Funny Picture: Transportation

Showing posts with label Transportation. Show all posts

It's a mixed up #Toronto

Just a variety of photos from the big city, like the street artist at work.

Brazil dancer with a full peacock circle costume

Cosplay

Ecocabs

A Toronto fireboat sprays in full spray mode

A full alley

Streetcars on Queen Street West

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#Toronto Union Station revitalization is happening at both the major multimodal commuter rail hub and the adjacent TTC station. The train tracks will have an award winning glass atrium that will let in natural light. The train yard currently looks like an old, dark barn that is falling apart while the higher glass building has started to take shape. Now more of the old roof has been ripped away, leaving parts of the old steel truss and some concrete roof joints exposed to the sky. They are taking care to preserve some of the century-old building's historical elements.

The TTC stop will be getting a second platform and to do the work Front Street has been slowly ripped apart to expose the underground layers and to relocate existing underground utilities and the entrance between the stations has slowly been reduced. Many thousands of passengers have been crammed together to do the shuffle slow step, squeezed together to go through the doors and into the underground PATH system (especially in winter when so many keep underground). You can tell you are in a train station because even the graffiti is themed to fit in with the rail motif.

The train station work will cost over $600 million and will take until 2015 to fully complete.

The no smoking sign in elevator No 1 which leads to track 3 has been modified to include a train

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Winter car crashes

Driving in Ontario means driving with snow, slush and ice and typically the darn windshield wipers either don't work worth a crap, or the glass juice is frozen solid. You have to dodge flying chunks of ice from trucks, drive down a road that, if you are lucky, has at least has two ruts where tires have worn away the snow and then you have to worry about everyone else on the road. The winter months have the highest amounts of collisions in Ontario - especially December and January.

And then out of the blue someone goes across multiple lanes of traffic and clips several cars along the way. This one didn't look to bad: three cars in total coming to rest against snow and the median barrier. The SUV up the road had a demolished rear panel. You can see the skid marks with the car almost taking a 90 degree run across Highway 401 as it crossed the road from the fast lane to slow lane. Odds are they either hit an icy patch, lost control and over corrected or someone might have pitted them while making an unsafe lane change (ran off road or skidding and sliding are the top other events for collisions).

Traffic slows down as people get out of the way of the carnage on the road. Traffic will get worse when the EMS shows up, along with the multiple tow trucks.

Later on that same day we came across and accident at a busy intersection involving multiple vehicles. Be safe out there Toronto and remember to always have car insurance Ontario.

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Richard Branson joins investment in Hailo

Hailo's ten city e-hail taxi app network, which include @HailoToronto, Chicago, Boston, Dublin and London, plans to grow its global market to every major city in the world with the help of over $30 million in new investment. Their first new markets planned are New York City and Tokyo. The smartphone taxi hailing app company has sales of over $100 million, carried over 2.5 million passengers and makes it easy to get a taxi, monitor its path to your location and pay the fare - using existing fleets of taxicabs and their drivers. “HAILO puts ten thousand taxis in your pocket. Games and music made smartphones fun. Maps made them useful. HAILO will make them indispensable. Get ready to take back control of your life,” NYC-based CEO and Founder Jay Bregman states."

Hailo has raised over $50 million from investors, including the recent addition from venture capitalist Union Square Ventures, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Japanese telco KDDI. The influx of $30 million in capital was followed with the addition of Tom Barr as the new President and COO USA (Tom was formerly a Starbucks VP; Head of Coffee Business), Kiyotaka Fujii (former head of LVMH) will be President, Japan and Asia Pacific as well as serving on the Board of Directors and Colm O'Cuilleanain President, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Union Squares Ventures Opportunity Fund Partner John Buttrick also joins the Hailo Board.

The new investments were led by Union Square Ventures who were also the first institutional investors in the social and business networks; Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.

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Ontario Place - What's up with that?

#Toronto's little jewel on the lake sits lonely and blue waiting for the province to decide what to do with the property. The Government of Ontario announced in February of 2012 that the revitalization of the 155 acre site would require the closure most of the attractions like the waterpark, restaurants and the giant golf ball known as the Cinesphere. One of the first rumours was that a potential Toronto casino might fit right into the proposed attractions (it has also been suggested that the casino could go in nearby Exhibition Place).

Some of the site continues to operate, including the marina, the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Echo Beach, the Atlantis Pavilion banquet and convention centre and for those with cars, the paid parking lots will remain available during on and off site events.

"Ontario Place would like to thank our guests who have visited over the past 40 years. Thank you for your loyalty and we look forward to 2017 when we celebrate the new Ontario Place." The park was opened to visitors in 1971.

Near the end of 2012 Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport provided an advisory panel report on the planned transformation of Ontario Place into a landmark and desirable destination for families and tourists. The goal is to create a year round waterfront community with a mix of housing, recreation and work. In addition to the work to improve the actual lands and waters of the future mixed use property, the additional goal is to increase the transportation and transit opportunities to bring people to the site. It was often criticized for being hard to reach if you didn't have a car.

Atlantis sits above the water's surface in the inner harbour

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Transformers cave of doom

What appears to be a transforming alien truck known as Optimus Prime emerges from his secret lair near the forbidden section of #Toronto (ie under any elevated grade separation along the waterfront). The battle between Autobots and Decepticons is getting up close and personal - hopefully a battle will not tear apart our city.

I was looking for Megan Fox but she has joined the Decepticons and has been banished from working with the robots.

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Acton BIA welcomes passengers to new GO train stop

Nancy Wilkes, Chair of the Acton Business Improvement Area, joined other celebs and politicians as the GO Transit commuter train returned to Acton on January 7, 2013. Metrolinx commitment to bring the trains back to the GTA town of Acton was fulfilled when the 6:28 am train from Kitchener pulled into the new transit stop beside the (Olde) Hide House. The GO Kitchener Line, formerly known as the Georgetown Line, makes stops in Guelph, both Acton and Georgetown (Halton Hills) before heading into Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto.

Politicians greeting passengers at the new stop included MPP Ted Arnott, Mayor Rick Bonnette (both pictured at top on the first train), MP Michael Chong, Halton Region Chairman Gary Carr and several municipal/regional Councillors including Clark Somerville, Jon Hurst and Bryan Lewis. The representatives worked hard at all levels to get the transit stop and provided a land lease to the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (Metrolinx). There were treats like muffins, coffee and juices as well as a gift bag from the BIA filled with valuable coupons and other items from local businesses like Acton Optical.

The first GO Transit train pulls into the station on January 7, 2013 since 1993

"We are pleased to bring GO rail service to Acton and provide additional options for travellers in this very busy corridor," said Gary McNeil, GO Transit President. "With the addition of this new station, we are making it easier for residents to choose to leave their cars at home and use GO Transit."

For now the train service in Acton features two morning trips eastbound and two evening trips west towards Kitchener. "This is great news for Acton and area residents," said Town of Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette. "The addition of this service in our area gives commuters and students in our area a public transit choice for traveling to work or school. We are very excited for the restoration of train service to Acton after an absence of nearly 20 years."

The early winter morning highlighted the importance of the new heated platform shelters.

Michael Chong says "The new service is made possible by the federal government’s $15 million investment in 2009 to improve the Credit River bridge on the GO Transit line through Georgetown. The provincial government matched this federal investment, providing a total of $30 million to add a second track to the Credit River, as well as provisions for a third track. These bridge improvements, which were completed in 2010, were critical to support the increasing local demand for public transit and vital to the future expansion of GO Transit service in the region, including the new Acton station."

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C U at the Motorcycle Supershow

Update: See my coverage of the 2013 Supershow here and more of the pretty ladies of the show here.

The bikes are in the International Centre for the #Toronto edition of the World Largest Motorcycle Show Jan 4-6, 2013 - see you at the show. Ladies in far out helmets wander around in the Port Dover Friday the 13th Motorcycle Rally in the photo above.

Crazy back wheel on a custom bike at the 2012 Supershow

For those that like the water more than the open road remember the Toronto International Boat Show which is on from Jan 12-20, 2013 at the Direct Energy Centre in Exhibition Place. Which reminds me of a joke I read recently: The people that named the sea-doo really screwed up, it should have been called a boatercycle!

Playing in the waters off of Toronto Islands

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Gardiner Expressway feels its age

#Toronto runs on the goods and services that roll into (and out of) the city on the transportation arteries that cut a mighty swath through the land of new condos. Highway 401 rules the north, the 427 and Don Valley/404 conquer the west and east and the Gardiner Expressway is king of the lake shore and downtown Toronto. Oh, the Allen Expressway is like the little prince of no-where. When the highways work, the trip through the city is fast and efficient. During rush hour periods, construction work or traffic accidents the trip becomes a hell on earth.

It has been reported that the elevated expressway could be unsafe to drive on in less than a decade. Maintaining the aging infrastructure will cost billions and take years, even as regular maintenance continues on the rest of the structure. In a shocking turn of events the City is considering demolishing the Gardiner or selling the Gardiner and turning it into a toll road. City services are expensive and that is part of the reason why taxes are high and go up every year. However, to abandon the highway is to admit that the city cannot handle its infrastructure and maybe they should get out of the way and let another form of government take over.

Maintenance crews inspect and work on a shut down Gardiner Expressway

A patchwork quilt of concrete repairs mark the surface of the elevated Gardiner

Buildings are given a little nudge to slide in as close to possible

Can Toronto do without the Gardiner Expressway? Of course - as long as something else takes its place!

Everything requires routine maintenance and everything has a service life which will necessitate replacement, even those pretty condominium glass windows which fill the skyline. If the city wanted to be less dependent on the arterial roads they should have built more transit and high speed rail networks feeding into and within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Plus, if they get rid of the Gardiner I will cry.

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Riding the TTC subway

#Toronto the good runs on public transit and the new Bombardier subway cars are also good, but maybe too sensitive - the doors lock open after three tries at closing the door and the cars have to be taken out of service and fixed. It's just like an elevator, someone is always trying to get in as the doors close, or something gets in the way of a closing door.