We Saw a Chicken …

Tag: ttc

  • first groundhog

    We saw the first groundhog of the year at Warden Station this morning.

  • car free in canada

    It’s fairly easy to do without one if you make your housing and
    working arrangements around it. I’ve been car-free since 1996, but
    we’re mostly urbanites, so this may not work for everyone.

    Most of my ideas come from a great UK magazine called AtoB.

    • We live very near a TTC subway station
    • I cycle during the summer, take transit at other times. A TTC
      pass for $90/month for an annual subscription just can’t be
      beat.
    • I have a Brompton folding bike (amongst far too many others, to
      Catherine’s eternal dismay) which rides well, and plays well with
      others on crowded transit.
    • Catherine can use rental cars (I don’t have my Canadian licence
      yet, for various annoying bureaucratic reasons). They’re cheaper
      than running a car if you only need them now and again.
    • Taxis work for getting big stuff from stores. (Unless you’re
      buying an eMac computer, which comes in a box too big to fit in a
      taxi …)
    • All of our furniture was delivered, at less cost per trip than
      even hiring a U-Haul.
    • We get most of our groceries delivered from Grocery Gateway
    • We’ve considered signing up for AutoShare, a car sharing service in Toronto. A few of our friends use it, and find it convenient and
      reasonable.

  • seat shading

    Further to my TTC rant, I’ve noticed another thing: people standing over an empty seat, too close to let anyone sit in it, but not sitting in it themselves.

    I call this seat shading. It’s annoying.

  • pathologically polite

    It’s 9am, TTC subway southbound at St George. The train is packed (the crowd roared like a lion… no, wait, that was Wesley Willis). It’s the usual crowd — UofT students, Queen’s Park parliament types, downtown suits — not an elderly, infirm or pregnant person in sight. Everyone’s muffled in their winter gear, and there’s no room to move.

    And there are two empty seats. No-one will sit in them, ‘cos they’re too polite, or too passive-aggressive to let anyone sit in them.

    To compound this, they are window seats, and there’s someone in the aisle seats. AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

    Am I a really bad person for wanting to sit down?