Last entry of this kind for a while, and a puny one to boot. Thanks for indulging me.

Not many line items here, so I've added comments.

Commuting by Numbers: Animals Edition

Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar

Dogs: 10

Two varieties: big, rambunctious dogs going for an early-morning romp in the park by my house, and tiny, ornamental things being carried to the small patch of urine-burned grass outside the condos by CBC.

Cats: 3

All within 50 feet of my house. The lady a couple of doors down feeds strays - her backyard is like some festering cat commune. Perhaps they ate the squirrels.

Squirrels: 1

I simply can't fathom how this number is so low. Normally I can't open my back door without seeing a platoon of these little buggers scampering across fences and falling from trees. Yet on my morning commute I hardly see any - and I pass half a dozen parks. Maybe they get up late. Maybe my eyes are too blurry. Maybe they are up to something.

Canada Geese: 3

OK, I'm cheating here - I see these when I ride my bike and deviate from the route to follow the Lakeshore path.  Where I also see...

Ducks: 4

These creatures defy logic by swimming in the murky brown brine at the foot of the Don River. Exposure for more than 10 minutes will set feathers ablaze. Today I saw them swimming between two bike tires, a Pepsi bottle and a grungy pool noodle. Nature at its best.

Cows: 0

I come from the self-proclaimed "Dairy Capital of Canada" - we even have a cow statue - so their absence is felt. Not that there's much good grazing along Queen St. East (West isn't bad, though.) Compare and contrast farm animals to the Cx# Netherlands Edition.

Elephants: 0

I could pad this list by adding all the other animals I don't see, but even my tiny mind isn't amused by the concept.

Pigeons: 55
I expected this - the winged rats are, like City TV, everywhere. The only animal that might possibly outnumber them is sparrows, which are just too small and flighty for me to effectively count.

Seagulls: 22

I didn't expect this at all - in fact, I wasn't expecting any. But there are dozens of them wheeling around in the sky. Which leads me to believe that somewhere, on the other side of the condos, Toronto may in fact be near a body of water.

Roadkill: 0

Contrast to the Cx# Rural New Brunswick Edition. It amazes me that, despite the number of dumb animals and insane traffic, there is almost never any roadkill in downtown Toronto. Maybe we have highly effective city works people to pick them up. Maybe there's som much traffic that the remains are instantly ground into the asphalt. Maybe those cats eat them too.

(Today's entry is written by Vivian, who sometimes takes the same streetcar that I do, but takes it twice as far. Her data was originally posted as a comment in my last entry, but I think it merits its own post. I particularly enjoyed her methodology - I tend to be more discrete when counting, to avoid angry stares!)

OK, here are my results for this morning’s commute. I sat near the front of the streetcar, waited until it was quite full, then headed down the isle inventing a tallying system as I went. A few people looked concerned (it’s hard to hide the fact that your are observing people: you look up, look around, then look down to take notes, then look up again etc.), and one clever-looking woman who had been reading a paper game me a peculiarly penetrating and knowing look over the top of her glasses. I squirmed a bit, but forged on in support of this worthy cause!

Commuter: Vivian
Location: Downtown Toronto
Streetcar: 501 going East from the Beaches on Queen Street

SITTING (total of 60)

Reading a book: 8
Reading a paper: 5
Listening to iPod: 5
Listening to other MP3: 6
Doing nothing: 21
Talking to person beside them: 6
Talking on phone: 1
Doing important-looking work: 3
Knitting: 1
Sleeping: 2
Listening to MP3 while reading paper: 1
Staring piercingly at me over glasses: 1

STANDING (total of 48)

Reading book: 5
Reading paper: 5
Listening to iPod: 3
Listening to other MP3: 3
Doing nothing: 28
Talking: 2
Looking over my shoulder to see what I’m writing: 1
Counting passenger activity: 1

Thanks again, Vivian!

More on the "mass observation" theme... here's a tally of the modes of transport seen on my trip in to work.

I've had a thing for cars ever since I was a kid, so this one came easily. (Sidebar: Last night someone offered to let me drive their BMW 850, and I couldn't think of a way to say yes without feeling like a total loser.) Fortunately, as you'll see below, in this town my own Honda Civic carries the same level of exclusivity as BMWs (all models combined, but still.) I suspect other parts of the country are less reliant on Bavaria, and more accepting of rust.

It's also interesting to note that if you really want to stand out, you should either buy an Aston Martin, or a Lada.

Commuting by Numbers: Transportation Edition

Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar

Taxis: 154
Honda Civics: 49
BMWs: 48
Mercedes-Benz: 14
Cars with any visible rust: 9
Porsches: 4
Beer delivery trucks: 4
City TV "everywhere" vehicles: 2
Ferraris: 1
Gears used by said Ferrari: 1
Aston Martins: 1
Ladas: 1

People on bikes: 79
Approximate percentage wearing helmets: 60%
People on bikes with no helmet, listening to an iPod and carrying a small dog: 1
People on motorcycles: 10
Parked Ducati motorcycles (oh yes, one day you will be mine...):4
Babies in strollers: 5

Vespa scooters: 4
Electric mobility scooters: 4
Old ladies on a child's aluminum scooter: 1
People looking cool on a scooter: 0

Next up: Animals!

Back in February I started a semi-regular feature called Commuting by Numbers. From time to time, on those rides to work where I can't read (busy streetcar, or on my bike) I'll count things of interest to see what patterns emerge. My tallies, and those of some other bloggers I strongarmed into playing along, can be found in my Commuting category.

The other day, my otherwise brilliant friend Chris admitted to counting groundhogs on his way to work, and I pointed him to my blog. He had an interesting comment:

It occurred to me that you are engaged in Mass Observation, which was a movement that existed in the 30s and 40s that encouraged as many people as possible to observe and record the minutiae of a particular place and time. The organizers were actually hired by the U.S. and British governments to record war-time activity.

Myself, I just figured I was borderline autistic or something. Anyhow, there's a fabulous New Yorker article on the Mass Observation here. Chris went on to say how this sort of analysis is the opposite of most blogging:

Reading the article, I was thinking that what blogs represent today is a "Mass Introspection" movement - but yours actually runs counter to that and closer to Mass Observation. Now that you also have me counting animals during a commute, that is.

The phenomenon was more about human behaviour than groundhogs, but you can certainly deduce certain behaviours from physical objects. Which brings me to the dataset below. I'm tempted to draw certain conclusions from the results that surprised me: the ratio of newspapers to iPods, the prevalence of smoking, the fact that I should probably stop carrying a backpack, etc. But I'll let you decide for yourself.

Later this week I'll have two more editions: Transportation, and Animals. Observe well!

Commuting by Numbers: People Edition

Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar

People carrying a coffee cup: 52
People carrying a reusable mug: 6
People smoking: 37
People smoking AND carrying a coffee: 4
Men using dainty cigarette holders: 1

People carrying shoulder bags (not incl. purses): 202
People wearing backpacks: 143

Goth kids: 7
People with dreadlocks: 6
Homeless men dressed like Santa: 2 (!)

People wearing baseball hats: 30
People wearing Castro hats (tee hee): 8
People wearing peaked caps: 3
People wearing fedoras: 1

Men on cell phones: 23
Women on cell phones: 26
People wearing iPods: 41
People wearing all other music players: 23
People using a Blackberry: 5
People carrying a newspaper: 4
People using cameras: 3

People wearing ties: 16
People wearing "Frankie Says Relax" T-shirts: 1

As I've said before, I'd really be delighted if anyone out there wants to count something and let me know about it - I'll link to it or publish it here. And if you have suggestions for me to count, I'm all ears. Well, 2 ears.

Well now, here's a twist.

As you may recall, I've been asking my blogging colleagues to count stuff on their commutes to work, in order to see a) what there is to see in different parts of the country, and b) in what directions their warped minds travel when their bodies are stuck in transit.

It's part b) that is illuminated with frightening clarity in the case of one Joe Mahoney, radio drama guru and self-proclaimed novelist.

Joe's response to my challenge looks at the commute of the protagonist in the sci-fi novel Joe writes on the train to work each day. It's a bit like cracking open his skull to see what wiggles out. Try not to run away screaming.

Commuters: Joe Mahoney and Barnabus J. Wildebear
Location: the planet T’Klee, mostly
Commuting time: the better part of a day (subjective time)
Route: An island on the east coast of Canada to a continent on the distant planet of T’Klee

Astonishingly attractive female operatives: 1
Rather attractive female aliens: 1
Strange alien birdlike creatures: 1
Strange alien creatures being eaten by alien birdlike creatures: 1
Houses, abandoned or otherwise: 1
Eerie abandoned alien bases: 1
Streams and rivers: 1
Hostile aliens: 0… um, so far
Portals to other planets: 1
Magnificent alien cats: 1
Humans possibly under psionic control of magnificent alien cats: 1
Large robotic mechanical spiders: 1
Portable artificial intelligence units: 1
Poisonous alien insects: several thousand
Heartbreaks experienced by one Barnabus J. Wildebear during commute: 1
Episodes of paralysis experienced by one Barnabus J. Wildebear during commute: 1
Level of regret experienced by one Joseph Thomas Mahoney upon pulling into Union Station at end of commute every day: Exceptionally high

The latest entry to Commuting by Numbers comes from far from (my) home: the Netherlands! Tse Moana, who I've known for many years via the online politics game NationStates, did some counting on a three-hour(ish) train ride from Winsum to Leiden ("north of Netherlands to middle part of Netherlands.")

So, here's our first European Cx# entry (see, I've even created an almost-indecipherable acronym!) All her selections lend this entry the flavour of the originating country - I think it's rather wonderful. Thanks Tse.

Commuter: Rianne
Location: The Netherlands
Commuting time: A 3 hour tour
Route: By train from Winsum to Leiden

Bridges & Overpasses: 96
Soccer Goals: 82
Childrens' Climbing Play Things: 8
(I have no idea what they're properly called in English) [me: hmmm, try "climber", "play set" or "jungle gym"]
Cows: 5 (1 'proper' and 4 Scottish Highlanders)
Sheep: about 500 or so, in 25 different flocks and groups
Construction sites: 9
Mills: 2
Wind Mills (the high white ones): 6
Train Stations: 28
Passing Trains: 33
Olympic Trains: 4 (orange painted trains made to transport our olympic athletes)
Buildings with things sticking out: 6 [huh?]
Dolmen: 1 [me: I had to look this one up in wiki]
Horses: 88
People playing golf: 3
Plastic garden chairs tossed away in the woods: 2
Prisons: 1
Military Excercise Grounds: 1

To my absolute delight, MC of the excellent pop culture blog Culture Kills... wait, I mean cutlery has weighed in on the Commuting by Numbers experience, with his own set of 23 statistical categories. Thanks Matt!

This edition comes from an not-precisely-disclosed location in Southern Ontario. It's not only amusing, but gives me some ideas for categories I'll count next for Toronto. Enjoy!

Commuter: Matthew Caverhill
Location: Southern Ontario
Commuting time: 1-1.25 hours
Route: Travelling the Riverside blues by foot and down and about the thoroughfares of the next town by bus.

Graffiti: 38 locations
Tim Hortons: 10
Ethnic Grocery/Bakeries: 11
Pizza places: 17
Coffee shops: 12
Apartment Buildings: 38
Parks: 15
Panhandlers: 6
Buses: 18
Car dealers: 4
Gas stations: 7
Traffic lights: 18
Bars: 23
Of those, I’ve been in: 8
Strip clubs: 5
Of those, I've been in: unspecified
Casinos: 1
Teenaged Girls dressed inappropriately… for the weather: 5
Churches: 4
Of those, I’ve been in: 0
Hospitals: 2
Bookstores: 5
Recalcitrant Geese that don’t fly south for the winter: about a hundred
Numbered Streets: 0

As always, I'd love to hear about your commute, wherever it may be. Count something - anything - and let me know about it!

In exchange for my immortal soul, a family pack of Smarties and copious, extraneous links to his blog, Sinister Dan of The Reasonable Ego (enough?) has tepped up to the plate in my Commuting by Numbers challenge.

SinisTer Dan (who I shall henceforth call STD) travels by car for 45 km, on rural highways from St. Margaret's, N.B. to Rexton, N.B. – which no doubt takes less time than my 5 km trip down Queen St. in Toronto.

Here’s his list – like mine, but much more amusing. Enjoy!

Commuter: Sinister Dan
Location: Rural New Brunswick
Commuting time: not specified
Route: Highways 11/134

Trees: approximately 195,000 (according to The UNB school of Forestry)
Houses: 29
Abandoned houses: 6
Houses that look like they ought to be abandoned but aren't: 3
Road signs warning about random moose attacks: 8
Buildings owned by the provincial government with no obvious purpose: 2
Billboards: 1
Gas stations: 1
Churches: 2
Roadkill: 4 (today)
Signs with illegible aboriginal place names: 5
Bridges: 5
Streams and rivers: 7
Marshes: 1
People in other means of transport: 1 (he's the crazy hitch-hiker who never gets picked and yells at you car as you pass him)
Building taller than 2 stories: 0
Kilometers of 4 lane highway: 0
Universities, bookstores, strip clubs, decent restaurants and good coffee shops: 0
People selling fish out of their trucks at 6:45 a.m.: 2
My degree of woe (1-10): 9

STD also sends his regrets for not providing pictures, but offers this description of the one billboard on his journey:

...it's for a place that makes soap "the old fashioned way" (although not so old fashioned as to render hog fat for the purpose) and they offer tours. The Billboard has one of the owners (who I know through local business conferences and such). Supposedly he's supposed to be the ringmaster of a circus looking excited or something and it is without a doubt the silliest thing I've ever seen -- it looks like the cover shot from Platoon from a higher angle and gaudy clothes...

I will do everything in my power to extort a photograph asap.

There may be more Commuting by Numbers contributions coming soon – and I’d really appreciate yours! Who knows, maybe this will become a meme of sorts.

One that won’t be coming is from Tod from Vancouver, who offers this excuse:

Heheheh... I'm afraid the only time I commute it's pitch black (5:45 am)!

Fair enough. No sense counting street lamps over and over. Although Tod also works from home a fair bit -I'd be most amused to hear someone's numbers commuting from the bedroom to the home office (floor tiles, cats, dirty socks....)

Anyone?

Sometimes when I'm commuting to and from work, and the streetcar is so packed I that I can't read, I just count stuff. Schools, traffic lights, crazy people, whatever - it helps pass the time.

I thought it might be interesting to blog the list, so here it is thus far. There will no doubt be more counting coming eventually - and not just from me. I've challenged some of my fellow bloggers in other parts of Canada to do the same. The regional comparisons might be rather interesting.

And of course, I'd love to hear from you! Count up something from this list on your own commute - or make your own categories. Let me know, and I'll count them. Here we go:

Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar

Billboards: 36 (48/hr)
Neon signs: 48 (64/hr) [pictures]
Poster-type ads: 291 (388/hr)
Public art installations: 16 (21.3/hr)
Indian restaurants: 4 (5.3/hr)
Pizza places: 9 (12/hr)
Coffee shops: 19 (25.3/hr)
Condos under construction: 14 (18.7/hr)
Cows: 0 (0/hr)
Parks: 9 (12/hr)
Really hot women: 21 (28/hr)
Panhandlers: 3 (4/hr)
Churches: 7 (9.3/hr)
Strip clubs: 1 (1.3/hr)
Street cars: 17 (22.7/hr)
Car dealers: 4 (5.3/hr)
Gas stations: 0 (0/hr)
Traffic lights: 14 (18.7/hr)

If you really care what my criteria were for what constitutes a park or a hot woman, I can tell you, but I don't think it matters much. [For the record: A park had to have some trees and enough grass to play frisbee on. Counting women is embarrassingly crass, and explaining what I consider hot would only make things worse. Use your imagination.]

So, there's round one. I'm awaiting results from the ragtag fugitive fleet of bloggers I've challenged to do likewise: Sinister Dan in New Brunswick, MC in Southern Ontario, Joe in the 'burbs, Tod in Vancouver. John in Newfoundland informed me that a St. John's "commute" takes five minutes (but 20 in "rush hour") so he's off the hook.

How about you? Anyone else love to count?

I spotted this new (I think) sign outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre today. Please tell me what it means:

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