versus
Shawn is the happy victor of this quiz. Car owners get to zoom around comfortably, with heated windshields, seats, rear, window and foot vents all making their ride incredibly comfy. Meanwhile Montreal and its MTC is responsible for all 2,977 bus shelters on the island (of which CBS Signage manages 1,770 - if there's an ad in the shelter, it's theirs.). Each of our substandard cheapo shelters costs between $7,000 and $12,000.
Far too many bus stops have no bus shelters. Suffering commuters standing shivering in the wind as the weather turns them into unwilling human- flavoured pink or brownish popsicles.
Meanwhile civilized places have heated shelters, including Winnipeg, New Haven and Chicago.
The City of Montreal and its Tremblay administration keeps raising bus prices while they browbeat and guilt you into taking the bus, but never do they make any real effort to make such a journey in any way comparable on a comfort-level to the driving expererience.
I know! Heated vs unheated, right?
ReplyDeleteTremblay is a liberal, and liberals cater to chambers of commerce, not to ordinary people.
ReplyDeleteChambers of commerce are full of people such as car dealers who want people to buy cars, not ride buses.
Any questions???
One more example of how Montreal's public transit system is one of the very worst in North America for a city of its size, and how the mandarins who run it treat the citizenry that keeps them employed with utter disdain -- unheated shelters (IF 1 can find one), buses without air-conditioning, waiting for 30 minutes then 3 buses come back-to-back ("all da bus leave da garage dis morning...de 10-minute frequence is on dat line" -- because 30 divided by 3 = 10, even at the Polyvalente), incomprehensible communications in the metro, inoperable escalators, no elevators, the mess up with the Opus card....and this is just the STM, never mind the implosion that is the AMT!
ReplyDeleteThe worst bus stop is the 103 eastbound, corner of Coronation and CSL road: no shelter, no bench, nowhere to sit, on a cold windy corner where you are buffeted by freezing winds and subject to being splashed. In summer, there is no shade. Worse, there is nowhere to PUT a shelter because there is a beauty salon and a PizzaPizza. And of course the bus is always late or early- you're stuck there for an hour.
ReplyDeleteFor anybody who was wondering. The Montreal bus shelter pictured appears to be the one across the street from Westmount High School (St-Catherine and Redfern).
ReplyDelete