Fat Cat Canadians

[scribblet]

Hmmm, I'm no psychiatrist but that rant sounds like someone with very low self esteem. Low self esteem and self loathing can manifest itself in people who have always had to struggle to make ends meet, not to mention exhibiting loathing towards people who have done a lot better in life. Better everyone should be poor I guess, then some have too much.

I had a sewing machien for a while, hated it, it makes a good doorstop, I never did like anything I made, it looked disgusting - There are many other places to buy material than at Walmart, you get what you pay for there.

As for rapid transit, not so rapid, I can attest to that LOL

The earth is always cycling, and nothing we can do will stop it, pollution etc. may be accelerating this cycle, but the best we can do is slow it down. The best thing we can do for the earth is to cut back on the population; even if we were all inclined to live as the Amish do, it is not possible, there are too many people. When people do not control the birthrate, the results are obvious.

[BubberMiley]

And there are how many such trains in Canada? Three? I can take a car to work (10 minutes) or take a bus (50 minutes including two transfers). Needless to say, I drive.

That's why a subway system in Ottawa would pay dividends. Not only would you get to work faster, but your urban environment wouldn't have to handle parking for thousands of vehicles every day. If Montreal and Toronto never got subways, their downtowns would look like Calgary.

[uOttawaMan]

Driving 20 minutes to work when public transit takes 1 1/2 hours does not make much sense to me. Rapid transit indeed.

Ever take a subway or an L train through an actual urban area? They're way faster than cars, and you wind up with a livable urban environment rather than a bunch of surface parking lots and big boxes.

And there are how many such trains in Canada? Three? I can take a car to work (10 minutes) or take a bus (50 minutes including two transfers). Needless to say, I drive.

If you want to see moronic rapid transit people in action come to Ottawa and meet our mayor and city council. They've just approved a north-south transit train which will cost a billion dollars, NOT take people downtown, be slower then the present bus, and, by their own estimates, add only about 1100 people to the numbers of transit users each year. Future plans are for an east-west line - where the real delays and traffic jams are, but they're planning on running it on city streets, including downtown, like street cars, so it won't be any faster than your average car. That one is estimated at another billion and a half.

Meanwhile, tail pipes are pumping out pollution as cars idle along the overcrowded Queensway every rush hour.

Bang on. I take the 95 from Gloucester into campus every morning, and then at night take the 95 west to Westboro then back to Gloucester, and every time I pass Bayview ( The N end of the O-Train) , it's empty.

The major traffic problem is East-West anyone can see that, except for the city and transit planners apparently.

As for those who say they can take a 20 min car ride instead of an 1 1/2 hr bus ride.. I call hyperbole on that. It takes me 40 min to get from 417 at montreal road to Westboro (past downtown) on the 95. If you can do that in 20 min at rush hour I'll shake your hand.

I only like the "rapid transit" system during rush hour, when I get to stand on a jam-packed bus with my face mashed against the window, while we blow past bunches of stopped motorists travelling at 20km on the 417 in their comfy, full of space automobiles.. free from any overweight greasy commuters practically sitting on their lap.. ahh yes... the benefits of public transit. It's like finding a rotten core beyond the silver lining.

[Riverwind]

The major traffic problem is East-West anyone can see that, except for the city and transit planners apparently.

Whatever happened to the transitway? That worked really well when I needed it in the late 80s?

[uOttawaMan]

The major traffic problem is East-West anyone can see that, except for the city and transit planners apparently.

Whatever happened to the transitway? That worked really well when I needed it in the late 80s?

A population growth in Barrhaven / Nepean and Orleans since the 80's has made the East-West travel in the city seize up. I'm not talking just transit here, 400 series highways too.

[Chrissy1979]

That's why a subway system in Ottawa would pay dividends. Not only would you get to work faster, but your urban environment wouldn't have to handle parking for thousands of vehicles every day. If Montreal and Toronto never got subways, their downtowns would look like Calgary.

Most rapid transit systems are just glorified street cars or bus lanes. The problem with them is you can't put them in the middle of a populated neighbourhood without sacrificing its safety and character and/or their speed. I agree that subways, though expensive, are the only answer if you want a densely populated, human-oriented city. Downtowns with street level parking lots are like bombed-out wastelands with nowhere to go.

Making more livable, walkable cities would do a lot to making Canadians less like fat cats.

[Argus]

And there are how many such trains in Canada? Three? I can take a car to work (10 minutes) or take a bus (50 minutes including two transfers). Needless to say, I drive.

That's why a subway system in Ottawa would pay dividends. Not only would you get to work faster, but your urban environment wouldn't have to handle parking for thousands of vehicles every day. If Montreal and Toronto never got subways, their downtowns would look like Calgary.

Except the subway would go nowhere near where I work, and the idiots at city hall have already admitted that it will take longer to get downtown than the present bus system. Also it's in the wrong place. Also it doesn't go right downtown. It's actual destination is areas the city wants to be developed, owned by developers who have paid money into the pockets of municipal politicians. It's a train that goes between nowhere and nowhere, and will cost a billion dollars to build.

Ah well, our mayor is a Liberal. What can one expect?

[B. Max]

Judging by the replys on here I can only say yep we are killing our environment and we really don't give a damn.

The glaciers have been melting since the end of the last ice age. That can't be changed unless we have another ice age. You are only buying into all the fear mongering Get a grip on yourself.

[watching&waiting]

The otrains in Ottawa are not subways. Ottawa is built on solid bedrock and to run a subway throught the downtown would be very expense and would damage many building etc with all the blasting that it would require. The O-Trains will not be faster then buses or cars because they will have to run on the same streets through the downtown, and that means they have traffic jams. The only way that a subway might work is if there were a way to runn it under the center of the Queensway (417) But that would have some problems too but not as many. This then would be an east west route, which is where the most traffic is now. The proposed North South route now planned for, is a waste of time and money and will do nothing to shorten commute times. But that is not stopping the planners from spending a billion or more of our tax dollars, when there is no need or sense to the project.

[scribblet]

Judging by the replys on here I can only say yep we are killing our environment and we really don't give a damn.

The glaciers have been melting since the end of the last ice age. That can't be changed unless we have another ice age. You are only buying into all the fear mongering Get a grip on yourself.

I agree and I don't see how anyone can crit. anyone else for their life style unless they are living without all the comforts of home, including computers, cars, central heat etc. etc. The real problem is overpopulation but no one wants to tackle that issue.

[Charles Anthony]

The real problem is overpopulation but no one wants to tackle that issue.

Are you ready to tackle that issue?

[uOttawaMan]

And there are how many such trains in Canada? Three? I can take a car to work (10 minutes) or take a bus (50 minutes including two transfers). Needless to say, I drive.

That's why a subway system in Ottawa would pay dividends. Not only would you get to work faster, but your urban environment wouldn't have to handle parking for thousands of vehicles every day. If Montreal and Toronto never got subways, their downtowns would look like Calgary.

Except the subway would go nowhere near where I work, and the idiots at city hall have already admitted that it will take longer to get downtown than the present bus system. Also it's in the wrong place. Also it doesn't go right downtown. It's actual destination is areas the city wants to be developed, owned by developers who have paid money into the pockets of municipal politicians. It's a train that goes between nowhere and nowhere, and will cost a billion dollars to build.

Ah well, our mayor is a Liberal. What can one expect?

I agree with you sir, the O-train connects Carleton U with.... umm... I'm sure it goes somewhere.. it doesn't?? Oh..

[scribblet]

The real problem is overpopulation but no one wants to tackle that issue.

Are you ready to tackle that issue?

Not sure how I can, I used to be a member of zero population growth years ago, but nobody is really interested, they don't want to know about it.