Raise the Hammer

"I think it's time for someone to start organizing HSR riders benefiting from the bus lane."

Yup. It's time for those people who actually spend time daily on the HSR to be consulted. Right now, the only people in the discussion are a) the City, b) a paucity of merchants, c) lobbying entities such as the Chamber of Commerce, RTH urbanicity and d) those whose general anger has them tossing lit s&$t bombs in Comments sections.

At the risk of being shouted down because of my comparison, the general plight of regular HSR riders is akin to our poverty reality. The first has those with grand LRT schemes (regardless of their labels), the second, the 'poverty industry'.

The service resources being applied to the basic premise of a transit entity...moving people from Point A to Point B in a timely, humane and cost-effective way...are abysmal.

A great example: 7:45 on a weekday evening. A King bus departing the GO terminal is packed to the rafters before it even gets out of the downtown. (To be precise, two stops into its route.)

Why aren't these voices heard? Because they're too busy grinding out an existence to be able to advocate for themselves.

This is something that all LRT proponents need to grasp: the HSR reflects a particular range of demographics...and they're not the people who really care about what LRT is suggested to be capable of delivering...ten years down the line. (As a side point, take a look at the organizations pushing for their approach to transit: mostly educated, middle-class white guys. And no, I'm not going to apologize for this generalization. I'm using simple observational tools. You know, 'evidence-based thinking'.)

HSR riders need better service. (And here, I'm not even talking about 'expanded service'.) They need far more than they're getting presently...which has them being treated like cattle. They need more articulated buses. They need better frequency of buses.

Once again, as my father used to say, 'How can I trust you with the big things when you can't handle the little ones...?'