Urban development in North America is easily synonymous with suburbs, highways and cars but cities like New York and Toronto seem to lie a little differently. Their saving grace – as NY to TO import Jane Jacobs (rest in peace) pointed out – is multiplicity. Variance within structures, streets and neighborhoods in a city creates a sense of community and keeps the downtown core from stagnating…and turning into, say, downtown Miami after dark. No offense if you’re repping Miami, love the vibe overall but that core is scary at night, for real!
The debate between strip mall and neighborhood market, in growing cities like Toronto, often turns into an outright cars vs. public transit fist fight. The main point of contention that puts public transit at a loss is money. So it’s about time someone paid heed to successful transit systems in cities where skrilla is not only scarce but is only a portion of the problem. Toronto’s one-stop read for all things concerning public space, Spacing mag, has a new transit issue out and they are beefing it up with special transit-related articles on their site. The first of such articles is a report by Robin Rix on the things Toronto can learn from amchi Mumbai. This piece is 100 % curry free! Oh, wait, there is a cow but it’s…charming:
Can you imagine buying a cup of chai for 11 cents while on your morning commute from Finch to King? Clutching a handrail while sticking your head out of the Lakeshore GO train? Waiting on the Dundas streetcar for a cow to pass? While such occurrences are unimaginable in Toronto, they’re a part of everyday life in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), India. Here in Toronto, we tend to look to such cities as London, New York, or Tokyo when coming up with ideas for improving our own system. But is that necessarily the best approach? If we’re looking for innovation and resourcefulness, wouldn’t we be more likely to find them in cities where they must make do with much less? [Link]
Hear hear! The Greater Toronto Area has about nine different transit systems, all of which are poorly connected to each other, as the transit folks seem to have missed the amalgamation memo. So that bus pass will only get you so far until you have to shell out for a whole different one. On the other hand, Mumbai’s unified network that spans city and suburbs alike is your average Torontonian commuter’s wet dream.
Mumbai enjoys a combined commuter-urban rail system that connects its vibrant downtown to the shantytowns that ring the core, and then to its generally prosperous suburbs. There aren’t separate systems for such different regions as South Bombay, the Western suburbs (Bandra, Juhu, Andheri), the Chembur district, and Greater Mumbai. It’s all one system, meaning that the same rail lines go from the urban hub to multiple points in the suburbs, with stations all along the way. Practically, this improves people’s access to all parts of the region. Conceptually, it promotes a greater sense of collective identity.
From station design to easy usability of different modes of transport, the Mumbai model is a useful concept for newly and heavily populated cities in North America. While projects like the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, aided in part by the World Bank, are necessary to increase rider safety there, projects like “Nosy Auntie” are needed here to keep tweenies from feeding on each otherÂ’s tonsils in the back seats. Who says Toronto transit isnÂ’t charming? Still,we have much to learn from each other.
If two of the goals of a transit system are to move people quickly and cheaply from one point to another, Mumbai somehow succeeds in the face of overwhelming odds against it. If a third goal of a transit system is to move people safely, Mumbai is borrowing ideas from us – and strengthening its system as a result.
Now with the new Mumbai metro getting a green light, I can only slobber in awe. Trains, buses AND subways? Not fair (for me) as I spend three hours every day communting on two different fare systems and two different types of transport within the same dang Greater Toronto Area. My commuting heart, will make me weep. IÂ’ll cry and cry and try to sleep. IÂ’m this close to barricading myself with Rajni and crew and the Space Jam soundtrack in the bunker biodome forevermore 🙂
ok… – deleting – hmm… i nearly embarassed myself there… but … calming down… i am very appreciative of you … thank you, thank you, thank you – toronto and jane jacobs in one post :-))) ))))))))))))))))) ) )) ) … i’m looking forward to taking the afternoon off now… later
Damn right motherchuckers 😉
Is it REALLY an EVERYDAY occurence in Mumbai? When will the Western press stop saying ‘formerly known as Bombay’. It’s been over a decade. Do we still say Thailand (formerly known as Siam)?
Otherwise a nice article Neha. Your commute sounds nasty. The commuting mentality is quite interesting; I drove in every day when working in Cape Town, which is a very small city. My local colleagues thought a 45 minute drive was insane, whereas I thought it was bloody short.
Damn…now with gas costing two arms and a leg, you are better off taking public transporation AlND you’ve all the time in the world to read
Wow! It’s surreal to hear TOnians complaining about public transport – whenever I visit I’m in awe of your transit system. Calgary on the other hand has a laughably minimal LRT system and a bus schedule that would frustrate a ganja smoking sloth! Most of the money earmarked for transportation goes towards expanding major freeways to accomodate the ridiculous number of cars that circulate through the urban sprawl. We need some Mumbaikers to come over to City Hall and show these cowpokes how to create more with less!
It is, actually. Especially if you live in the suburbs. Maybe not so much in the ‘city’. The elephant is a rarer occurence, maybe once a week.
Probably a coupla more decades. People who grew up with ‘Bombay’ (myself included) don’t like the change and continue using ‘Bombay’.
I think the article gives a fairly accurate description of Bombay commuting. It’s exhausting, but it works and gets you places on time. However, with the increase in the number of private cars, the system might be strained to its utmost.
Well, sometimes the cow references are not that unwarranted.
Question – I’ve heard that for the most part, even people who commute into Bombay from neighbouring towns/cities (e.g. Pune) do so on trains. Of late, is there a growing culture of car/freeway users in India replacing these commuters or have things remained largely the same?
The trains in Bombay are awesome: cheap, fast (25 minutes from the burbs into downtown on the express train), clean tracks and open air with a great view. Of course, it’s only nice off-peak. Other times it’s a sweaty crush. Also, the interiors are, uh, minimalist 🙂
Oh my God, I love you for writing an urban planning post.
The Greater Toronto Area has about nine different transit systems, all of which are poorly connected to each other, as the transit folks seem to have missed the amalgamation memo.
We have this problem in New York too. I think it’s largely a vestige of the Jacobs’s era (or rather Robert Moses’s era) when they put absolutely no money into the public transit system and instead built bridges and highways. We have three commuter train systems, two of which don’t connect to the third; two subway systems which don’t connect; and, most egregiously, a transportation system that assumes that everyone is going to Manhattan all the time. etc., etc. It’s really atrocious.
I have to agree with Manish too–sticking your head out the train of the Bombay trains is super fun. Especially when you ride for free 🙂
Badmash from the West – complaining about transit is a fav local hobby, it may even be more popular than blindly supporting a loser hockey team for decades without ever seeing any kind of victory. Alberta is the Canadian Texas and they don’t even have footpaths in Dallas so maybe you’re being done a favor with the LRT 🙂
I’m curious, what’s the downtown situation like in Calgary now? I was there in 98 and there there was a bit of residential building going on with restaurants and clubs too but it was largely commercial. Jacobs has had a huge influence on urban development in TO and it is thanks to her that our downtown is one of the few in N. America that still has large residential neighborhoods. If more people live in the city then they are able to have a voice against freeways, which mostly cater to drivers from the burbs. One more reason to move to Toronto, J, the womb is calling…!
Someone elseIt’s funny, what Badmash wrote about TO transit is what I want to write about NY transit. I’m jealous of all your trains and stops and lines!
Mastering the Bombay trains gave me, a small town guy, a maha sense of of acclompishment ! I still remember my first week in Bombay and Engg school, I got lost at Byculla station and this kind Muslim gentleman bought me a ticket and guided me to the right platform so i could get back to the hostel.
Craning your neck, jogging alongside the incoming train, reaching for that doorway pole, the smell of metal, the leap, its ballet and Bharat Natyam all at once.
Neale
Please please read this… jane jacobs’ impact on toronto
the thing about jane jacobs was that i would read her… and it’d be like such an emotional release to see written in such precise, clean terms things that are so precious to me… it ‘s like having a conversation with a friend who’s so much smarter than me… and i feel like saying after every thundering passage from her… me too … me too… and i’d be like waving my hand… mouthing the passages…
on a local level, she’s also responsible for saving the dooney’s cafe on bloor st. i personally dont like that place … but one less starbucks doesnt hurt.
on a personal note, i once mused on this forum about not havign recent heroes… well, she was one – my other hero is graeme obree, but that’s another story. 🙂
now back to work… the perennial joke is that half-day means I stop work at 6. ha! more later.
ha… couldnt resist this … my dad tells me when he was young and commuting for work between delhi and some god forsaken spot in the distant suburbs, he’d have some unearthly hours to keep – and no public transit – he tells me that the “raat ke musafir” (literally, the travellers of the night) have their own brotherhood and they would stop if hailed on the highway, pick people up , drop them off at the next transition point and so on. dont know if it still works – the thing that scares me is that with the disparity between rich and poor growing so large – this might be a scary option – though i might test it out some time
Haha – well seeing as the Flames couldn’t even make it past the first round, we might soon develop a similar habit here 😉
Recently there has been an emphasis among city planners on building UP rather that OUT and so some areas around the downtown core – Mission/MardaLoop/Eau Claire – have seen sizable resedential condo/townhouse developments. Still, apart from usual hot spots – Stephen’s Ave, 17th and Electric Ave – the place is still a ghost town after the work day. Calgary’s still very much a “young-family” centred city. From what I’ve seen so far, young desi professionals/families are largely buying homes in parts of the city that already have a large desi presence – e.g. NE/NW Calgary i.e. not as much representation in the newly developed areas near downtown and to the South.
Trains going North have a mixed crowd (unlike the vanilla Southbound trains) and the NE line is like a little India on wheels during rush hour. I love being there during that time – very friendly crowd, everyone smiles and says “Sat Sree Akal!” NE Calgary is still largely Punjabi, while the desis in the NW are largely Ismaili/Gujju.
Another brown angle, Harinder Takhar is the MPP tasked with fixing the mess… some aren’t impressed
It’s funny, what Badmash wrote about TO transit is what I want to write about NY transit. I’m jealous of all your trains and stops and lines!
Yeah, it’s all great until you have to get from Brooklyn to Queens 🙂