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| - There is nothing overly wrong with our Calgary Transit system that could not immediately be cured by a simple adjustment of MANAGERIAL PRIORITIES.
The entire bus / train system has been conceived as a DAYTIME / WEEKDAY / PEAK TRAVEL "relief valve", intended solely to take pressure off the road system. And therein lies the problem. Calgary is more than a 5-day a week, 12-hour a day enterprise populated by traditional families with OPTIONS; in particular, the CHOICE of driving or using public transit.
In TRUTH, huge numbers of Calgary residents and visitors have NO OPTION at all. It's "take the bus" or NOTHING. Frequently, doing nothing wins out for this group. Staying home evenings and weekends is too often the only practical choice for the "no option" group, especially on COLD days. Being grossly LATE for daytime, non-peak travelling time appointments and rendezvous' with family and friends is the depressing norm. Freezing at bus stops and C-Train stations late at night is the reality and, along with the pain, carries the risk of exposure to the less savoury elements present in our city.
It's pure delusion that prevents Calgary Transit and City Hall officials from seeing the C-Train and bus feeder system as an ESSENTIAL SERVICE for this "no option" group. It's deliberate DISCRIMINATION to treat one segment of the population as if they do not exist. It cannot be justified on any basis. It's shameful.
Who then is in this NO OPTION group? It's young working people, people actively looking for jobs, struggling families, temporary workers, new arrivals, foreign travellers, shift workers, students, the handicapped, the elderly etc. etc. etc. Look around. We have young adults visiting and staying in Calgary for months at a time. They travel here from all over the world. They have chosen to visit Calgary from afar. It's a huge shock to them when they get here and experience firsthand our HALF-HEARTED public transit system.
Foreign ESL students are everywhere in Calgary. We have dozens of ESL (English as Second Language) schools in the area serving young adults. These guests, living all over our city, invariably do not have cars. Public transit is their ONLY choice. However, they do have money to spend, time on their hands and no reason at all to stay home evenings and weekends. Calgary's reputation around the world is being forged in the malleable minds of these smart and soon to be influential international visitors. We are not scoring any points around the world by FUMBLING THE PUBLIC TRANSIT BALL.
Until things change, we will continue to be viewed as an UNDERDEVELOPED country by huge numbers of well-travelled young foreigners who KNOW how an effective public transit system operates. They've been using one for years in Seoul, in Madrid, in Mexico City, in Sao Paulo, in Frankfurt, in Tokyo and in Taipei, for their entire lives.
It's obscenely short-sighted and now URGENT that things change. Simply, Calgary Transit and City Hall must revise their PRIORITIES. The physical system is in place already. It's just not being used properly.
We have a TOKEN public transit system in Calgary because it's only a PART-TIME system.
We must all drive this point home to our complacent elected representatives, those OVERSEERS of the PUBLIC GOOD.
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