Despite being totally ineffectual in terms of generating new content, the blog still managed to draw 69,000 pairs of eyeballs. Some highlights:

• The same sex marriage debate in the US continues to drive a lot of people to “10 Reasons Gay Marriage Should be Illegal“. Not everyone got that it was satire.
• At least once a week or so I’d get comments on the “Top 10 Things I Hated About Edmonton“, almost evenly split between “I hate you you’re stupid die” and “Totally agree” comments. What’s frustrating is that the “I hate you” people never seemed to click through to the “Top 10 Things I Liked About Edmonton“.
• If you really want to get users to come to your blog, just do one random post on Calvin and Hobbes. Since it’s launched, 33,108 people have gotten here by searching for the best comic of all time.

So, to everyone who’s read the blog this year and to everyone who took the time to comment (even if you are a giant jerk), thanks! And what will 2013 have in store for the blog?

• Post, post, post – I’ve had a lot of really cool things going on that need discussing. I hope to get better about this. I’ll aim for one a month to start.
• Update, update, update – A lot of my older posts have dead links and images. I’ll clean all this up.

Welcome to 2013 and see you on the blog.

The odds of experiencing a bad commute on the CTA are greater on Mondays and Fridays and during the run-up to rush periods, all because of canceled buses and trains, a Tribune examination of performance data has found.

A break down of the data found that the majority of cancellations occurred between 6 and 9 a.m. in the morning and 4 to 7 p.m. in the evening, coinciding nicely with peak rush.

CTA management and unions both recognize absenteeism is a significant issue, but each side is (not surprisingly) blaming the other for high absence rates.

So how does the TTC stack up? Well, the answer is not terribly clear based on what I have been able to track down in terms of TTC absence rates.

After reaching out to the TTC’s Chief Customer Service Officer, Chris Upfold, over Twitter, he emailed me the chart below.

Click to enlarge

Now, I’ve never claimed to be a statistician. In fact, I barely squeaked through by research statistics course in grad school. Given that, I felt like there wasn’t much I could wring from this chart. But, between the brains of my wife and the brains of my stats nerd work friend, I figured I could do some rough approximations.

With an almost 8 per cent absence rate in 2011, assuming a 365 day work day, I figured that this roughly equals almost 33 absences (365 x 9% = 32.85). Compare that to CTA’s 39.5 and…what?

There’s a fair number of assumptions in the TTC figure (all TTC employees compared to CTAs drivers only figure, for example). And even knowing this number and that the TTC figure is lower, where does that leave us?

That’s where I’m stuck. Without cancellations figures for the TTC (that I could find through internet digging) I don’t really have much to go on.  That, fair readers, is where I’m hoping you’ll come in.

If anyone out there can take this and build on it, please do! And let me know what you come up with, I’ll be interested to learn more.

Click for larger image

Dirigibles – who doesn’t love ‘em. Based on the handwritten note at the top of the photograph, this was apparently a picture of the R101, a British airship built in 1929. When it was completed it was the largest dirigible to date, only surpassed by the Hindenburg five years later.  R101′s time as a dirigible was short lived, however, ending with a crash in France on October 5, 1930

But what’s this? The date on the photograph is 1930, a year after R101 crashed. Had the photographer gotten the date wrong? Was this the ghost of R101 haunting the skies of 1930s Toronto?

As it turns out, the truth is more logical than my imagination – but thankfully just as interesting.

A contrast  in public/private partnerships, the British government built two similar dirigibles – the ill-fated R101 and the slightly more successful R100. The 101 was designed and built by the British Air Ministry, while the 100 was designed and built by a private company. In this case, it would seem the private option was a success – don’t tell RoFo and DoFo (Actually, do, maybe we can have dirigibles on the waterfront by 2014).

So, it’s actually the grand R100 floating over Toronto, just mislabelled in the photo (as well as others). The Canadian leg of its journey was a major event in the country, and it’s not surprising there are several more pictures in the Toronto Archives of R100:

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Alas, R100′s life was ALSO short lived. As a result of the R101 crash, the 100 was quickly decommissioned and scrapped, with the metal frame selling for less that £600, essentially ending British forays into dirigible travel.

The R100 lives on, however, and you can take one home for under £100. Sold!

The Toronto Star has some renderings of the new NEW design for One Bloor (Bloor and Yonge, in Toronto, for those from away, probably the most expensive piece of land in the city).  As you may know, the property has had it’s ups and downs, but mostly downs, over the past while.

I was happy to see it get snapped up after the latest Dubai financed development collapsed, and if these renderings are any indication it should be a pretty nice benefit to the corner.  Check them out (props to buzzbuzzome.com for the images):

It's not a square!

Could it really be at a human scale at street level?

Greenish roof?

Why anyone would want to lounge on a giant red blood cell or a halved piece of Hubba Bubba is beyond me. Oh the noveau riche, with your crazy chairs.

Initial thoughts:  Building design is pleasing, overall.  At least there is a bit of artistry on the facade.  If the building falls over, however, it could chop Yorkville in half (which might help).

I like how it appears to meet the street.  The question will be if implementation matches the rendering.  Hard to tell from the pictures, but it almost looks like there will be commercial space included, which is a bonus.

I also have to assume that it will have a green roof, what with the new bylaw.  Just depends on when the project is deemed to have started.

So, there you go.  I won’t get my hopes up until floors are going up, but it sure will be nice to have that corner put to better use than a vacant concrete slab.

So this is a bit of a “dear diary” post. I know we don’t have many on TRR so bear with me. Sunday I was feeling saucy so I decided to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago (Well technically I felt saucy back in February when I registered). It gets billed as the largest 8k event in the world with 36,000 entrants. So that’s neat I suppose.

This was my first real race ever. Sorry Grosse Ile, your little 5k, which I ran hungover, registered while smoking and placed 2nd in my age group, doesn’t count.

Few thoughts:

First, I was not at all prepared for the pace of the race. More specifically the start. I’m a jogger, and I consider myself to keep a fairly decent pace. As soon as the air horn went, I wanted to tell everyone to slow down. For some odd reason I was placed in Coral A (the second group to start, behind the “elites”), so that probably didn’t help either. I still have no idea how I ended up there.

Second, while the race was through the streets of the loop, I don’t think I enjoyed it that much. Its not like I didn’t have time to enjoy myself, it just didn’t do anything for me. We ended up on all the boring streets, sorry Kinzie and Franklin. Though I did wave “hi” to work.

Third, I hate you weather. Friday was 61 (16c). Sunday was 33 (1c) and damp. At least it wasn’t raining or snowing like it did on Saturday, or like last year’s shuffle which I pussed out on.

Fourth, I feel like I left something out there. My typical distance in my leisurely jogs is around 12km. That combined with the pace of this event made me have no idea how to pace myself. The final km was hilarious. Seeing the finish line, I broke into a full stride sprint passing about 100+ people in the process. Maybe I’m an ass for doing it (I didn’t see anyone else doing it) or maybe I’m an ass for not pacing myself correctly. Oh well, life goes on.

Yes, that's me. Go Stretchypants Go.

Fifth, I’m used to jogging in the evening. 9am running is not cool. On my running days here, I have a very planned routine including meal times. When you aren’t used to scheduling your meals for a 9am run, you end up doing a second full sprint home to clean that mess out (if you know what I mean).

Finally, It was pretty freakin’ neat hearing the footsteps of thousands of people crunching along together. For quite a few sections it was just us in a giant posse.

Regardless, I can cross this off my Chicago to-do list. Oh, and I absolutely loved the hundreds of dirty looks for lighting up a cigarette after I got my bag out of gear check. Oh, and 38:01 was my time.

Small update to add this image ripped from the Shuffle’s Website:

Such a mass of people

Upon hearing news that Google maps now had biking directions,  I was elated.  Upon hearing it was only in major U.S. cities, I was deflated.  And then, lo and behold, I was elated again upon learning that Ride the City just released bike directions for Toronto.

After playing around with it a little my overall impressions are positive.  Here’s the suggested “safe route” given for my work commute:

Can’t say I disagree.  Choosing the most direct route actually takes me a little further than I need to go, but there isn’t really a way for the app to read my mind.  Yet.  The ability to choose between safety levels is nice, and will also be useful when I feel like a scenic weekend ride rather than a hurdy-gurdy pedal to work ride.

The map layout is nice and the overall map has an appealing feel to it.  But one of the coolest bits to the map, and something I haven’t seen yet, is the addition of underground walkways (check out Bay and Bloor).  It appears this is the result of the base mapping program, OpenStreetMap.org, which is pretty cool in it’s own right.  Maybe I can finally figure out Toronto’s PATH system.

So, this will do for now.  Once Google gets around to Canada I can compare then.

A great series of maps using Google data has popped up in the past day or so looking at the occurrence of bars across the United States (hat tip to City Block and Floating Sheep).

I’ve reproduced some of the maps below from Floating Sheep (click for larger):

First up, total bar mentions on Google Maps by city.  Hard to see, but Chicago is the winner!

Chicago wins!

Does your area have more bars than groceries? You’re probably doing alright…I mean, how many different grocery stores do you want to go to in one evening?

Balogna or Beer?

There are some more fun breakdowns over at Floating Sheep, go check them out!

Over at City Block, the author wonders this:

Unsurprisingly, we see all sorts of concentrations of bars that correlate with population density – namely, cities.  Wisconsin, however, is punching well above its weight.   That well-worn drinking culture shines through.  Southern cities, conversely, seem a little thing based on their populations – perhaps a holdover from dry counties and other temperance movements?

I think there is certainly something to this, but I’d add another variable.  Some of the biggest bar towns also have access to something other areas of the U.S. don’t – copious amounts of fresh water.  Many of the best microbreweries (and big breweries, for that matter) have started around the Great Lakes.  Good water sure goes a long way towards making good beer.

To celebrate this wealth of data I suggest going to your nearest watering hole and raising a toast to Google data and all the folks who can crunch it!

Slightly off topic for TRR, but I wanted to engage in a little shameless self-promotion.  For the past few months my friend Chris and I have been making like overgrown adolescents by forming a band, appropriately named When We Was Young.  It’s been incredible fun and I’ve surprised myself with some limited ability to play bass, thanks to Chris’ efforts.

In any case, we’ve recently started doing some songwriting and recording, with result being the release of our first single, “Out of Place”.  The song writing process is terrific fun, and we’ve had great help from our partners/band managers.

Anyway, check the single on our MySpace Music page here and let me know what you think.  Input is always welcome, and we’ll be working to get a slightly more polished version up (I just couldn’t wait).

So I finally got around to buying a bike. I’m a huge pedestrian/transit fan, and biking seemed like the next logical step. I wanted to write this post to share some of thoughts from my first day riding.

1. Riding home I was originally scared shitless. Having really haven’t ridden a bike since I was in college, and never haven ridden in a big city street setting, I was quite nervous on the way home. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago has bike lanes on all the major roads to give me some breathing space. But until you cruise down S. Western with traffic zipping by at or around the 35 mph speed limit, its hard to prepare yourself.
2. I picked up an older road bike. Maybe its because I haven’t ridden in years, or maybe its because I used to ride a mountain bike, but balancing on a road bike seemed a little different. So I spent some time wobbling. Also very nervous going between moving traffic and parked cars in the bike lanes. Kept getting worried I’d weeble-wobble over.
3. This old bike had toe clips. These are not cool when you add in the above issue. I was so busy trying not to fall over, or be freaked out by cars, that the last thing I wanted to worry about was getting moving and slipping my toes in. Needless to say, as soon as I got home, I took those suckers off.
4. After the initial 5 mile ride home and taking off the toe clips, I went for a little 4 mile ride to take some money out of the ATM. This ride was much more enjoyable and I felt a lot more comfortable.

So far so good. I spent most of Saturday evening thinking about going for a ride today (Sunday), and I honestly felt like a little kid with a new toy. Unfortunately it was raining today, so frowny-face here. I’m excited to be able to see more of the city in a different fashion. I also enjoyed the thrill of covering a lot more territory quickly and being able to move faster than cars on Milwaukee in the afternoon.

Now I just have to find a seat that doesn’t obliterate my sit bones. Special shoutouts to the Working Bikes Co-Op (where the bike came from, very helpful guys) and Uptown Bikes (who in the previous weekend took the time to talk to me for 10 minutes about the various things to look for…I’ll come back and buy something to rewards you guys, I swear!)

How about you other bikers? I’m already feeling more comfortable in city traffic, but any tips for this new city rider?

With surprisingly little fanfare it appears the TTC has announced the members for it’s Customer Service Advisory Panel.  The always resourceful Transit Toronto has the full details here.  Here’s what the membership is going to look like:

• Matthew Blackett, the publisher and founder of Spacing magazine.
• Robert Culling a professional transit operator for the TTC.
• Yves Devin the chief executive officer of the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) since 2006.
• Tyson Matheson, WestJet’s vice president of People Relations and Culture.
• Dr. Roy Morley, professor of marketing in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.
• Sue Motahedin of TELUS Communications Inc.’s Loyalty and Retention Department.
• Krisna Saravanamuttu, a fourth-year criminology major at York University and the president of the York Federation of Students.
• Kripa Sekhar, the executive director of the South Asian Women’s Centre.
• Julie Tyios, the chief executive officer of Red Juice Media, an online marketing firm.

Early impressions:

• First, the TTC announced earlier in the week that there wouldn’t be any members from the public.  That said, I was still holding out home that Steve Munro would be on here.  It was as squandered opportunity on the TTC’s part.
• I’m generally a fan of Matthew Blackett.  He at least represents the “activisit” side of the equation to some extent.
• Robert Culling – It appears that Culling is a TTC driver (not sure of what vehicle).  A logical choice for inclusion on the panel, and I’m curious as to what criteria determined what driver was selected – e.g., peer suggestion, Union suggestion.
• Yves Deviln – Solid choice.
• Krisna Saravanamuttu and Kripa Sekhar – A surprising nod towards the diverse needs of TTC users.  I’m especially pleased with the community focus of including someone from the South Asian Women’s Centre.   Very impressive choices here.
• The rest are the usual corporate and academic suspects, no surprises there.

Details of the panels goals are summarized at Transit Toronto and by Steve Munro, so I won’t cover that ground again.  With the report due at the end of June, however, I am interested in how much work will be achieved.  I haven’t seen an indication as to the frequency of the meetings, but I would hope they would at least be twice a week.

Probably a larger fear is how much voice some of the “smaller” members will actually have.  Will the needs of students be heard over the opinion of corporate VPs?  Will genuine debate occur in these meetings, or will they be hijacked by competing interests?

For now I will maintain a fine balance of skepticism and optimism and wait for more details.  Regardless, a positive step.