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I wish they had included Toronto. There's an ongoing debate about how to improve transit and being able to see various options compared against each other empir

by rbobby 12y ago

I wish they had included Toronto. There's an ongoing debate about how to improve transit and being able to see various options compared against each other empirically would be damn useful. As a philanthropic effort an open system that would allow someone to "play" with transit designs might be a godsend for all urban planners. Add in the ability to easily adjust schedules/stops (e.g. bus every 4 minutes, or add a stop between X and Y), easily add routes (more buses, streetcars, light rail, subway) and compare multiple configurations would be pretty kick ass. Oh and all this in real time with instant updating ;)

mynegation 12y ago
As a Toronto resident I would say that the city could use some better planning and zoning. A bunch of high density like Liberty Village, Eglinton west and Flemington Park are served by buses and streetcars (streetcars!) whereas large segments of subway go through low density suburbia-like areas, and zoning laws make it hard to build anything there.
callahad 12y ago
If you can find equivalent Canadian data sources for the US Census-based ones listed in http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2382 http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportde..., I'd be happy to ask Andrew about computing up a map of Toronto. Looks like he'd primarily need replacements for U.S. Census TIGER 2010 datasets: blocks, core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) and the U.S. Census Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) 2011 Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES)
- rbobby 12y ago
  Here's what may be the transit schedule data: http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/agency/ttc/ http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/agency/ttc/ For the specific Census data... all I can do is point to http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html, the top level of Stats Canada. I tried to find similar datasets but wasn't even close to successful. CANSIM seems to be the bit where you can download the "raw" data... but finding the right CANSIM table(s) appears to be more difficult than I expected.
- rbobby 12y ago
  Ohh... quick thought you might want to pass on. This study is great for transit access to work... but what about access to parks/recreation and maybe entertainment (this could be tricky because parks are free but entertainment can be anywhere from cheap to expensive). Sort of the other half of the work/life balance.

by rbobby 12y ago

mynegation 12y ago

As a Toronto resident I would say that the city could use some better planning and zoning. A bunch of high density like Liberty Village, Eglinton west and Flemington Park are served by buses and streetcars (streetcars!) whereas large segments of subway go through low density suburbia-like areas, and zoning laws make it hard to build anything there.

callahad 12y ago

If you can find equivalent Canadian data sources for the US Census-based ones listed in http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2382 http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportde..., I'd be happy to ask Andrew about computing up a map of Toronto. Looks like he'd primarily need replacements for U.S. Census TIGER 2010 datasets: blocks, core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) and the U.S. Census Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) 2011 Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES)

rbobby 12y ago
Here's what may be the transit schedule data: http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/agency/ttc/ http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/agency/ttc/ For the specific Census data... all I can do is point to http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html, the top level of Stats Canada. I tried to find similar datasets but wasn't even close to successful. CANSIM seems to be the bit where you can download the "raw" data... but finding the right CANSIM table(s) appears to be more difficult than I expected.
rbobby 12y ago
Ohh... quick thought you might want to pass on. This study is great for transit access to work... but what about access to parks/recreation and maybe entertainment (this could be tricky because parks are free but entertainment can be anywhere from cheap to expensive). Sort of the other half of the work/life balance.