Speaking of fare evasion, what were they huffing when they made the Yonge and Melinda exit to King exit only, and why hasn't it long since been converted to double ended operation?
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Maybe all the money they're spending on paying POOs could instead be used to expand PRESTO fare gates in locations such as this,
Have you used the Melinda exit?
Its set up as an escalator going up, there is no staircase available.
Source: Station Fixation
You can reverse the direction, but it will still be one-way only unless you remove the escalator.
There is not sufficient room in the ROW to widen the entrance.
It was actually built as a staircase all the way, the escalator was a later re-fit, which is why you notice it doesn't go all the way down as the design of the station didn't have sufficient room for 'the pit' under the platform level floor.
The exit was a last minute addition to King before opening in '54, I'm told, because someone realized mathematically that the station had insufficient capacity to handle rush hour crowds. (remember this is before the Commerce Court exit was built.
or at the Duplex end of Eglinton
Duplex was a fully functioning entrance at one point, before the Crosstown project, when it actually had a building. The current (ish) iteration had among the highest far evasion rates in the system. Keep in mind, the current terminal is to be redeveloped, eventually, as per a discussion we've had here on UT.
; or at the west end of STC?
Can't speak to that one.
It is really, really hard to even pretend to care about fare evasion when there's so many terrible design decisions made at the company level that willingly leave fare money on the table. If there's an entrance to TTC property right in front of a client, it's really terrible infrastructure planning to make them walk around, in the case of Eglinton and STC the really long way around. Everyone who's ever spent any amount of time around others knows that people are lazy and in search of the most convenient solution to their issue - the TTC should be expecting this and catering to it, not forcing them to go elsewhere. Or stop whining about fare evasion.
Disagree. Don't get me wrong, more entrances would be convenient in many cases, and the way this issue has been handled through the years probably could have been better.
That said, I care plenty about people cheating, because it means I pay more for less service.
The idea that I should have to pick up the tab because someone else is lazy and morally bankrupt is a non-starter.
This argument carries the same weight to me as ........"Well littering is fine, because I shouldn't have to walk more than a block to find a garbage can" No...its not. Yes, we should have more garbage cans in this city, they should also be emptied more frequently too.......... but if you bought a pop and its empty now, you're going to carry it around until you find a garbage, period! That should motivate you to complain to your councillor about the need for more garbage cans.
Back to the matter at hand. Second exits, if un-staffed are generally the site of greater fare evasion, particularly in the era of Presto gates.
We used to have turnstiles where you couldn't fit two people, except maybe mom and baby and that you could not force either.
Presto gates were introduced for accessibility, as someone in a mobility aid can't get through a turnstile. But they have the downside of being relatively easy to get a second person through and/or to force.
This is what the old Duplex entrance used to look like (see turnstiles)
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