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A small but determined group of residents of a Martin Grove Road subdivision are rallying neighbours to back a petition asking the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to bring a local bus route into their community.

Hazel Clarkson and Cathy Carruthers, both residents of Jeffcoat Drive (north of Rexdale Boulevard, west of Martin Grove Road), met with Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) Councillor Rob Ford, TTC consultant Scott Haskin and other local residents last Friday to discuss diverting bus route 46 into the area to better serve a community flush with non-drivers - seniors and teens chief among them.

"We have to drive to get anywhere. There used to be a small plaza nearby - it was a lifeline to the community - but it's gone now," Clarkson, who no longer drives due to failing eyesight, said.

What the ladies and their proponents are proposing is to veer route 46 (which regularly runs from Kipling subway station up to Steeles Avenue via Martin Grove Road) westbound off of Martin Grove at Jeffcoat Drive, then northbound on Kearney Drive, and finally eastbound on Mercury Road back to Martin Grove - a move which would eliminate a stop at Porterfield Road at Martin Grove.

But it's well worth the move for safety's sake, Carruthers said.

"My youngest daughter is 18 and when she's working the night shift sometimes she gets off at 11:30 p.m. or 12:30 a.m. - and that's a long, dark walk home from the bus stop," she said, noting that oftentimes either she or her husband will meet her to walk or drive her the rest of the way - a lesson they learned the hard way with their older daughter.

"A few years ago when she was 19, she was walking home one night and was followed by a man the whole way. By the time she got here she was absolutely hysterical. She did everything I always told her to do - cross the street and back again, walk in the middle of the road - but he followed her the entire way. This is Rexdale and it's not always safe."

In order to even propose making changes to any transit route, safety issues or not, the TTC requires the local councillor make a formal request. And in order for Ford to do that, he said he wants to see a vast majority of local residents (primarily those who live along Kearney) approve of such a change.

"The first thing they need is a petition, because if they can't get at least 80 per cent in support, at least along the route where bus will run, then I can't really bring it to the Commission," Ford said. "I'll need to see a high percentage of people in favour and a lot of people don't like buses running down their streets, don't like bus stops in front of their homes, so there's a couple of hurdles there."

Should the petition be successful, Ford's request would then still face a rather lengthy and extensive screening process, first through TTC staff, and then through the city's nine transit commissioners, Haskin said.

"As TTC staff, we have service standard guidelines to ensure such requests are better, overall, for all of our customers," he said, noting that of the 50 or so such requests the TTC gets every year, only five to 10 actually come to fruition. "We usually collect all requests throughout the year and deal with them all on annual basis. In this case, the timing is good because we're doing that now."

If staff deem it technically feasible - in terms of noise and traffic, among other variables - to carry the proposal forward, they'll bring forth a positive report to commissioners, who will have final say at a public meeting.

In terms of a realistic timeline on such a route change, Haskin said the TTC could potentially have a yes or no answer to residents by early 2009, with implementation of the new route going into effect as early as next summer - but only if they receive a formal request from Ford by September.

"So far we've only gone out a little bit, but mostly we've met with approval," Carruthers said of their canvas of the area so far. "We're going to start petitioning by Monday because we need to talk to everyone in neighbourhood, to listen to the objections as well as the support."