Comment 35646

By Cityjoe (anonymous) | Posted November 21, 2009 at 12:22:13

Quote: "Capitalist, if it were feasible to do away with the highly subsidized suburban routes I am sure that the high rates wouldn't be needed in the first place."

If suburban routes are so 'highly subsidized', why are they still so Useless!? It's not like you see empty bus's. You simple see no bus's at all. We call the one that actually Connects to a bus.. that will take you to another bus.. that will take you another bus.. that will take you Downtown, The Flying Dutchman. (so rare is a sighting.) By removing public transit from the 'Burbs, you are asking for more vehicle traffic every day. By keeping suburban public transit as a token, unusable, rediculous appendage to actual City service, you are not only ensuring the demise of that service, you are also saying 'Yes' to more pollution, & traffic jams as the 'Burbs grow. (& they are growing by leaps & bounds!)

You really can't ask people to pay more for abysmal service. As long as transit is still treated as the exclusive territory of the former towns, & villages, we probably will never have efficient Useful service for people wishing to go Downtown, to the Go Station, to LRT (if we ever get it!) or even to another former town. Frankly I don't think that's too much to expect, if in fact we are 'A City', as we claim to be, but only whenever it's convenient to do so.

We don't have any kind of consistency in the GHA for most of the services for which we are taxed. Frequently, it would make no sense at all to do so, so diverse is the population of the GHA. (which IMHO, was a sandwich made in Hell) So maybe could City Hall STOP using 'consistency' as an excuse to ladle on more taxes, at least until the day that services like public transit, police, fire, water, sewage, hydro, snow removal, etc. etc. etc. are Actually Consistent across the GHA?

You can't have it both ways. Do we want more & more traffic coming into/going through Hamilton? Do we want unbridled suburban growth? (it seems we do.) Do we want to encourage more & more vehicles on the roads because we have given people no other reasonable option to get to work, school, or recreation? Do we want more & more 6 hour + grind lock situations across the entire GHA, (as we had this Summer) that resulted from 2 distant accidents on the 403? (one accident at Hwy 6 N. & one in Stoney Creek)

What would be the problem with buses that ran every 1/2 hour from stops in the 'Burbs, to Main St., & King St. on the return trip,, & the centrally located Go Stn.? Put in 'Kiss n/ Ride passenger drop offs & some reasonable weather shelters at the suburban stops,..just like every other Sensible place between here & Huntsville has?! If the GHA wants to be thought of as a 'City' maybe it should start acting like one? GROW UP HAMILTON!!

(I am probably going to block RTH updates from my computer as of now. It's Not because I don't like the efforts of the Staff & some contributors here to drag the GHA kicking & screaming into the 12st. century, but because I'm so sick of the GHA doddering around with problems that other major cities across the Planet have been dealing with & solving since the late 1950's.)

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