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news

Introducing Rocket Talk

By David Topping

20090217rockettalk.jpg
Photo by spotmaticfanatic from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.


It’s been a little over two years since Adam Giambrone became Chair of the TTC, and a little less than one since Brad Ross joined him to become the organization’s Director of Communications. Now, it’s hard to imagine the TTC without them: Giambrone has ushered in improvement after improvement, as well as shepherded Transit City, a plan so ambitious it hardly seems Torontonian; and Ross has kept the public, the media, Twitter users, and Torontoist commenters all in the loop.
If it is Giambrone’s job to make the TTC better, it is Giambrone and Ross’s together to make it better understood. To that end, Ross uses his Twitter account to send (brief) notifications and (briefly) reply to questions and comments from riders, and Giambrone uses his Facebook account for a similar purpose. Last week, the TTC’s chair asked his 2,290 Facebook friends, through a status update, if they could “send me emails at chair@ttc.ca with ideas for notes (i.e., questions) that you have…I’ll pick the best and post notes on them.” While the officials’ social networking accounts helped to quickly distribute news during the blackout last month, to name one example, some questions can’t (or shouldn’t) be answered in under one hundred and forty characters or within the insular blue walls of Facebok.
So that’s why we’re very excited—for ourselves, for our readers, and for the transit-taking public—to welcome both Adam Giambrone and Brad Ross to Torontoist for a new weekly feature, Rocket Talk. Beginning soon, the two will answer one question a week sent in by Torontoist readers (like you!) about anything and everything TTC-related, from the organization’s future plans to the minutiae of its day-to-day operations. In exchange, we’ll offer Giambrone and Ross unlimited space for their answers, and a slightly larger group of dedicated readers than those on the Chair’s friends list. It oughta be fun, so send your questions to rockettalk@torontoist.com.

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Comments

  • http://null dowlingm

    Jesus that NOW article was depressing (not unusual for that publication)
    Ten years ago it would have been “this internet thing is never going to take off, we should employ unionised criers to shout news to passing pedestrians outside subway stations”

  • http://null Gloria

    My God, I had to hover over a dozen links before I found this NOW article in question.
    Not terribly on-topic, but I find a bajillion embedded links pretty distracting in an article, especially ones that aren’t acutely relevant to the topic (e.g. anything that doesn’t have “TTC + technology or communications tech” as its focus, in this instance). For example, if somebody needs to figure out what Twitter is, they can *probably* look it up themselves without Torontoist holding their hand.
    Could Torontoist instead look into developing some kind of feature that simply lists a bunch of links for “similar articles” or “other articles on this topic”? (Like the tag system I can’t seem to see now?)

  • http://null chadnuttall

    Sounds like a great idea! I’m excited to read the first one.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikleung/ veektah

    Looking forward to see this new feature.

  • http://null Svend

    Fuck them.
    I already know their answer to why I still get short-turned on Queen streetcars and why they can’t fix it.

  • http://undefined montauk

    WHY DID THE SUBWAY DOOR OPEN INTO THE BLACKNESS
    THE TRAIN WAS MOVING, SCREECHING
    EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF IT

  • http://null Joshua E

    I don’t know Mark Dowling! Why can’t one suggest the TTC’s Twitter strategy be more inclusive?
    For instance, where’s the Twitter link off the TTC main page? If you’re going to use Twitter to tell us about service updates, shouldn’t you tell us you’re using Twitter in the first place? (

  • http://null dowlingm

    @Joshua E – why does @bradross not have a link at TTC? Well, ask yourself this – if TTC can’t make Google Transit happen years after it was first brought up at the Commission, what makes you think going the official route will ever work for any sort of innovation? That myttc.ca has a route planner and ttc.ca still doesn’t?
    TTC makes CBC look dynamic.
    It’s not a question of him being a hero, just that he saw something needed doing and got it done. More please.

  • http://undefined Dillon McManamy

    On a side note, anyone else pissed at the $175 million dollars allocated to build 6,800 parking spaces for GO Train commuters? You have got to be fucking kidding me.
    I’m all for encouraging people to use public transit, but how the hell is spending $25,000 per parking space worth it?

  • http://undefined 32teeth

    @dillon
    i agree, i bet 9/10ths of the cars parked in those spots aren’t worth the spot they parked in
    i think you can buy parking spots for less in toronto condos

  • http://www.bitpicture.com Marc Lostracco

    I own two condos downtown, and the underground parking spots in each sell for $25,000-$30,000 each, believe it or not. When I bought my first condo in 1996, the spots were selling for $10K, and I thought that was preposterous at the time, but not buying one then turned out to be a huge mistake when it came to resale value.
    I also know people in my condo who rent out their underground parking spots for $200-$250 per month. That’s how much it costs for a tiny slab of concrete these days.

  • http://null jackv

    Here is a thing the TTC may wish to consider. Instead of installing traffic lights at subway entrances and exits for surface vehicles, I would like to see “Yield to bus”, or “yield to streetcar” signs overhead on the street. This would give TTC vehicles instant right-of-way to turn in and/or out of a station, and traffic would only be disrupted for the time it takes a bus to turn in our out. Traffic stops, bus turns, traffic resumes. No delays for busses or traffic. We can do it for Pedestrian crossings, it would be great for transit to have this simple solution, instead of the costly installations of traffic lights and the long delays they create for busses and traffic on the street.
    Worth considering I think.