Bus tardiness an embarrassment
This is a shout out to Translink and something I assume many of your readers can relate to.
On Friday night, I and about 20 others were waiting at Broadway and Granville for over an HOUR for the number 16 Arbutus bus. Many of the people waiting were senior citizens. There was also an international student and several tourists. This is totally unacceptable.
I could understand it if this was a unique situation, but its not.This happens frequently on this route.
Advice: schedule thebusesmore often, make the properarrangementsfor special eventsoccurringalong the route and/or change the route entirely. We dont have gravel roads with herds of goats running down the streets, so lets have a service which matches the requirements of a large city!
Janette, via email
The cyclist people love to hate
To the guy riding his shining gold Norco mountain bike in front of my bus on the Granville Mall:
Riding aggressively through bus stops crowded with people, darting oh bravely, so casually on and off the sidewalk and onto the roadway with a 15-ton bus, two bike lanes behind you, how am I supposed to know youre going to leap across the curb and into my path? I may only be doing 20 km in a 50 just because of this, but you want and expect me to slam on my brakes because of your stupidity and risk injuring people on my bus. And then, you start darting among pedestrians across Granville Street when you have a red light and carry on as this is normal.
Grow up, take some responsibility. Youre are one of those mindless cyclists that everyone loves to hate.
Anonymous
City hall needs a floor director
Wow, what a city we live in after the Olympics. Isnt it amazing how this city has become the most barbaric place on earth? Just look at our social behaviour. Kids riding their skateboards and bikes on their sidewalks.
There doesnt seem to be any order here any more. Why? Because theres no floor director at city hall. Were doomed to failure if we continue to hire people who dont know anything at all about money.
Anonymous
Hot tip: we all need servers to survive
Tipping keeps a lot of our service people at a living wage. Without their tips they are not going to be able to survive and whos going to serve you then?
Anonymous
Its not the bike thats dangerous
Kudos to Jessica Barrett for her article about Dan Winnick. It almost made me cry.Now for my rant:To the guy in court right now disputing a ticket he received for breaking the helmet law, you sound ridiculous! If you think that more cyclists on the roads are going to make drivers more aware of them, think again. The lawmakers cant even get people to stop using their phones while driving.
You argue that the helmet law is preventing people from cycling because it carries with it a negative connotation? The act of riding a bike is not what can be dangerous.The act of riding a bike on the road with cars, going in excess of the speed limit, is what is dangerous.I have seen entire families riding along without a care in the world, all without helmets!What are we teaching our kids? That some laws can be broken if they are inconvenient or uncool?
Giuseppe
Overcome by fear
Icertainlyside with Ron van der Eerden. Forced helmet laws create the thought that cycling is adangerousactivity and then less people will cycle.While the helmet law waslikelyput into place by people who thought they were doing the right thing it reduces the number of people that ride and denies thebenefitsto society (exercise, less smog, less public cost).
We live in the safest period in human history yet still we are overcome with fear and want to force protection on others. If we wanted to carry the argument to make people even safer then before getting on a bike or in a car people should wear full-facehelmetsand full bodyarmor.
Chris Higgins
