Transportation : In The News

The Economist has taken note of a Toronto startup called DriverLab, which holds out high-tech hope for elderly drivers who are at risk of losing their licenses. DriverLab is founded on the idea that maybe elderly drivers can be given a more fine-grained test, so that instead of risking losing their license completely, they might simply face restrictions on their driving as their abilities dictate - for instance, no driving at night, or driving for short distances only.

The trick is in constructing the test itself. That’s why DriverLab has built a unique test rig that has more in common with flight simulators than more driving simulators. The company has taken an Audi S3, removed the engine, mounted the chassis on a turntable, and hooked the whole thing up to panoramic projectors that can not only simulate a variety of driving situations, but shine realistic lights on the driver in a way that computer screens alone can’t. Will the government consent to this kind of reverse-graduated licensing? It’s too soon to tell - but now they can give it a test drive.

Read more here.
 

Toronto Pearson International Airport and Google Maps have collaborated to give passengers detailed indoor maps of the terminal. 

Both Google Maps and Google Maps mobile will help passengers find amenities, pre- and post security points, and other points of interest. The map allows passengers to view the floor plan, while also providing zooming capabilities. 

"It's important that we connect with passengers using the technology and platforms that meet their needs and exceed their expectations," Scott Collier, Vice President of Customer and Terminal Services, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), said in an article that appeared on Future Travel Experience, noting that the implementation of the indoor maps "directly supports our strategic goals of improving our ability to connect with our passengers."

"For thousands of people every day, Pearson is Toronto's gateway," said Aaron Brindle, spokesperson for Google Canada, in a press release. "We are thrilled that Canadians and travellers from around the world can now navigate Toronto Pearson Airport with Google Maps."

Read the full story here. 
Original source: Future Travel Experience 

Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat delivered a keynote speech at the Planning Institute Australia WA State Conference at the end of July to highlight Toronto’s “shift” to public transit and its mission to improve congestion, all while challenging the constraints of urban sprawl.

Perth and Toronto have different challenges. While Perth expands outward, Toronto’s challenge is to improve conditions within the boundaries of a city that has reached its growth boundary.  Still, Keesmaat said, Australia’s largest city with a population of just under two million could learn a thing or two from Toronto. 

“There might be some interesting lessons learned with respect to how you begin to transform to an advanced form of urbanism once you move away from that approach of continuing to develop in a very suburban way,” she said. 

“We’ve been there and gone down that trajectory over the course of the past 30 years and we’re now at a moment where we are beginning to urbanise our suburbs by focusing on adding mid-rise development along our corridors and by ensuring we have the density we need in order to make transit a real option.”

Toronto and Perth are both maturing cities, Keesmaat said, and as cities mature limits need to be put in place. She told Perth about Toronto’s protected greenbelt which caused a “fundamentally shift the land economics of the region and forced many suburban developers to become urban developers — they changed their game.” But beyond this, the focus of her speech remained on transportation and congestion, and its direct ties to population growth. 

She said planning high-density communities makes transit options more sustainable, the key to reducing traffic congestion in the long run. 

“It’s a zero-sum gain, that if you continue to plan low density communities there will never be environments that can successfully sustain public transit because there simply isn’t the critical mass to make high-frequency transit use work,” she said. 

For more from her speech, read the full story here. 
Original source: Perth Now

Toronto has ranked the fourth best place in the world overall for infrastructure, sustainability, livability and health, according to an annual study comparing major metropolitan areas across the continent. 

The report, called Cities of Opportunity, pegs 30 cities against one another in a number of indicators and categories, many of which Toronto performed well in, including receiving the highest possible grade for quality of life. 

Toronto placed second overall for transportation and infrastructure, with only Singapore ahead. Toronto received the top spot for public transit systems, but the overall score was affected by a 13th place ranking in traffic congestion, and 12th for ease of commute. "Toronto's rankings in these two variables also reflect the city's current reality, in which the lack of a fully integrated regional transportation system is one of the leading challenges for Toronto." 

Toronto was the only non-Asian city to break into the top 5. 

Toronto tied with Sydney for second place (with a marginal difference in Toronto's favour) in health, safety and security. Stockholm took the number one spot in this category, but each of the top contenders shared similar qualities: populations averaging 2.5 million. 

"Larger cities, with larger populations, must strive harder, and expend more resources, to secure the healthy and safety of their residents," the report said. 

Toronto fared well  in our political environment, end-of-life care, hospitals and health employment, crime, and health system performance. 

When it comes to sustainability and the natural environment, Toronto scored major points for air pollution and natural disaster risk, but poorly in thermal comfort, a factor the report admits the city can do little about aside from knowing how to cope with it and improve it, which is what pushed Stockholm to the top. Toronto's overall positioning in this category has dropped since last year.

Toronto also ranked high in the ease of doing business, an indicator that factored in cost and economic clout, but we ranked low in cost of living. 

Read the full report here. 
Original Source: PWC

WestJet is raising eyebrows—and the hopes of Toronto's budget-conscious flyers—with its new route from Toronto to New York.
 
"WestJet's foray into New York escalates the challenge to Air Canada, the country's biggest airline," writes Bloomberg's Frederic Tomesco. "Founded in 1996 with a focus on vacationers, Calgary-based WestJet now holds more than a third of Canada's air traffic after the discount carrier established a foothold in the Eastern Triangle linking Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal."
 
"'New York is really our first big push into the business market into the US,'" Bob Cummings, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said in an interview. 'We are pretty close to capped out with the leisure market with respect to our life cycle. We've barely scratched the surface on corporate travel.'"
 
Read the full story here
Original source: Bloomberg News