Take the Damned Bus!


A few months ago, here in God's Chosen Land (Ottawa), there was a transit challenge to local politicians. The challenge was: get around only on OC Transpo, for a week.

The outcome: about three participated. All failed. Hizonner the Mayor harrumped and stated that his business was much too important for the bus. All commented on it being "impossible."

No surprise, really--with the LRT running now two years late, and the city shut up like a puckered sphincter.

Well, well.

See the mixed message: you ride the bus and the train, as we're always urging you;  but we're much too important for that nonsense.

This has been a problem for years. It is faced by hundreds of thousands of commuters every day--people who aren't important or successful enough to be chauffered to the next meet-and-greet. I think I have a simple solution:

Require every City employee to take public transit to/from her place of work, with the sole exception being those whose shift work begins or ends well outside OC Transpo's service hours.

I think this is a most-reasonable proposition. After all, the City provides a transportation infrastructure that is 'second to none'. They're constantly bragging about the awards they won thirty years ago.

Well, what better way to demonstrate leadership and confidence than to use that infrastructure?

There should be no parking lots in or near City work centres.

Everybody, from the Mayor on down, should be required to do all their running around via public transit. If that means they have to schedule drastically fewer public appointments and photo ops--then so be it! If that means they have to spend more time doing their jobs, and less time fawning over developers who want to dictate terms--so what?

Or is public transit forever destined to remain for the unwashed masses only; a hell to escape only by earning enough to afford a vehicle? That's certainly the message from our City Mothers.

In that case, let's start calling it for what it is: the Loser Cruiser. Let's be honest and call it "LC Transpo." Beause it's not for City employees; it's for you losers.

And, in full disclosure: I have been a regular regular Loser for thirty-five years.

'Nuff.