Rising Commute Anxiety
Although by the calender it's not yet winter - not until the Winter Equinox arrives on the 21st of December - you'd never know it, looking at outside Ottawa. It's beginning to resemble last year's winter when we nearly broke a record, with something like 444 cm of snow. The snowfall accumulation thus far in early December is not anything to be ignored, we've done ample shovelling. As for today, already received 20 cm with another 20 cm to come, overnight and into tomorrow.
The commute has been dreadful for a lot of working people. Not so bad for retired folks, like us. We only have to get out there and shovel it. And shovel we did, repeatedly, in the backyard, to enable our two little pooches to get out there and do their business. Shovelled in the front as well, and the wind was sufficiently present to blow shovelsful of snow right back at us if we flung them in the right/wrong direction.
Traffic was a nightmare scenario. Police reported some 50 accidents up until 2:00 p.m. And who knows how many more afterward, particularly during the evening rush-hour. There are those cautious motorists who have geared themselves thoughtfully with ice tires on their vehicles, giving themselves a better-than-average chance of stopping when needed. Others are rather more at the mercy of weather conditions.
Made all the worse by people's anxieties to get to work on time, get home at a decent hour if they live a long distance, and driving much too fast for road conditions. Little wonder there are countless accidents. To make things worse, traffic is bunged up in the downtown area because Public Works has had to shut down the venerable old Chaudierre Bridge, because of safety concerns as a result of structural aging.
But the icing on the cake, really and truly, is the conscienceless decision by OC Transpo's union to call a strike action to begin after midnight tonight. Leaving the tens of thousands of public transit riders dependent on the buses to get them where they have to go, in the lurch. Those attempting to get to work and back, others having appointments, visiting people in hospitals, taking children to day care, you name it.
Elderly people who don't own cars and rely on public transit will have to do without getting about during the time frame of the strike. People will attempt to car pool, to hitch rides with motorists. And private vehicle traffic in the city will increase by a minimum of 20% adding to the already congested roads, given weather conditions and closed access bridges.
The final offer that the City offered the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 just didn't meet their sugar-plum expectations. Although a three-year-offer with increases of 3, 2, and 2% in these financially strictured times isn't all that bad. But the people who pay the salaries of the drivers and technicians and support people, the taxpayers, are left in the middle of a dispute that shouldn't occur.
The estimated 369,900 weekly rides on public transit will simply vanish because the 2,277 OC Transpo employees won't see fit to accept a reasonable wage increase at a time when the city is so strapped for operating funds that it has imposed a 4.5% property tax increase on homeowners to try to stretch the budget without cutting back on too many of our vitally needed services.
It's amazing how people, when faced with the prospect of an insufficient gain through the perspective of salary increases, lose all sense of proportion and think nothing of the very real hardships being imposed on a huge number of people who are, in effect, the very people they're dependent on for their salaries. On the cusp of the season's holidays, as well.
Bah, humbug.
The commute has been dreadful for a lot of working people. Not so bad for retired folks, like us. We only have to get out there and shovel it. And shovel we did, repeatedly, in the backyard, to enable our two little pooches to get out there and do their business. Shovelled in the front as well, and the wind was sufficiently present to blow shovelsful of snow right back at us if we flung them in the right/wrong direction.
Traffic was a nightmare scenario. Police reported some 50 accidents up until 2:00 p.m. And who knows how many more afterward, particularly during the evening rush-hour. There are those cautious motorists who have geared themselves thoughtfully with ice tires on their vehicles, giving themselves a better-than-average chance of stopping when needed. Others are rather more at the mercy of weather conditions.
Made all the worse by people's anxieties to get to work on time, get home at a decent hour if they live a long distance, and driving much too fast for road conditions. Little wonder there are countless accidents. To make things worse, traffic is bunged up in the downtown area because Public Works has had to shut down the venerable old Chaudierre Bridge, because of safety concerns as a result of structural aging.
But the icing on the cake, really and truly, is the conscienceless decision by OC Transpo's union to call a strike action to begin after midnight tonight. Leaving the tens of thousands of public transit riders dependent on the buses to get them where they have to go, in the lurch. Those attempting to get to work and back, others having appointments, visiting people in hospitals, taking children to day care, you name it.
Elderly people who don't own cars and rely on public transit will have to do without getting about during the time frame of the strike. People will attempt to car pool, to hitch rides with motorists. And private vehicle traffic in the city will increase by a minimum of 20% adding to the already congested roads, given weather conditions and closed access bridges.
The final offer that the City offered the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 just didn't meet their sugar-plum expectations. Although a three-year-offer with increases of 3, 2, and 2% in these financially strictured times isn't all that bad. But the people who pay the salaries of the drivers and technicians and support people, the taxpayers, are left in the middle of a dispute that shouldn't occur.
The estimated 369,900 weekly rides on public transit will simply vanish because the 2,277 OC Transpo employees won't see fit to accept a reasonable wage increase at a time when the city is so strapped for operating funds that it has imposed a 4.5% property tax increase on homeowners to try to stretch the budget without cutting back on too many of our vitally needed services.
It's amazing how people, when faced with the prospect of an insufficient gain through the perspective of salary increases, lose all sense of proportion and think nothing of the very real hardships being imposed on a huge number of people who are, in effect, the very people they're dependent on for their salaries. On the cusp of the season's holidays, as well.
Bah, humbug.
posted by Pieface @ 5:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home