The Long Road

04/02/2004 Archived Entry: "I wish"

I had a car. Public transit takes much too long. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to work everyday; if I had a car, it would be a 10 minute drive. Then there's also the fact that I'm always missing the bus by a minute or two, which translates into coming in to work a half hour later. Then there's the attrocity of going from work to the dojo, no direct bus and never at the right times, so another 40 min walk. And then from dojo to north campus takes me 40 something minutes since the 7 by Columbia doesn't run past 7pm. I spend far too much time busing, waiting, walking. I wouldn't really mind it so much if I was actually travelling long distances but the places I go aren't really THAT far from each other; they're just highly inconvenient to get to aparently.

I really miss OC Transpo sometimes. In Ottawa, it is often much more convenient to use public transportation than to drive somewhere. That's never true in K/W. We used to live close by to all the major routes 97, 85, 2, 95. Five minutes walking was all it took to get to the bus stop and from there you could get to anywhere you wanted in the city very quickly. Not to mention that the buses came by something like twelve times an hour. The new place isn't as great, to get to the major bus stations I have to take a local bus, the dreaded 84, which takes 20 minutes to get there because it goes in big circles. That's when it's really nice to have a car since I can drive over to the park-n-ride and...erm...park and ride.

Waiting for the GRT bus DOES have some benefits though.

Replies: 14 comments

uhm.. buy a bike? :D

Heh, I never found Ottawa buses to be that great. When you're close to the arteries, yea, it's nice, but otherwise.. yay a bus every half hour..
And the 95 slows down so badly when it hits downtown at rush hour. They should really do something about that. Should have made an east-west train...

Posted by Arshwana @ 04/02/2004 12:51 PM EST

I think public transportation in general is like this.

If you live on the mainline in K/W (7, right?), you're pretty much less than 10 minutes away from a direct bus to UW, Conestoga, Fairview and Downtown Kitchener. I've never been on it, but they have that express bus now too so it's probably not much longer than driving.

Same deal in Toronto... It's great when you live on a line, but it sucks hard when you're a 30 minute bus ride away. The 401 is usually much faster (as long as it's not rush hour).

Basically, cars will always be more convinient simply because they only have one schedule to answer to, your own. Public transport is only useful if you live on a major atery (as Arshwana points out) or you have tons of patience to deal with the inconvinience and poor service of public transportation (as is the case with poor students).

In conclusion, I have a car next term and I'm open to bribes to give rides to anyone in the Columbia/Hazel area.

Posted by ian @ 04/02/2004 01:19 PM EST

Is the cost of a car, the gas and insurance to operate it, worth the convenience?

Posted by Hyperion @ 04/02/2004 03:19 PM EST

That's the question for you, really. I would argue that it is, and that's why I bought a car. But everyone is going to make their own decision.

I find as people obtain more money, they typically have less time, and convinience becomes desirable at any cost.

I personally found the cost of the car and the gas to be quite bearable. It's the insurance that's killing me.

Posted by ian @ 04/02/2004 03:42 PM EST

I've never had too much trouble with the bus going through downtown. Just get to downtown and get off, no one needs to go beyond downtown anyways. =D

I think they were talking about expanding the O-train's reach. It'll probably start doing east-west. I love the current one!

I'll lend you Joe for a few rides in your car throughout next term, Ian (rides of the car, not rides of Joe).

Posted by Rayne @ 04/02/2004 03:52 PM EST

I've had a car, for a few years, since early high school. I tend to agree with Ian, I could easily have done without the vehicle, but now that my time is more valuble and I make a bit more money, I can't see not having it...

Posted by Hyperion @ 04/02/2004 06:23 PM EST

They're apparently going to make "considerable" cuts to the OC Transpo transit system. Stupid Ottawa, it wastes so much money on non-essentials and cuts what really "matters". Example: All the pools throughout the city are equipped with FUNCTIONAL defibrillators. A stupid decision was recently made to replace ALL the "old" models (we've had them three yrs. or so). Each unit costs around $5,000. I wonder what happens to the "old" units?

Posted by dAN @ 04/02/2004 07:12 PM EST

People like me strip em for parts, then do excedingly dangerous things with all the bits.

Posted by Hyperion @ 04/02/2004 10:50 PM EST

And then people like me, use new ones to resuscitate people like that ^

Posted by Andrea @ 04/02/2004 11:43 PM EST

Really you should just let us die, save the future generations from these genes

Posted by Hyperion @ 04/03/2004 04:19 AM EST

But then what would my future generations do for a living?

Posted by Andrea @ 04/03/2004 04:27 AM EST

Thus implying they would be doing our future generation.

Posted by Rayne @ 04/03/2004 10:42 AM EST

You say "fully functional" as if there was any other option.

"Well, we'd love to restart your heart, Phil, but this here defib unit only dispenses hot chocolate."

On a somewhat-related topic, when you're doing CPR on someone, don't expect to restart his or her heart. Your job is to make the victim somewhat less dead until the people who can actually help arrive.

Oh, and if you're a lifeguard, you are legally obligated to help to your full ability once you've started to help at all. Even if you're off duty. Even if you're nowhere near a pool. Even given this downside, I think I want to renew my NLS certification. Not that I've ever done anything with it, but it's nice to know that I'm a lifeguard.

Posted by Joe @ 04/03/2004 11:32 PM EST

You're not a lifeguard unless you're hired as one. An NLS certification does not make you one.

Posted by dAN @ 04/04/2004 11:57 AM EST