pointing out the obvious

I realize that I have become a bit of a ‘public transit’ pusher. Everywhere I go, I want to take transit over taxis, or driving. While the TTC has it’s own set of problems, I believe it to be the better way. Maybe not the nicest way, but the better way all things considered.

So much so, that I might invest in a TTC Metropass at full price (I used to get a discount) to make it that much easier.

.

So.. a 1% reduction in GST instead of passing the money on to the cities.

I guess this means a savings of $15 per month for me - 3 more mocha fraps (liquid cheeseburgers) - which really won’t affect my life. However, the $400 million or whatever that the city would have received from the 1% seems like it would make a difference.

Maybe I’m taking the $15 for granted. Would $15 make a difference to someone who is closer to the poverty line? Maybe. But someone closer to the poverty line likely has a higher dependence on social services than I do. So then the question becomes - is the $15 better utilized in social services funding or personal consumption?

For me, the extra $15 dollars really goes towards funding the TTC fare hikes. If they channeled 1% to social services, the TTC likely wouldn’t have to increase fares. So it’s a wash for me. But, I have the privilege of living close to the subway.

If I was in a lower income bracket, I would likely be living in a less accessible area, thus would be more reliant on TTC buses. As a result of the TTC budget crunch, I’m sure buses are less frequent, or even cancelled. So it’s a double whammy - increased fares, and decreased service.

This is just one example, by way of the TTC, but funding for social programs is important to everyone. I don’t like increasing taxes, but accept them if I agree with what they are used for. I HATE decreasing taxes, when we have so many gaps in funding.

Though, I don’t think it’s the lower income people asking for tax cuts. It seems like the rich people - you know, the ones with all the bling and gadgets, who don’t require social services but would rather have more bling - that want tax cuts.

Think about it objectively - how does the tax cut affect EVERYONE, not just you.

This is another reason I love living in Toronto - you see both ends of the spectrum, the ultra rich and the ultra poor, every day. It’s a constant reminder of what our city, province and country is made of.

This time, I didn’t see a great usability decision made in a coffee shop. Instead, it was at the Queen St subway station.

If I am like most people, when you exit a subway train and climb the stairs to the main level of the station, you have no idea what direction you are facing. Without a sense of direction, you are faced with choosing from at least 2 different exits - each exit then branching into at least 2 (often 3) different staircases leading to street level. The signage in the station that describes these exits is usually hard to find or read, and requires a few seconds to process. A few more seconds than you have. If you ride the subway during rush hour, stopping to process the sign is like stopping to tie your shoes during the running of the bulls. So you blindly pick an exit, and hope for the best. After 5 trips to work, I figure it out, but non-regulars don’t have that kind of time.
So, what did I see this morning? Directly in front of where the turnstiles let thousands of people out of the station, in the centre of the station, on the floor - where most people are looking - is a large white arrow, in a black circle, with an N at the top. It looks just like one of those things on a map, that point north, so you know which way to hold it. Gosh Beav’, maybe it is one of those things.

Instantly, I knew exactly which direction I was facing, thus which exit to take, then which branching exit to follow. Brilliant. It probably cost all of $20, and might actually help someone.

I hope to see more where that came from.

Just recently, my better half and I converted our front (and back) lawn from grass to naturalized gardens. We dug out the grass (and are composting it), turned the soil with manure, invested in some native plants and some cedar mulch so that it doesn’t all blow away. It’s a little early to see the real results, but it is starting to look and smell amazing.

The neighbors are a little confused. They think the naturalized lawn across the street looks like ‘a forest’, which is probably the biggest compliment you can get in the naturalized world. Most are used to the manicured lawn, a few exotic plants and constant watering.

My neighbor did suggest that “if it were up to him, he would cut down the 25 year old maple tree in my front yard because it makes a mess in the fall”. Stunned, I instantly thought of my lawyer and made sure she was on speed dial.

Then I read about how the city mowed over Deborah Dale’s naturalized garden. It’s depressing, but I completely understand how it happened. My neighborhood is balanced between the old-school manicured lawn crowd, and the naturalized garden crowd.

My neighbor spends most of his time in the backyard shooting birds and squirrels with his hose. I guess my 3 birdfeeders aren’t helping.

Awesome.

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the MoveOntario 2020 plan last week.  You can find the real details of this plan outlined by Steve Munro here.  It’s an ambitious plan, but a great move for southwestern ontario.  I still can’t believe the announcement, and really hope it happens.

This is a great move to reduce congestion on our highways, take a stab at pollution and help our cities grow.  While it’ll take time to implement, and it will take time to get people out of the ‘car’ mindset, it’s a great start.  If this happens, this is going to be a historic period in toronto’s transit history.

completely awesome.

I happened to run across the von drats playing on queen st east the other night and stayed for the remainder of their set. Their music was light and happy… surfer pop (or whatever you call it) is always awesome. For a peek, checkout the videos on their site.

While poking around on linkedin’s “who looked at your profile” feature today, I stumbled upon a colleague who now works at PlanetEye.  Interesting name, so I tried the domain and it’s locked down.  I googled it and figure out the company is working towards capitalizing on digital cameras equipped with GPS - which no doubt will become standard hardware at some point.  I think there is great opportunity in this space, I posted something about the idea a little while ago on the old blog and would love to see someone take full advantage of it.

Aside from the obvious privacy concerns, imagine all digital photos geo-tagged.  Pretty neat.  But imagine it one step further, where digital images are not only geo-tagged, but tagged with directional information - i.e. inclination and right ascension (never thought I would use those terms again!).  So you know where the photo was taken AND the angle the camera was at the time it was shot.  Imagine a database of images coupled with this information and little luck…  You might be able to render 3D images of almost anything, bring mapping to a whole new level, maybe apply the maps to games, who knows…

I’m glad someone is taking advantage.  I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

I have successfully rented, driven and returned a ZipCar twice, from two different locations and here’s what I thought…

The reservation process is pretty slick online - easy, intuitive, quick. I managed to rent with about 30 minutes notice without a problem, then rented a few days in advance without a problem. Awesome.

Searching for cars was a little buggy - if you select or unselect ’show me cars that are unavailable’ it doesn’t behave the way you would think. Someone needs to look at that, it’s not consistent. In my case, I wanted to find out when a truck was available, so not being able to see all trucks in the area that were booked or not booked was a little frustrating. But I figured out a way to make it work.

The cars are great. I rented a pickup on both occasions, so I expected it to be a little messy. However, the truck was relatively clean, a few scratches here and there, but it’s meant for moving things, so I was not surprised.

Upon returning a truck on Saturday morning to the Church and Wood St location, I found myself without my ZipCard. I likely lost it at the hardware store loading lumber and cement into the back. So this presented an interesting situation - I wasn’t able to lock the truck to complete my reservation at the lot.

Luckily, it was booked immediately after my drop-off time, so the other ZipCar member was there, ready to drive it away. I asked for the ZipCar number, and promptly called to remedy the situation. However, in order to get through the automated system and speak to a living person, I needed my ZipCard number. But I lost it, so I didn’t have it. I tried the normal ‘0′, or ‘*’ to get a living person, but it kept me away. It was very frustrating.

Eventually, I got the member waiting for the truck to call for me. Thankfully, she spoke to a ZipCar rep and cleared up the situation. But, if she had not been there, I would have been screwed.

Ultimately, the experience was a positive one. Having a truck available is EXTREMELY handy. AutoShare only seems to offer vans, which would have worked, but hauling bags of cement or lumber would have made a mess. With the pickup, I just swept the back out after my reservation and it was ready to return.

I’m hoping I find my ZipCard some day.  I’d like to rent again, it was a positive experience.  If I don’t find it, I’ll have to suck it up and pay $15 to have one reissued.

Incandescent bulbs are on their way out - in Canada and Australia anyways. Fluorescent are the new cool way to make a difference. HomeDepot, Rona, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware and others now have so many bulbs to select from that you could lose an hour trying to find a ’standard’ bulb.

I like fluorescent bulbs, don’t notice any flicker or difference in colour. However, the mercury thing has always bothered me a little. I know it’s better than incandescent, but now everyone has a little piece of mercury in their homes. What is the likelihood of those people recycling the mercury? For those who aren’t aware, you drop them off at one of the local drop-off depots, or environment day.

Why aren’t LED lights more popular? Why didn’t they catch on? They seem to exist for cars, flashlights, outdoor lights, and other applications - but not household bulbs? I suppose they haven’t tackled the directional light problems yet, but you figure someone would be working on that.

Until ‘depot, crappy tire, rona, home hardware start carrying LEDs to the masses, we can watch and hope that EcoLEDs make some quick progress and become more affordable. Apparently they last about 20 years, have no toxic components and use less power.

I’ve got my fingers crossed.

It’s been on my mind lately.

The arguments for consuming local food make a certain amount of sense - if it’s local, it didn’t require as much burnt fuel to get to my local grocery store. You can define your own ‘local’ boundary, but I’ve been trying to stick with ‘Ontario’ over the last little while to see how it might affect my diet. It seems as though it wouldn’t affect me much. I generally don’t eat as many fresh vegetables in the winter because they are expensive (i.e. imported from South America) anyways.

So, local/regional food makes sense. Can we apply it to all consumables? Should I use the same rules for beer and wine?
Beer, wine and other short lifespan items make sense. They are consumed quickly, so all the pollution generated during shipping is for 1 hour of use. It would make sense to acquire these items locally, because there is no lifespan or number of uses to spread the pollution out over (think depreciation).

There are many local and international breweries producing beer in the area that I can think of off the top of my head - Mill St, Amsterdam, Steamwhistle, Molson…

We are also spoiled with wineries in the niagara region.  For some reason, the VQA or LCBO don’t carry many of the higher end wines.  However, you can visit the wineries and pickup a case - (i hear) it’s a beautiful area out there.  I’m guilty of not visiting.
For items with longer lifespans, like a table, or clothing (for some), the pollution from shipping can be spread out over the lifespan of the item. So if the table lasts 15 years, or the shirt lasts 5, the pollution can be spread out a bit. While it still makes sense to reduce pollution as much as possible, if you use something for a longer period of time (i.e. less new things you buy) we have less purchases, thus less pollution, less waste, etc.

I’m still going to think about this, but I might shift my wine and beer selections too.