{"id":61418,"date":"2020-04-01T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T16:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=61418"},"modified":"2020-05-31T15:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T19:41:04","slug":"marhsall-mapping-ttc-crowding-during-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2020\/04\/01\/marhsall-mapping-ttc-crowding-during-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"MARSHALL: Mapping TTC crowding during a pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Marshall is a Toronto planner, transit advocate, and long-time Spacing contributor. This is cross-posted<\/a> from his personal web site.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

While most people are urged to stay home as much as possible during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are those who must carry on. These include health care workers, staff at grocery stores, pharmacies, and other essential businesses, and others who can not work from home. There are also those who continue to require transit to undertake essential errands, such as medical appointments.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, most transit systems have carried on. Through GO Transit has experienced\u00a0an 80% drop in ridership<\/a> since the beginning of March, it continues to operate all rail lines and most bus routes, providing fewer trips, but maintaining the same span of service hours. The TTC discontinued most express routes, but it maintains a grid of frequent bus and streetcar services.<\/p>\n

However, the TTC and Brampton Transit continue to struggle with crowding on certain routes. Brampton Transit \u2014 which has resorted to an \u201cenhanced Saturday service\u201d level \u2013 will only carry half a bus\u2019s seated capacity to enforce social distancing, which has resulted in \u201cclosed-door\u201d situations where buses won\u2019t stop for waiting passengers. As a result, several routes are now discontinued during peak periods<\/a> so that buses are sent to address crowding elsewhere. Brampton Transit serves many shipping warehouses, including two Amazon fulfillment centres, which remain busy during this time. Similarly, the TTC has also reduced its loading standards to ensure that staff and customers are able to remain safe.<\/p>\n

However, the TTC is struggling with morning rush hour crowding on ten bus routes:<\/a><\/p>\n