Welcome to Your Life… There’s No Turning Back
crossposted from Lee Edward McIlmoyle's blog
Thank you for your patience. We just got back online the other day. Money is always in short supply these days.
I’m tired of arguing with people about the need for a comprehensive transit system. The argument keeps coming back: we don’t need it. This comes from people who don’t use the bus often enough to know what ‘need’ looks like. What they’re really saying is, ‘if you don’t like it, get a job and buy a car like all the real people’. Classist bullshit. The few arguments I’ve heard that really resonate are:
A) if the train breaks down en route, it will be impossible to get out of the way, and will slow down the entire ine. They believe there are no solutions for this. This apparently is never a problem with regular buses, because other buses can just drive around the one that’s broken down. Doesn’t matter that the buses will be overloaded and will drive by waiting riders until they have space. Doesn’t matter that buses are less frequent these days, not because there are too few riders, but because of the steady budget diet that the HSR has been on since the 90s. The service has been starved into the state it’s in, and the population explosion we’re seeing will overwhelm our service’s ability to cope, even if we do pump a few million more into the fleet. Plus, with more buses, it doesn’t solve the crumbling infrastructure problems, the problem of fossil fuel usage, the environmental impacts of running even natural gas engines, or the fact that fares are going to rise and discourage people riding the buses even more. Buses aren’t going away. But LRT promises to make riding across town, cleaner, safer and more efficient for several hundred more people per hour. There are arguments that LRT won’t get enough ridership to ‘break even’. Nonsense. I watched a bus pass five out of eight bus stops on Barton yesterday alone. Allocating more buses to that line will be needed. LRT will free up buses to do just that. LRT will also make it possible for more buses to feed the LRT line by crisscrossing the city at long distances from one another, like the Wentworth bus does now (at peak hours only, so far). LRT will be roomier, which means all of those scooters, grocery carts, and strollers will be able to fit better without blocking the center aisles.
But the point isn’t that there will be more frequent trips or safer, more stable riding across smooth LRT tracks all the way across town. The real issue is, people don’t want to see their provincial taxes spent on lousy bums. It’s a purely classist argument in disguise. “We can afford to drive. Electric cars will be cleaner. Self-driving cars will be safer. Cars are the future!” What no one wants to get caught saying in mixed company is, “Let the unemployed layabouts and refugee scum walk if they don’t like the buses we’ve given them with our hard earned tax dollars.”
I’m sick of the circular arguments, but more to the point, I’m sick to death of the hypocrisy. It’s just ‘good enough for the likes of you’ bullshit. Refusing to recognize that we all have both a responsibility and a vested interest in helping everyone get out of the mire that is our economy demonstrates to me how shortsighted and willfully ignorant so many of us have become.
Anyway, that’s the mood I’m in today.
I want to get some creative work done, but I’m feeling exhausted from a less than adequate night of sleep. They’ve been getting more frequent lately. I need to have my meds reviewed and perhaps changed, or at least have the dosages modified. Hard to think straight. Cant’ nap in the daytime, either.
Want to work on the Tarot paintings. Want to work on the novel. Want to work on the new song I wrote. Want to work on the LINK game. Can’t. Headache now. Tylenol is apparently not good for you. Ah well. Naproxen, maybe.
Tears For Fears… When Tears Roll Down, When Tears Roll Down.
Thanks for reading. Talk to you soon.
Lee.
Thank you for your patience. We just got back online the other day. Money is always in short supply these days.
I’m tired of arguing with people about the need for a comprehensive transit system. The argument keeps coming back: we don’t need it. This comes from people who don’t use the bus often enough to know what ‘need’ looks like. What they’re really saying is, ‘if you don’t like it, get a job and buy a car like all the real people’. Classist bullshit. The few arguments I’ve heard that really resonate are:
A) if the train breaks down en route, it will be impossible to get out of the way, and will slow down the entire ine. They believe there are no solutions for this. This apparently is never a problem with regular buses, because other buses can just drive around the one that’s broken down. Doesn’t matter that the buses will be overloaded and will drive by waiting riders until they have space. Doesn’t matter that buses are less frequent these days, not because there are too few riders, but because of the steady budget diet that the HSR has been on since the 90s. The service has been starved into the state it’s in, and the population explosion we’re seeing will overwhelm our service’s ability to cope, even if we do pump a few million more into the fleet. Plus, with more buses, it doesn’t solve the crumbling infrastructure problems, the problem of fossil fuel usage, the environmental impacts of running even natural gas engines, or the fact that fares are going to rise and discourage people riding the buses even more. Buses aren’t going away. But LRT promises to make riding across town, cleaner, safer and more efficient for several hundred more people per hour. There are arguments that LRT won’t get enough ridership to ‘break even’. Nonsense. I watched a bus pass five out of eight bus stops on Barton yesterday alone. Allocating more buses to that line will be needed. LRT will free up buses to do just that. LRT will also make it possible for more buses to feed the LRT line by crisscrossing the city at long distances from one another, like the Wentworth bus does now (at peak hours only, so far). LRT will be roomier, which means all of those scooters, grocery carts, and strollers will be able to fit better without blocking the center aisles.
But the point isn’t that there will be more frequent trips or safer, more stable riding across smooth LRT tracks all the way across town. The real issue is, people don’t want to see their provincial taxes spent on lousy bums. It’s a purely classist argument in disguise. “We can afford to drive. Electric cars will be cleaner. Self-driving cars will be safer. Cars are the future!” What no one wants to get caught saying in mixed company is, “Let the unemployed layabouts and refugee scum walk if they don’t like the buses we’ve given them with our hard earned tax dollars.”
I’m sick of the circular arguments, but more to the point, I’m sick to death of the hypocrisy. It’s just ‘good enough for the likes of you’ bullshit. Refusing to recognize that we all have both a responsibility and a vested interest in helping everyone get out of the mire that is our economy demonstrates to me how shortsighted and willfully ignorant so many of us have become.
Anyway, that’s the mood I’m in today.
I want to get some creative work done, but I’m feeling exhausted from a less than adequate night of sleep. They’ve been getting more frequent lately. I need to have my meds reviewed and perhaps changed, or at least have the dosages modified. Hard to think straight. Cant’ nap in the daytime, either.
Want to work on the Tarot paintings. Want to work on the novel. Want to work on the new song I wrote. Want to work on the LINK game. Can’t. Headache now. Tylenol is apparently not good for you. Ah well. Naproxen, maybe.
Tears For Fears… When Tears Roll Down, When Tears Roll Down.
Thanks for reading. Talk to you soon.
Lee.