{"id":2967,"date":"2008-04-07T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2008-04-07T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/"},"modified":"2008-04-07T10:14:35","modified_gmt":"2008-04-07T15:14:35","slug":"dispatches-from-metronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispatches from Metronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg\" height=\"333\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>About 100 interested people met on Saturday for  the Metronauts &#8220;unconference&#8221; to discuss ideas for transit in Toronto and the larger Toronto and Hamilton regions. It happily lived up to its mantra of not being &#8220;a complaints department&#8221;, but a &#8220;solutions playground.&#8221; While the crowd, expectedly, was largely made up of central Toronto residents, many arrived from places throughout the 905, including Caledon, Richmond Hill, Oakville and Mississauga. The site for the first of these events was at the MaRS Centre at University and College, a beautiful historic building blended with modern atrium and towers that are normally used for small medical science firms. It was a location that lent itself well for all the breakout sessions. It was also relatively easy for people to reach by public transit and bicycle.<\/p>\n<p>This follows on the earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/02\/05\/toronto-transit-camp-wrap-up\/\">TTC-focused Transit Camp<\/a> over a year ago. Like the TTC Transit Camp, several officials from the GTTA (<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/12\/03\/the-gtta-is-now-metrolinx\/\">now re-branded<\/a> as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolinx.com\/default.aspx\">Metrolinx<\/a>) attended, including Chair Rob MacIssac, which is encouraging. Several TTC planning staff also attended. Metrolinx was also the lead sponsor of the event, but took a hands-off approach, instead opting to listen to the ideas presented and the various discussions. Unlike the TTC Transit Camp, the session was wide-open, discussing mainly big-picture concerns appropriate with a session mandated to look at transit across a region of over 6 million people and ten different transit authorities.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There was no shortage of sessions proposed at the beginning by participants. One idea was looking at the potential for transforming GO Transit&#8217;s commuter rail network into a true regional rail system that would act as a backbone for the entire region (much like how the subway is the backbone to Toronto&#8217;s transit network) and encourage transit-orientated development. Another discussed ideas of transit signage, branding and marketing, another discussed ideas for improving bike infrastructure. Another dealt with the challenges to integrating the various transit systems together and an ideal fare structure to implement across the enture system with the new Presto Card. It is encouraging that the GTTA has already issued <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrolinx.com\/NonTabPages\/1\/Regional%20Transportation%20Plan\/Plans.aspx\">Green Papers<\/a> on many broad areas that parallel some of the concerns brought up by participants. The various breakout groups generated more conversation and ideas than I expected, and it was clear that everyone was eager to get their ideas out.<\/p>\n<p>With wi-fi set up at MaRS, the TransitCamp organizers set up a website that allowed people to write notes on their computers at each session and <a href=\"http:\/\/toronto.transitcamp.org\/Metronauts1\">put them directly online for all to see.<\/a>  Anyone is welcome to comment on them, andI think this will be a valuable tool not only for transit staffers and planners to read what the public thinks, but also for future participants or those with a passing interest to get a sense of the discussions at these events. As more Transit Camps happen, it would be interesting to see how the topics change as we learn more specifics from Metrolinx.<\/p>\n<p>It was interesting and very productive meeting new people. I had the opportunity to get new ideas and thinking about particular issues I have never thought about before.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few challenges for this type of consultation. While Metronauts did bring out a large group with many different ideas, there were a few groups that were underrepresented, such as seniors. There will be six more of these around the Greater Toronto and Hamilton regions, the next one in the west in May. The challenge now will be to engage suburban residents and people who do not typically attend these types of events to take part. Hopefully, moving the regional transit camps around the region will help.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/photojunkie\/sets\/72157604407335545\/\">Rannie Turingan<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 100 interested people met on Saturday for the Metronauts &#8220;unconference&#8221; to discuss ideas for transit in Toronto and the larger Toronto and Hamilton regions. It happily lived up to its mantra of not being &#8220;a complaints department&#8221;, but a &#8220;solutions playground.&#8221; While the crowd, expectedly, was largely made up of central Toronto residents, many<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Dispatches from Metronauts&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[235,976,8615,236,8499,79,1883,676,8618,19,5092,775,8617,8616,1117],"class_list":["post-2967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-transit","tag-bike-infrastructure","tag-chair","tag-commuter-rail-network","tag-hamilton","tag-mars-centre","tag-mississauga","tag-oakville","tag-richmond-hill","tag-rob-macissac","tag-toronto","tag-transit-network","tag-transit-systems","tag-ttc-transit-camp","tag-ttc-focused-transit-camp","tag-wi-fi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About 100 interested people met on Saturday for the Metronauts &#8220;unconference&#8221; to discuss ideas for transit in Toronto and the larger Toronto and Hamilton regions. It happily lived up to its mantra of not being &#8220;a complaints department&#8221;, but a &#8220;solutions playground.&#8221; While the crowd, expectedly, was largely made up of central Toronto residents, manyContinue reading &quot;Dispatches from Metronauts&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-07T15:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-04-07T15:14:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sean Marshall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\",\"name\":\"Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-04-07T15:00:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-04-07T15:14:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dispatches from Metronauts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e\",\"name\":\"Sean Marshall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sean Marshall\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"About 100 interested people met on Saturday for the Metronauts &#8220;unconference&#8221; to discuss ideas for transit in Toronto and the larger Toronto and Hamilton regions. It happily lived up to its mantra of not being &#8220;a complaints department&#8221;, but a &#8220;solutions playground.&#8221; While the crowd, expectedly, was largely made up of central Toronto residents, manyContinue reading \"Dispatches from Metronauts\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2008-04-07T15:00:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-04-07T15:14:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Sean Marshall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sean Marshall","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/","name":"Dispatches from Metronauts - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg","datePublished":"2008-04-07T15:00:05+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-07T15:14:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2120\/2394154225_26eab38cec.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/04\/07\/dispatches-from-metronauts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dispatches from Metronauts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/e30d299fd82dc8b9f811e5e7b3ec154e","name":"Sean Marshall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/44df24893f717b2112f5dd4ec16e001f?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Sean Marshall"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/wire"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/sean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}