Hey Gryphons, I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with our transit system and it seems like more and more of you here on Overheard are beginning to feel the same way. I hope it’s ok to write this here, I feel most Gryphs can relate to this having “Overseen” multiple posts (goo.gl/yKDjKP goo.gl/S95wVR goo.gl/g4H37j goo.gl/m324Kd) about people experiencing less-than-stellar bus service, and I think now is the time we need to act to change this. In doing some research, I also came across the Guelph Transit Facebook page where their rating is a 1.8/5 and the comments talking about late buses and rude drivers are seemingly endless (goo.gl/NLLy3d). We have all noticed buses not running on time, or not being frequent enough for our needs. They pass by with “Sorry Bus Full” - even though they’re only half-full since the driver never asked anyone to move back or take off their bags - forcing many people to walk to school and be late for classes. We’ve experienced first-hand, or at least heard of, bus drivers going to get a coffee or taking a long break in the middle of the route. Of course they deserve their breaks, but they should be taken after their route is finished, like in every other city. Although many of them are very nice, we’ve all interacted with some impolite drivers. Some bus drivers often smoke illegally at transit platforms [1]. Beyond that, bus service ends at 7 p.m. on Sundays which is terribly inconvenient to anyone just coming back from a weekend away or spending the day or evening away from home. Many of you who left for the summer may not realize that there was a lockout, where transit stopped running for over two weeks because transit workers refused to consent to their proposed contract until they renegotiated to get a raise of 6.8% over the next 4 years [2]. I think our transit workers should be compensated for their service as in any other field, however many of the workers are not given any incentive to do their jobs at the standard they are expected to. As a city concerned with the environment, and with so many young people living here, we need our public transit service to serve the public in a convenient and efficient manner. Guelph Transit should be doing everything in their power to encourage students and residents alike to take the bus to their destination rather than driving. The main bus stations are the University Centre and the Downtown Terminal, so it’s important to have constant connections between them to allow for easy access to all the routes Guelph Transit offers. It’s good that there are three connecting bus routes every half hour then, but instead of spacing them out so the longest you would need to wait for a bus would be ten minutes, they all leave at once, forcing us to wait for up to half an hour for the next bus. This huge inconvenience could be so easily solved, with little-to-no additional cost to Guelph Transit, and would have huge positive impacts on the customers that use their service every day. This change should be applied to all bus routes, many of which overlap at many stops and could better service customers by staggering the times they come to stops. On Stone Road near the mall, there are so many routes that service the same stop that they have a sign which rotates to show all the routes and corresponding times. And yet, if I get there at certain times, I will be waiting for an entire half hour for the next bus, only for all four of the buses that service the stop to go by within five minutes of each other - this is incredibly inefficient and could easily work so much better. We can do something about this. Everyone who lives in Guelph - yes, even those of you who just moved here - has the right to vote in our approaching municipal election. We are one of the major contributors to the revenue of Guelph Transit. As university students, we pay over three million dollars each year (as of 2011)[3] making up almost half of the revenue Guelph Transit receives in a year [4]. We need to send the message that the student voice matters and that we are dissatisfied with this mediocre public service. Voting in the next election would make a huge difference. You can register and vote online here: vote.guelph.ca (voting starts Oct. 7th) as long as you have a document with your name and Guelph address on it like a hydro, phone or cable bill or your school transcript or a document showing campus residence from your residence office [5]. One of our mayoral candidates, Andrew Donovan, a U of G alumni as of April 2014, has shared similar views to ours on the terrible state of public transit and how much effort needs to be invested to meet even the lowest of standards. He writes on the issue, “[W]e have a public transportation system thats inadequate and broken. Soaring operational costs, late buses, service until only 7 p.m. on Sundays and holidays, and no way to get to KCW has made permanent residents and U of G students alike very sour about the state of public transportation in Guelph. It is high time our city has a mayor that will reign in the costs of our bloated bureaucracy, and find bus contractors that will work with the city on performance-based contracts to ensure lower operational costs and more efficient services that lead to a better served public.” [6] If you don’t agree with his other policies and have another candidate in mind, please send them an email stating how important this issue is to you. Their job is to represent the population and if they are getting an overwhelming message to make this change, that is exactly what will happen. Learn about all our mayoral and ward candidates here: vote.guelph.ca/candidates Now I know you’re all thinking, midterms are approaching, I’m too busy as it is, I don’t have time to write a letter! So here’s my solution: I have come up with a pre-written letter which you can find here: goo.gl/YgxlvJ Just fill in your name and send it to the mayoral candidate you are most interested in voting for. Or even just email it to [email protected] if you’re feeling especially lazy and don’t want to check out all the candidates. Here are the email addresses of the mayoral candidates: Andrew Donovan: [email protected], Cam Guthrie: [email protected], John Legere: [email protected], Karen Farbridge: [email protected], Joseph St. Denis: joe@datamatrixpc, Jason Blokhuis: JasonforMayorofGuelph@gmail With the number of students that go to the University of Guelph, we can make a big impact in swaying the vote and making our voice heard. Our generation tends to have a general lack of confidence in the ability of democracy to function the way it’s supposed to, often rightfully so, but we also tend to be passive about trying to solve our problems. A big part of this is expressing what we want to those in power and show we’re willing to take an extra step to get it. So take action and make your opinion matter! Email the candidate you want to vote for and vote from October 7th - October 24th. [1] goo.gl/tcytn7 [2]goo.gl/DOU4Gf [3] goo.gl/dZs90d [4]goo.gl/gcEcfs [5] goo.gl/pMn4mA [6] goo.gl/T3QpcA TL; DR: We’ve all seen how our bus service really, really sucks. Download the attached letter (or write your own) and email it with your name added to the mayoral candidate you plan to vote for, and/or to [email protected] to let the city know this sub-par service needs to change! Edit: the link for the letter is goo.gl/YgxlvJ
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:43:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015