the stick, the stone and the puddle

how’s the crisis from your side of the monitor? well…as it seems some things are good (somewhat cheaper gas – yet not nearly as cheap as it should be given that the oil price is incredibly low), and some…quite bad. this morning some stats were provided…and without anyone getting surprised…in british columbia there were 4900 jobs lost …while in canada the number is 83000…all in the month of february. the unemployment rate…well it’s at 7.7 in canada…and bc stands a bit lower, but then again our industry is no-where to be found.

so, given this recent update…what does translink propose? more tax…yes tax on cars, gas, pay parking…and eventually on ticket prices for their already worthless services. now, i’m not a financial analyst, i don’t pretend to know a lot about finances…but it seems that almost every year we hear the same story from translink…they need more money…to get this they want to ‘raise tax for drivers’… and why? sure, reduce emissions…congestion on the road..etc. however, how about they start doing a better job with their finances. take a lesson from icbc or worksafebc – yes both of those invest money…and usually make a killing in profit…i guess translink should take some 1-on-1 lessons from those two companies…or at least try to ‘steal’ their accountants… then again…why bother when they can just ask the government to increase tax..instead of say increase the standard of their services. security on public transit? i don’t think i need to visit last years events at or inside sky-train stations.

according to a translink official…they want to do this to raise necessary funds to be able to provide better for the community…and if they can reduce the number of cars on the road…then the more the better…warning though…if not allowed to raise money…they will be ‘forced’ to reduce their service…my question is “what service?”

as i was driving from school yesterday i have another ‘hands-on’ experience with the quality of the translink bus drivers…i started at a stop sign, bus was coming from the adjacent road and he had a sign of ‘yield’. now, on the buses in vancouver there is a yield sign on them…to essentially warn drivers that it’s the law for us to yield to the bus when they pull onto the lane from a bus stop – in other words…to let them cut into traffic (regardless of whether or not the drivers can actually break and let them in). anyhow…sign on the street was a yield to him…and i had priority. not only did he not stop seeing as i’m coming…he didn’t even attempt to break…and essentially cut in front…thus, i was forced to break to make sure i don’t ‘take’ the bus home. i’m just wondering out loud here…but which yield sign should have been followed? the one on the bus (which essentially is there to yield to the buses then they come out of the bus stop) or the regular road-sense yield sign that is sitting on the pole on the side of the road?

a few months ago, when i was still taking the bus to school…i entered one of the buses in the morning, sat down…and essentially tried to zone out as much as possible given the bus was packed more efficiently than a can of sardines. during roughly a 35 minute bus ride…the bus driver slammed on his breaks about 5 times. one of which…caused 3 people to lose grip and fall…one of which manage to hit me in the process – now it wasn’t his fault, and he did appologize…but you can understand the reason as to why translink received a complaint (the beauty of feedback forms). anyhow, the other thing that occurred was…a simple case of almost ending up with the bus on its side…the driver takes a small curve a bit to fast…and the wheels end up hitting the curb…and the bus tilts to a side…that was pretty much one of the last times i took the bus to school…ever since then…i’m “polluting more”.

another story occurred while i was still working towards my undergraduate degree…taking the bus on my way home…i ended up pretty close to the driver…standing and pushing to make sure i have a grip. the bus driver..decides it’s time for lunch…so she places her bowl of soup (which still looked warm) in between her legs…takes a spoon…and consumes her lunch…while driving the bus…at roughly 60-70km/h (yes i could see the speedometer)…down the hill from sfu (for those who know the school…i think they’ll understand)…i think the bus had probably more than 150 people on board…

there’s plenty more stories about the standard ‘quality service’ translink offers…in terms of drivers…but really…there’s much more to their service…lack of public transport in the outer cities of gvrd…the buses which are usually late…and the bright decision of making a sky-train loop (although it benefits me from a subjective point of view) in burnaby…rather than expand the skytrain to cities like coquitlam, port moody…richmond (which they are currently doing).

so…if their proposed taxes don’t go through….they’ll cut the service? yeah…what service?