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Transit Venting
Apr. 9th, 2016 12:03 amFiled an application for a different job before I left the day-job office today. Seemed like the thing to do when I came across that particular ad on the website this morning. Especially after having to turn down another offer from a place where I'd really like to be working even in the face of a slight pay cut because of transit logistics and sleep issue aggravation resulting therefrom.
"Transit logistics"...a polite way of saying that buses can't handle everywhere I'd like to go in the region, for reasons of physics, budgets and physical safety of staff and passengers alike. And our light rail component isn't yet as far-reaching as the most ambitious of us in such matters would like yet. Ottawa-Gatineau has one line right now, with a second under construction. That second needs two more years before they'll certify it as safe enough for passengers to use on a daily basis. Track is still in the process of being delivered and laid down. Since the winter hasn't completely freed us from its grip yet, there's a lot of preparations yet to be made to resume the process.
And that's just for the Ottawa side's "Phase One" projects. Never mind our "Phase Two" still on the drawing boards. Gatineau is still playing catch-up on the "bus-rapid-transit" front. Their STO service just opened up a dedicated "Rapibus" roadway a year or two ago, and while there's a way to connect the O-Train network to the Rapibus line, there's a lot of paperwork and haggling between city halls, and the feds and provinces, before it can be done.
We're making progress and people can see that progress as it happens. But it's still not as fast as a lot of people need it to become. Employment, commerce, governmental logistics, recreation, family connections, a lot of stuff could become easier...but we have to wait. And persist in pushing for things to move.
"Transit logistics"...a polite way of saying that buses can't handle everywhere I'd like to go in the region, for reasons of physics, budgets and physical safety of staff and passengers alike. And our light rail component isn't yet as far-reaching as the most ambitious of us in such matters would like yet. Ottawa-Gatineau has one line right now, with a second under construction. That second needs two more years before they'll certify it as safe enough for passengers to use on a daily basis. Track is still in the process of being delivered and laid down. Since the winter hasn't completely freed us from its grip yet, there's a lot of preparations yet to be made to resume the process.
And that's just for the Ottawa side's "Phase One" projects. Never mind our "Phase Two" still on the drawing boards. Gatineau is still playing catch-up on the "bus-rapid-transit" front. Their STO service just opened up a dedicated "Rapibus" roadway a year or two ago, and while there's a way to connect the O-Train network to the Rapibus line, there's a lot of paperwork and haggling between city halls, and the feds and provinces, before it can be done.
We're making progress and people can see that progress as it happens. But it's still not as fast as a lot of people need it to become. Employment, commerce, governmental logistics, recreation, family connections, a lot of stuff could become easier...but we have to wait. And persist in pushing for things to move.
More Canadian TV Content Advocacy Linkage
Jan. 27th, 2012 10:20 amI know that this isn't going to endear me to people who believe that the CBC Must "DIE DIE DIE for Darkseid!"
Ahem.
Sorry about that. Slight meme-attack by the Anti-Life Equation there. (As first explained by Jack Kirby and built upon by Grant Morrison, that is.)
Anyway.
Denis McGrath briefly "unretired" his weblog to transplant something he said on Facebook the other day.
I'm one of those "people who want to complain about the CBC cancelling Intelligence" - hey, Chris Haddock did some damn fine TV with that show, and it ended too bloody soon! - but as a supporter of CBC's existence, I have to acknowledge that Denis gets the point and shared it with the world at large because he recognized the need to share it.
CBC's getting it right here more often than not.
I just wish my earlier favourite shows hadn't gotten the axe to make room for these. There should've been room in the budget for everything I liked and this stuff too.
The CBC's worth the money we shell out for it as Canadians. And it's worth more than we're being trained to be willing to shell out for it, too.
Not apologizing for saying it, nor for believing it too.
Thanks, Denis. We needed the reminder.
Ahem.
Sorry about that. Slight meme-attack by the Anti-Life Equation there. (As first explained by Jack Kirby and built upon by Grant Morrison, that is.)
Anyway.
Denis McGrath briefly "unretired" his weblog to transplant something he said on Facebook the other day.
I'm one of those "people who want to complain about the CBC cancelling Intelligence" - hey, Chris Haddock did some damn fine TV with that show, and it ended too bloody soon! - but as a supporter of CBC's existence, I have to acknowledge that Denis gets the point and shared it with the world at large because he recognized the need to share it.
CBC's getting it right here more often than not.
I just wish my earlier favourite shows hadn't gotten the axe to make room for these. There should've been room in the budget for everything I liked and this stuff too.
The CBC's worth the money we shell out for it as Canadians. And it's worth more than we're being trained to be willing to shell out for it, too.
Not apologizing for saying it, nor for believing it too.
Thanks, Denis. We needed the reminder.
Orléans Transit Rant re: 4 September 2011
Sep. 12th, 2011 02:40 pmThis particular piece is written from a place of anger born of inconvenience.
A bit of explanation: On the night of September 4th, I had just walked some ten to fifteen minutes home from being dropped off in my neighbourhood thanks to the kindness of perfect strangers whose names I may never know in splitting a taxi fare. That taxi ride was the indirect consequence of decisions made by myself and by the city transit committee regarding the realignment of OC Transpo's route system.
That realignment, as most people living in Ottawa-Gatineau know, took effect this morning. The warnings about these changes had been put out by OC Transpo management and city hall over the past three months. A considerable amount of time and effort was put into consulting the public on the plans. However, Councillor Diane Deans, in her role as head of the transit committee, and city hall as a whole were firm: these changes in the routes and schedules were going to happen.
And they have.
Quite possibly, I should have paid closer attention to the schedules. I've always been wary about making travel plans that take me out of Orléans on Sunday mornings or afternoons. There's always the chance that such commitments can stretch into the occasional Sunday evening, and that's when getting back home again becomes more difficult.
I use public transit exclusively, you see. I don't own or rent a car, and if ever the day comes that I can afford either course of action, it's doubtful that I'll put out the cash for it.
And there's the simple fact that trips-per-hour frequency is usually cut back on Sunday evenings. For the local routes running within Orléans, it goes from every half-hour to every hour.
Every hour.
It's quite possible that I should have taken the hint when I saw on the schedule updater screen that Sunday morning service feeding into and out of Place d'Orléans Transitway Station constituted a grand total of four routes. Five if you allow for the # 131 being a circular route that has buses running in both directions.
(Note: Not all the active routes are logged into the computers feeding to those screens yet as I write this parenthetical today on Sept. 12th. Nor is the 613-560-1000 system updated in full as of this date. When I phoned to check the schedule as I waited to start my bus ride home from CAN-CON the spec-fic convention this morning, the routes cited did not mach the routes I saw on the bus stop's numbered sign.)
You can suggest that I should have gone straight home after the computer user group meeting in the Market. You can also suggest that I should not have gone to that restaurant on Elgin to watch the Labour Day Classic featuring Saskatchewan versus Winnipeg with assorted friends, acquaintances and strangers. It may even have been folly to go to one of the coffee-houses across the street afterwards for about a half-hour or so to check my e-mail and take care of other errands over a light snack.
All of those choices were certainly mine, and possibly mistakes to be avoided.
Between that, and the route realignments...I quite possibly should have anticipated arriving back at Place d'Orléans at a point when the next bus to bring me to within reasonable walking distance of home would take 40 minutes to arrive, and the next such bus would take another fifteen minutes beyond that.
I do have to wonder why it is that people in the suburbs outside of the Green Belt seem expected to keep their lives confined to their respective home suburbs on Sundays if we don't own or rent cars, or prevail upon the kindness of whatever relatives or neighbours that might be willing to accommodate us.
If that expectation exists at city hall, it is an unreasonable expectation.
One that should end, and at best possible speed.
A bit of explanation: On the night of September 4th, I had just walked some ten to fifteen minutes home from being dropped off in my neighbourhood thanks to the kindness of perfect strangers whose names I may never know in splitting a taxi fare. That taxi ride was the indirect consequence of decisions made by myself and by the city transit committee regarding the realignment of OC Transpo's route system.
That realignment, as most people living in Ottawa-Gatineau know, took effect this morning. The warnings about these changes had been put out by OC Transpo management and city hall over the past three months. A considerable amount of time and effort was put into consulting the public on the plans. However, Councillor Diane Deans, in her role as head of the transit committee, and city hall as a whole were firm: these changes in the routes and schedules were going to happen.
And they have.
Quite possibly, I should have paid closer attention to the schedules. I've always been wary about making travel plans that take me out of Orléans on Sunday mornings or afternoons. There's always the chance that such commitments can stretch into the occasional Sunday evening, and that's when getting back home again becomes more difficult.
I use public transit exclusively, you see. I don't own or rent a car, and if ever the day comes that I can afford either course of action, it's doubtful that I'll put out the cash for it.
And there's the simple fact that trips-per-hour frequency is usually cut back on Sunday evenings. For the local routes running within Orléans, it goes from every half-hour to every hour.
Every hour.
It's quite possible that I should have taken the hint when I saw on the schedule updater screen that Sunday morning service feeding into and out of Place d'Orléans Transitway Station constituted a grand total of four routes. Five if you allow for the # 131 being a circular route that has buses running in both directions.
(Note: Not all the active routes are logged into the computers feeding to those screens yet as I write this parenthetical today on Sept. 12th. Nor is the 613-560-1000 system updated in full as of this date. When I phoned to check the schedule as I waited to start my bus ride home from CAN-CON the spec-fic convention this morning, the routes cited did not mach the routes I saw on the bus stop's numbered sign.)
You can suggest that I should have gone straight home after the computer user group meeting in the Market. You can also suggest that I should not have gone to that restaurant on Elgin to watch the Labour Day Classic featuring Saskatchewan versus Winnipeg with assorted friends, acquaintances and strangers. It may even have been folly to go to one of the coffee-houses across the street afterwards for about a half-hour or so to check my e-mail and take care of other errands over a light snack.
All of those choices were certainly mine, and possibly mistakes to be avoided.
Between that, and the route realignments...I quite possibly should have anticipated arriving back at Place d'Orléans at a point when the next bus to bring me to within reasonable walking distance of home would take 40 minutes to arrive, and the next such bus would take another fifteen minutes beyond that.
I do have to wonder why it is that people in the suburbs outside of the Green Belt seem expected to keep their lives confined to their respective home suburbs on Sundays if we don't own or rent cars, or prevail upon the kindness of whatever relatives or neighbours that might be willing to accommodate us.
If that expectation exists at city hall, it is an unreasonable expectation.
One that should end, and at best possible speed.
Why I hate using snowblowers
Dec. 14th, 2010 11:24 am- It guzzles gasoline and spits out climate-deranger gas vapours.
- I'm forever terrified of messing up the machine via mixing up the steps of the ignition sequence.
- There's too much to keep track of while it's running. (I know: welcome to the world of technophobes trying to cope with having to be computer-users.)
- I've grown to actually like the exercise of using old-style shovels.
