One Cat Apartment ©

Oh here I go again! A rant about public transportation. It is such a vast subject, with so much to complain about, it is hard to pick just one area.

Today I rant about policing the pay.

First they decided to let seniors ride free on Wednesdays, which is a step in the right direction, but meaningless to us who take the bus every day and use a bus pass.

Now they decide to allow children 12 and under to ride free.

Just how the heck are you going to police that? It’s a bit easier with seniors, we pretty much all have grey hair and glasses. But how do you determine a twelve year old from a thirteen year old, perhaps even a fifteen year old?

And what is the point?

Transpo whines about low ridership. Well now there is an issue. Try providing a service where buses actually come when the schedule says for starters. Sometimes it takes me HOURS to travel a couple of kilometers, having to take two or more buses and do a lot of walking in between.

And how does providing free ridership increase your revenues?

DUH.

We have such a mess with our NO SHOW transpo, that I say; Just make the f’in thing free for everyone and get your revenue to pay your $100K a year salaries from somewhere else.

Be creative and provide a worthwhile service.

Many years ago my boyfriend and I were not very well off, to say the least, and we took advantage of coupons and sales, and always had an eye out for free things to do.

We got a coupon from a Mexican restaurant, buy one meal at $10.99 get a second at $5.99.

Now for us to go and have a sit down meal, in a real restaurant, with servers and table cloths and candlelight, this was really a rare treat.

Neither one of us drank alcohol and we could just afford $20 for a meal, so we might have dessert and share it.

We got exceptional service and food and had the most wonderful romantic evening.

Then the coupons started arriving more frequently. Every month it seemed, so we took advantage of that.

We became regulars at this place. The owner came out and talked to us every time. Introduced us to his chef and told us about himself and wanted to know about us. He knew we didn’t have much money. We felt like family.

But one evening, just after we had ordered, the owner came out and yelled at us. He berated us for always using a coupon, never ordering drinks and sharing a dessert. We were stunned and deeply embarrassed. My boyfriend challenged him, “Why do you keep sending us coupons then?” And he shouted that this is a business, not a charity and we were taking advantage of his good nature.

Needless to say, we never went back, and if anyone asked us about the place we would tell them not to go.

Yes, I do understand the owners point of view, and believe me, if we could have afforded more than their burrito platter we would have had it, and a dessert for each one of us (but never alcohol).

He could have made his point without losing us as customers. And he lost a lot of potential customers also.

It was my birthday.

To celebrate, I decided to repot a poor little plant I had. Some people I guess, get cake and a candle. I’m too practical.

I headed to Zellers and found a nice clay pot for $1.15.

I was fourth or fifth in line at the checkout, but the young clerk never took her eyes off me.

When I got to the cash, she cheerfully tells me I get 20% off because I’m a senior. It looked like some other customers were about to break into applause.

“It’s my birthday. I just became a senior today.” I mumbled, and thought, I’d be happy to just pay the $1.15 and get the heck out of there!

Nope, she insisted I get my 20% off and I slunk away.

It was my first senior discount. A rite of passage, I suppose. Not altogether very pleasant.

I saw a picture of the Empire State Building, once the tallest building I knew, way back when.

My brother gave Mom and I a trip to New York City, which is quite a shock from the no highrise city I grew up in.

It was a neck craning experience, always looking up!

We got a break and were able to look down, from the Empire State Building. It was exhilarating and unforgettable.

I have no desire to go any higher in any building than that in my life.

I was travelling back in time to the late 1970’s, when my then boyfriend and I, just barely 20 something, thought nothing of hopping in the car and driving to Indianapolis or Florida for an NHRA event. We just went. As did many of our hot rod friends.

I watched a video from a 1975 Indianapolis meet and besides making me nostalgic, I saw that my life was much simpler then, much, freer. You could just go. Hop in your car and head to the States. If they didn’t like you at the border, they simply turned you back.

Even in the 1980’s things were not so complicated. I filled out forms and paid money and I was enrolled in University. I showed up at a workplace, had a fifteen minute interview and was hired.

Movement was a lot freer. Perhaps it is just my rose coloured glasses again, but I think it was true.

Todays world is so terrifying. It was not so scary back in the 1970’s, at least, not for me.

In fact, it is only since trump came into power and the pandemic that life has dramatically changed and become so restrictive.

Well, at least I can remember when. With videos.

I stopped on the bridge crossing a shallow river in our city to watch the birds. There used to be hundreds of ducks, crows and my favourite, swallows, hanging around the rocks and shoreline at the bridge.

This year, a smattering of ducks, a few crows and only a dozen or so swallows.

The swallows nest under the bridge, in the trusses. It is a pretty safe place, but the traffic over their heads! I guess they don’t mind, or they wouldn’t be there.

I love the way swallows fly. They put Tom Cruise to shame. These are the top guns of the natural world. It is amazing that they catch insects on the wing, zooming around at mach speed. I could watch them for hours.

At our favourite lake, in the canoe, my boyfriend and I would be in the middle of their acrobatics, mesmerized, as they dove and swooped around us. You could hear their wings slicing the air.

Take that Maverick!

My favourite topic.

Money equals options.

The more money you have, the more options you have in life.

The more money you have, the higher the quality of goods and services you can enjoy.

The more money you have, the more experiences you can have.

Money equals priviledge.

I have been poor. I know that you are a less than nothing when poor and you are treated very badly.

When you have money, life is a lot better.

But having said that, something happens to peoples brains when they get too much money. They become deplorable human beings, on every level.

So there is a sweet spot that keeps you sweet.

The trick is to know when you’ve reached that.

Ha. The next trick is to reach it!

I really have a bone to pick with our city planners about bike lanes.

Whoever does this brilliant planning has never been a pedestrian, nor rode a bike.

Planners hunker down in their Lexus and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

Who in their right mind puts a two way bike lane on a one way street? Since implementing this splendid idea, there have been 5 cyclists hit by cars. So far, no pedestrians, but a friend of mine confessed to a near miss from a cyclist coming from the opposite direction. The solution my dear friends, by our brilliant planners, is not to simply do the obvious, like, for instance, make the bike lane one way (hopefully the same way as the traffic, but who knows with these idiots). Oh no! Our great transportation thinkers have decided instead to reduce vehicle speeds and improve visibility of cyclists and pedestrians at a minor cost of about $1.5 million of taxpayers money. Makes sense to me!

Who in their right mind puts a bike lane in front of bus stops? This one is a good one, having been almost killed myself on the way to work at my home bus stop.

Who makes bike lanes vanish at busy intersections? Oh I have bad memories of an intersection where the lane vanished and I was out in the middle of traffic going in many different directions, none of them mine!

Who does this to us on bike and foot? Surely only those who want to kill off as many cyclists and pedestrians as possible.

That’s our transportation planners in action.