A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP
There’s a passionate commitment to the TTC fuelling its most vocal critics.
“The TTC is a system that the critics love to hate.”
That’s the first line of TTC chair Josh Colle’s recent Star opinion column defending the transit service, and it’s the first sign that he doesn’t understand TTC critics, nor understand how to deal with a wave of complaints they’ve put forward.
So let’s begin in the same place: The TTC has many vocal critics, and if you pay the slightest attention to them, you’ll notice an interesting phenomenon. The loudest and most frequent critics absolutely love the TTC. Moreover, they love to love it — they celebrate their love of it as if it were a pop star or a favourite sports team: They wear lapel buttons with station names and wall patterns on them, they share arcane anecdotes about route histories, buy T-shirts emblazoned with the silhouette of the CLRV streetcar (and then gas on about what CLRV stands for and how they differ from PCC and Flexity streetcars).
One of the most influential critics, Steve Munro, does detailed analysis on his blog, stevemunro.ca, of how actual service on streetcar routes matches schedules and planned service “headways.” That kind of passionate commitment to years of unpaid labour on behalf of the system, I think, demonstrates the opposite of hate.
But often these people are the loudest at pointing out problems. The air conditioning doesn’t work right now on many subway cars. The price of a Metropass has gone up 18 per cent since 2010. The Presto card being implemented appears to be a complicated, convoluted mess foisted on the system by provincial political masters, one that promises to make riding the system harder.
Colle objects that critics have it all wrong here — though he doesn’t actually point to much they are wrong about except, it seems, their emphasis. “Our transit system has its fair share of challenges, but still succeeds remarkably in moving over half a billion people per year (nearly 1.5 million riders every day!) across every corner of our growing city,” he writes in the introduction that serves as the thesis of his piece.
In Oakville, he points out, fares are higher than here. (In Oakville, he doesn’t point out, only 2 per cent of trips are taken by local transit at all.) Children under 12 now ride free, he points out. (Until Presto comes, he doesn’t point out, at which point they’ll need a $6 fare card with their picture on it or will pay the adult fare.)
“The TTC is under immense pressure all while having the lowest subsidy-per-rider of any comparable North American transit system,” he points out. (He is a member of the city council, he doesn’t point out, that keeps that subsidy low so it doesn’t have to raise property taxes.)
His point seems to be that, instead of pointing out the things they do wrong, we should be pointing out the things they do right!
This look-on-the-bright-side argument could equally apply to much of what we consider news in Toronto. We could always be pointing out how lucky we are to live in a city where fainting from the heat on a subway car might be the biggest inconvenience of your day.
Except, recognizing that doesn’t change the annoyance of being given an unwelcome steam bath on the way home from work.
“Yes, but” may rally the beleaguered staff of the TTC — who do often work hard and do often work wonders with limited resources — but it is never a good customer service look. Especially not from the boss.
Imagine that approach to complaints from some other service provider:
You: “Hi, my home phone doesn’t seem to be working right now.”
Customer service representative: “You’re getting it wrong. Have you considered how great a job this phone company does in providing land-line service to virtually every home and business in the country? How many resources and how much staff hard work went into making that happen?”
You: “Yes, that’s great. But my phone doesn’t work. It would be nice if you could fix it.”
CSR: “Well, you may love to hate the phone company, pal, but we actually provide better service than in other places. In some countries, you need to walk to the post office to use the only phone in town!” You: “You know what? Maybe I should just cancel my home phone service. I mean, I have a mobile phone . . . ”
The primary problem for the TTC chair’s consideration, I suggest, is not the loyal riders who vent about the problems they encounter. It’s the many thousands of Torontonians who never complain about their TTC experiences because they never ride the TTC. You want to convert the latter into the former, not the reverse. Addressing complaints, rather than rejecting them as petty whining, is a way to accomplish that.
The TTC is not in competition with Oakville’s transit service, or Oklahoma City’s or London, England’s. It’s in competition with my car, and your car and everyone’s car. Those personal automobiles offer door-to-door, always-there service, with air conditioning and a choice of music and a personal coffee-cup holder.
Mass transit is never going to offer those features, but it can still attract riders if it is as fast and convenient and comfortable and inexpensive as possible. The “critics,” who Colle portrays as simple haters, are pointing out ways to make riding the TTC easier and better. The critics are often frustrated, but their public expression of that frustration often shows they care enough to think making the transit system better is a worthy goal.
One would hope the chair of the TTC shares that goal. If he does, then perhaps instead of taking time to write a newspaper piece scolding people for their perspective on their experiences riding the system, he could use the feedback to make the system even better, and use his vote and position on city council to address the underfunding he complains about. Instead of pretending they are haters, in other words, he could try to earn his critics’ continued love. Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwire