Public Transit Blues

I've ridden on double-decker buses in Ottawa. To me they feel tippy and out-of-control at any speed and in any season.

I've ridden articulated buses in Ottawa, too. Every time they manage to pull away from a stop or get around a corner in winter feels like a miracle.

I stopped a bus by standing in front of it on one of Ottawa's rare snowy days in winter. It was the first to show up heading my way home (or even not my way home) after three hours of praying for a miracle re the articulated bus stuck around a corner several blocks away. The driver didn't want to let me on, never mind the steady stream of (mostly) public servants behind me, including a man with a cane and a woman with a baby. Why? Because the stop I'd just forced him to make wasn't on his route.

My ex once waited with a bunch of (mostly) public servants for a couple of hours in the middle of nowhere on one of Ottawa's rare bone-chillingly cold days in winter. When their bus finally showed up the driver barely stopped before opening the door and yelling, "You can't get on! The heat's not working!" Then he sped off. I mean, it wasn't just cold, it was cold for Ottawa in January cold.

A man in a suit got off the elevator at a place I was working not too long ago and with tears in his eyes shouted, "I HATE OC TRANSPO!!!" Nobody even blinked. Just nodded in sympathy.

Lightrail.

I could go on. I've lived in Ottawa for a while now and I take OC Transpo.

Also, speaking of corners (three paragraphs up), and lightrail - I've ridden it, too. A couple of times I got on at Rideau (famous for the Great Sinkhole of 2016) after descending (at least?) four very steep flights of stairs, so steep I experienced some vertigo. Going east there's a corner past Hurdman that feels like an engineering fail of almost epic proportions. But what do I know? Certainly I've been on circus rides that felt that way, too, and they were perfectly safe.

I think public transit is a swing and a miss in Ottawa because it's thought to be a favour to people who either don't have cars, don't drive, or don't want to drive their car to work downtown.

By the way, there are bus drivers here who regularly make the sunshine list. I mean, far be it from me to deny working class people the sunshine list, but for people who make three or four times as much money as most of their fare-paying passengers, they could stand to be nicer about it.

And it's impolitic, but I don't want to not speak up just because I have the luxury of working from home during this pandemic, so out with it - since COVID-19 riding the bus is unpleasant at best. Mask-less men exhibiting anti-social behaviour pretty much have the run of it now. I've been on the bus with a six foot Viking at my side and felt unsafe. My friend who had to go to an appointment one morning had to endure one man shouting at her about music and another man ranting about missing his stop and trying to pry open the doors on the transitway. Neither wore masks. They either got on via the side doors or got on with a mask they ditch as soon as they're past the driver.

Anyway, maybe it's the pandemic finally has me feeling the Debbie Downers, but I wish public transit was more about the people who depend on it and less about the people who don't.