London vs. Toronto
 

I've now been living in Toronto for four days and I have a couple observations about Toronto as compared to London.

- Say what you want about London Transit, but overall the TTC is more expensive than London Transit, and the transfer system is very restrictive. Not only is a fare $3, but you can't get a transfer for a return trip, only to transfer to a connecting route. A one-week pass is cost-effective for a short-term visitor who uses the TTC heavily, however.

- Traffic in Toronto, in general, is more orderly than in London, and as a pedestrian I feel safer in Toronto. Toronto drivers actually stop when they're turning right at a red light. And, cyclists seem to obey traffic signals far more than in London.

Anyone else who has comparisons between the two cities?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/e...jpg?1313758301

Simply cannot compare the two.

(Just my opinion)

Agree with above post.

This is pretty much the exact opposite of what I observed after about 18 years of living there, and the occasional long stint back when trying to work another job between University sessions.

Traffic, I find, is not at all orderly. First of all, the volume of vehicles far outpaces what the grid or expressway networks were designed for. Rush hour is hopeless gridlock, and good luck getting around if you don't live within a kilometre of a subway line. Second, people are constantly pulling aggressive, inconsiderate or downright stupid manoevers to get around the said traffic jams. They bud you on freeway ramps or in left-turn lines; this never happens to me in London. People block intersections. They turn left long after their light has turned red. People waiting for a left turn try to beat the traffic glut as soon as a light turns green. And if a traffic jam isn't created, there is usually someone plodding along in an arterial's left lane doing 40. Hardly anyone seems to remember the right-of-way at stop signs when vehicles all arrive at the same time, and it basically comes down to who is more willing to yield the right-of-way (I had this happen to me more times than I care to count), but when you try to come to a full stop, people beep at you for being slow. Rolling stops are king, fuck the pedestrians. People will approach your car within an inch at a light, if you have a standard and roll back (which most standards tend to do) you will hit them. Nobody stops for emergency vehicles in the opposing lanes. So many times I feel rage bubbling up inside of me when I see grown adults driving like a bunch of flustered 16-year-olds.

The cyclists in Toronto are... extremely frustrating. I've counted dozens who just sail through red lights and stop signs all the time. Pedestrian crossing? Doesn't matter, I'll veer around him. They act as if they're entitled to the road and that there is a special set of rules for them. In a particularly scary incident I nearly hit one guy at the intersection of Scarberia Golf Club Rd. and Kingston Rd... he decided the red light was inconvenient for him, and if my car's brakes were 8 feet less effective, he would have become Saturn lunch.

Toronto is a traffic hell. You've spent 4 days there, take it from someone who spent 4 months commuting around the place. If you have not noticed it yet, it will eventually hit you, I guarantee it.

Which part of Toronto were you in? I am downtown.

I'll put it this way. In London, as a pedestrian, I get almost hit by a vehicle almost daily. In Toronto, it has happened only once in the past five days. And ironically, it was a police car that almost hit me.

I suppose that I don't notice Toronto traffic so much as I have been a pedestrian in Mexico City, and have it fresh in my memory from a trip last month.

I honestly don't see how you can make any real comparison between the two, but since you are, don't you think that making one based on 5 days is a bit premature?

Every time I go to Toronto I curse that I would pull my hair out if I lived there and had to drive/commute in that city.

vs. threads are not generally allowed at SSP.

My parents live in North York. But because of my job I drove everywhere, and people were bad everywhere. Though I actually find the outer suburbs like Markham and Brampton to be the worst; which is funny since logic dictates they ought to be the best drivers.

I'm very impressed that you've managed to avoid a collision considering the number of close encounters you've had. Keep in mind that it's not always easy to get hit by a car; it can be a pretty difficult feat to pull off sometimes. Like when the car, and the other 5000 vehicles around it, are doing 10 miles per hour.

Most of you will not be familiar with this, but:

What if Elenore Roosevelt could fly?

Thought this was kind of ironic seeing as we started this conversation just before this happened:

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2.../18852491.html

Regarding transit - the demographics of passengers are quite different between the TTC and London Transit.

Typical TTC vehicle: A few business professionals in suits, a few ordinary people running errands, a few seniors running errands.

Typical London Transit vehicle: A couple ordinary people running errands, a few seniors running errands, and a few Scream'n'Swears yelling at their spouses or children on the way home from Money Mart.