Comments on: Damage from strike may be long-term: Thank-you Mr. Obvious!

By: hannah78

hannah78 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:33:12 +0000

Hi,
Newbie and fellow frustrated Ottawan. I am like you, an environmentally-conscious person who would much rather let someone else do the driving (particularly after seeing some of the idiots on the road this week!) and it makes me sad that people will be swayed away from using the buses once they start up again.
Too bad the whole light rail project is a mess that never took off in the way it was supposed to.

By: XUP

XUP — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:43:00 +0000

Well, I’m sure the city will respond by using the decline in ridership to cut way back on transit service — something they’ve been itching to do for a long time anyway. Then they get to fire/lay-off a whole bunch of OC Transpo staff and save piles of money. Then they can trash that whole ridiculous 10-year transit plan. Transit doesn’t generate income for the city, it costs a lot and is a big headache. For a mayor and council with zero vision (like this one) it’s going to be a win-win situation all around.

By: Evolving Squid

Evolving Squid — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:32:51 +0000

I stopped riding the bus at the last bus strike. I tried again starting in 2006, but unreliability of the service in my area made me give up after about 2 months of aggravation.

For me, it’s not that I don’t want to use public transit… it’s just that I can’t depend on it. To make a 9 AM start time, allowing about 40 minutes on the bus, I should be able to catch the bus around 8:20 in front of my house. However, because they can rarely keep schedule and often just plain “forget” to come down my street, I’d have to be outside at about 7:30. If I’m lucky, I’ll get the 7:40, but more realistically, I’ll be on the 8:00 or the 8:20. That wait is really fun when it’s -20. Alternately, I can walk about a kilometer – which I actually do sometimes in the summer, but it’s pretty sucky in the winter when I can drive to work in 20 minutes.

Coming home is worse. If I get out the door by the stroke of 5, I can get to, say, Billings Bridge and get my bus, but then I run the risk of getting into an argument with the driver when he “forgets” to go down my street. Worse, the buses don’t run past about 6:00 pm, so a slightly long day and I’m walking the kilometer in the cold… again, I can drive it in about 20-30 minutes.

Years ago, I lived right near Hurdman station and took the bus all the time.