swaying side to side as we stop and start. We鈥檙e finally on the last stretch of my journey, as we approach York Mills Road. I begin to calculate my escape off the bus 鈥� do I attempt to step over my slumbering neighbour? Or do I attempt to gently wake him?聽

As we鈥檙e about to pull into the stop, I make my move. I try to step over but there鈥檚 no room. I quietly say, 鈥渆xcuse me,鈥� and the man jolts awake. He sheepishly moves his legs, and I rush off the bus, shaking off the claustrophobia induced by worming through the riders standing by the exit.

After almost an hour, I step out onto the corner of Don Mills and York Mills, and my commute is over.

The trouble with the TTC

My carsickness lingers in my stomach, and I鈥檓 left feeling irrationally irritated from the cramped conditions of the bus. The troubles I encountered along the route were all things I can rationalize: of course there will be construction or crowded buses 鈥� that鈥檚 just how the city and the TTC are.聽

After commuting for years on the TTC in its current state, I鈥檝e learned to tune out the little problems that pile up to make my journey frustrating. For this series, though, I鈥檝e been hyper-fixated on them. And while some routes have issues that stick out (like slow zones or aging buses), this route has just enough little annoyances to make the whole experience unenjoyable 鈥� and over time, intolerable.

I’m reminded of a quote from former TTC CEO Greg Percy when I interviewed him in March, who said the TTC suffered from popularity and that “we wouldn’t have those crowds if we weren’t giving good service.”

Most people weren’t on there because of the good service, they have to take the TTC because, if they don’t own a car, the TTC is their only option. It means having to endure the combination of issues that can make the TTC frustrating, from things outside of the agency’s control (like construction and potholes) to things it can change (like frequent service to prevent overcrowding).

As I catch up with Emily after taking the commute, she tells me she’s moved, in large part, to help with her daily trek to the office (which has now been cut in half).

Sometimes it can be all too easy to blame the TTC for our bad commutes, but the transit agency also makes it easy to blame it for the issues plaguing the city’s transit system 鈥� Emily’s commute is no exception.