Shave Seconds Off Your Journey(Globe and Mail, 14 May 2005)
by Liz Clayton
You’re late. You’re in a mad panic to make it to your destination, counting down the subway stops and furtively jockeying to be the first out the doors, when you see it—the escalator’s all the way at the other end of the platform. Sean Lerner hopes you’ll never again suffer this horrible indignity once you’re armed with his tiny DIY booklet, the TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide.
Jokingly purported to “shave seconds off your journey”, Mr. Lerner’s guide is designed to help subway riders reach their destinations faster by painstakingly rendering that special bit of information most of us carry around only as folk wisdom: the best place to stand on a subway platform to be nearest the exit of your target station.
Mr. Lerner finally created the wallet-sized guide after tossing the idea around in his head for several years.
“ I started to take note where I needed to be whenever I traveled on the TTC, and then I became, kind of as a joke, obsessed about it, and if I was traveling with someone, I would want to make sure we were at the right spot,” says Mr. Lerner, who also took his inspiration from the zine community, of which many of his friends are members.
The guide resembles a religious tract in size and shape, and Mr. Lerner hopes its users will one day employ it religiously as well. Its 16 small pages are plump with information: there are detailed diagrams of every subway station on the TTC, including the Scarborough RT, denoting where each staircase, escalator and elevator is relative to the subway train’s doors—and even in what direction the escalator is going.
A rider getting on an eastbound train at Chester, for instance, will be able to quickly figure out that she will have to sit near the first door of the first car of their westbound train to be let out right by the exits at Dundas West station.
The guide is available for free download from Mr. Lerner’s website, ttcrider.ca. The cut-and-staple-inclined are invited to download a PDF of the booklet—in regular or large print—assemble it themselves, and put it to use. Pre-made copies are also available for purchase.
Though the efficiency guide’s main aim is efficiency, Mr. Lerner hints that this goal is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. In a climate where Toronto’s transit system is oft-vilified, he aims to heighten appreciation of the TTC. The former computer network designer sees the guide as a fun, maybe a little nerdy, way to ride the subway better and therefore enjoy it more—something people across all walks of life can relate to.
Thinking about where to stand on the platform is “a thing that a lot of people put in a very small portion of energy thinking about,” said Mr. Lerner. “So I’ve basically blown that way out of proportion.”
Though the pamphlet’s exhausting detail may appear to be more trouble than it’s worth, Mr. Lerner’s methodological brain took a different view.
“ I did some calculations to see how much effort it was and to see if the guide in the end was worth it,” said Mr. Lerner, who measured the time he spent making the guide against the time the guide could save end-users. At a time savings of 40 seconds per user per trip, Mr. Lerner’s math indicated that only 81 subway riders need to use the guide three times a week for five years for his time investment to break even.
Realistically, though, he just wants to see the guide get used at all.
“ My dream is that when I get off at Pape station to have like 30 people at the one door,” said Mr. Lerner.
“ Though I think the TTC’s primary concern is probably safety over efficiency,” he laughs.