Last week I
wondered if regular riders should help oversee local transit
agencies or the proposed Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA).
Transit expert and advocate Steve Munro points out Thursday's column
was off track in describing how private businessmen were replaced by
municipal councillors on the Toronto Transit Commission. I
mistakenly implied the shift occurred as a result of a TTC plan to
scrap streetcar routes.
Munro writes,
"The old Metro Council decided it should have seats on the TTC when
it started to pay operating and capital subsidies. That change arose
from the province's decision to cancel the Spadina Expressway and
embrace transit. This had nothing at all to do with the streetcar
debates, although both events happened in 1972.
"The TTC
operated with a mixture of citizen and council members until about
1990 when Metro Council became concerned that actions of the TTC,
and its private subsidiary Gray Coach Lines, were inappropriate for
its role as a public body. The remaining citizen members were
replaced by councillors, and for all practical purposes the TTC
became a committee of council even though it was and is technically
an independent agency."
In 1997 the new
City of Toronto replaced the former municipal governments of
Metropolitan Toronto, Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke, East York
and Toronto. Councillors elected to the amalgamated "megacity"
council then became the only people eligible to steer the huge
transit agency.
Munro
continues, "I am of two minds about 'citizens' on boards like this.
In an ideal world, there would be people like me who are genuinely
working for the benefit of the riders. But what we actually would
get is politicians who are out of office but biding their time, as
well as people with specific business interests at heart.
"I would rather
that they all be councillors, and subject to the rigours of
political pressure and review -- imperfect though this may be."
Rebecca Wenman
of High Park writes, "I believe citizens, as stakeholders in public
transit, should be allowed to sit on transportation committees or
boards such as the TTC or the proposed GTTA.
"Most
businesses and services have learned to listen to their customers.
Who better to ask than the people who use their product or service?
City councillors, MPPs, and MPs are elected by (a) public that is
mostly skeptical of politicians at every level of government.
"People
acknowledge automobile emissions from traffic congestion as being a
major contributor to smog, and a negative impact on the
environment."
Wenman insists
that good decisions require a first hand understanding of what
commuters want. For example, she writes, "More buses will add
service for existing transit users -- but not get more people to
leave their cars at home. What benefit is the federal government's
Union Station-Pearson Airport rail link to those caught in daily
traffic gridlock?
"Like the
businesses and services who have learned the value of their
customer's feedback and input, public transit requires public
contribution to help make it a viable alternative to the
automobile."